Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS Land Owners of Ireland. Return of Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards in the Several Counties, Cities and Towns in Ireland. Originally published in Dublin in 1876. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore 1988. 325 pp. $35.00. Every student of Irish genealogy laments the great distraction of records in 1922 and seeks every means possible to locate the ancestral Irish family. The present volume covers a period some thirty years after Griffith's Valuation and a half-century after the tithe applotments is a census substitute for its time period. By that year the great waves of Irish emigration to America had passed their peak. What we have here is a census of landholders by county, many of them absentees, with residences in Dublin, London, New York and many outside the county under survey. Many, however, are collaterals of emigrants who left at an earlier date, especially among the smallest landowners. The possessors of several thousand acres are as a rule members of families of the "Irish Ascendancy". The largest, five-figure acreage landholders, usually were members of the peerage. This is not a volume in which to locate the origin of family names; there are too many absentee landlords and small holders with less than an acre and the tenantry are not included. It is an extremely useful list for its time period and the people it does enumerate. For genealogical purposes an all-name index with reference to county only would increase the usefulness of the book enormously. For its date and within its clearly stated limitations, it is an extremely useful reference. Louis S. Marks The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 16144775 . By Peter Wilson Coldham. Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988. 920 pp. $60.00. This is a compilation of the names of those who left England "by invitation"—the invitation of the monarch, with the assistance of that well-know regal arm, the courts. Peter W. Coldham has performed the useful task of searching the records of the Courts of 335 336 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Quarter Sessions and Courts of Assize, 16144 775, and compiling into one alphabetical index the names he has found. It is refreshing in modern genealogy that the descendants do not subject their ancestors to a historically improbable apotheosis. Rather, we have come to realize that it is the unsuccessful, in one sense or another, who emigrated to the New World. The bookseller Hotten's famous list has long been supplemented by the work of American and English genealogists looking into English records of various types to expand the evergrowing census of colonists of various sorts. Coldham continues a tradition which goes back to one of the founders of the Society of Genealogists in London. George Frederick Tudor Sherwood searched English court records not only for American descendants, but for English descendants as well. Peter Coldham has continued this fine tradition and has given us a number of works. We can delight with our Australian cousins in the number of American families of shall we say "courtly" origin. And we need not excuse the ancestor as being the victim of an overzealous and unjust penal system. Rather, as genealogists we should rejoice that the name was preserved in some kind of record and in the kind of record which shows the link between England and the United States. Had these persons behaved themselves, there would be no record, and alas our task would be infinitely more difficult. With this index one can now return to either the Public Record Office which holds the Assize and Palatine Court Records, or to the various County Record Offices where the originals of the Quarter Sessions records may be examined. In this connection four valuable appendices will assist in this matter. Louis S. Marks The Bristol Registers of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686. By Peter Wilson Coldham. Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988. 491 pp., index. $30.00. This is another of the splendid contributions of Peter Wilson Coldham to the never-ending search by Americans for that elusive early English ancestor who came here during the seventeenth century. This book deals with the trade in indentured servants to Virginia and the West Indies. There was so much fraudulent practice in this business that Bristol City Council in 1654 passed an ordinance requiring the keeping of a register of these persons. Bristol enjoyed a monopoly in this trade. The two volumes, Servants to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1679 and Actions and Apprentices, 16791686 provided Mr. Coldham with the records of those indentured Book Reviews 337 servants. A total of 10,000 persons were recorded in the registers. The majority of them came from the West Country, the West Midlands and Wales. The very early records give the servants' occupations as well as their place of origin, the master they were indentured to, the length of service and destination. The lists ignite the imagination—why was this their plight—what had happened—and what was their fate? It is to be hoped that some fortunate genealogical searchers will find here those long sought clues that could lead to "the answer." Helen Hutchison Woodroofe How to Trace Your Ancestors to Europe. By Hugh T. Law. Cottonwood Books, Salt Lake City, 1987. 422 pp,; clothbound, $19.00; paperbound, $16.00. Hugh T. Law successfully combines entertaining incidents with instructive procedure through a balance of dramatic genealogical case studies and definitive research guidelines. The first section of the book features 117 examples of ancestor tracing adventure in twenty countries from Alsace-Lorraine to Yugoslavia. The book is written in an easy-to-read story-telling manner providing the reader with a series of surprises: a son incorrectly listed in census records as a daughter, a kidnapping and deliberately falsified records! The second section covers the methodology of finding European origins. The author emphasizes the importance of identifying and finding the home-town of these across-the-seas forebears. He notes the need to search for Bible records, court records, deeds and parish records. There is strong emphasis on United States records sources for data about ancestors who reached these shores since 1776. It is shown that those who came from England or Wales after 1837 are the easiest to locate. The book features forefather searching in the British Isles, Eastern Europe, Scandanavia and Western Europe. The reader learns to use national and state archives; tax registers; ship passenger lists; church records and military records. A large number of photographs bring special lustre to this choice volume. John A. Baird, Jr. Video Family Portraits. By Rob Huberman and Laura Janis. Heritage Books, Bowie, Maryland, 1987. 151 pp. paperbound, $9.95. This book defines a video family portrait as a "TV show you produce that stars your family," and then explains how this contem- 338 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine porary technique brings greater realism to in-house pictorial biography than do those old photographs or home movies. The reader is shown how to turn TV into "a family time-machine" through a series of brisk paragraphs emphasizing equipment selection and use with staging directions and interviewing hints. Portraits includes a script of over 350 questions to be asked of relatives. The contagious enthusiasm transcends technical detail and results in an easy-to-read manual which should broaden the perspective and capacity of most amateur family-record keepers. John A. Baird, Jr. Westward The American Shapleys. By Brian J. L. Berry. Gateway Press, Baltimore, 1987. 466 pp., illus. clothbound, $40.00. A comprehensive genealogy of the Shapley family, this is a fully indexed volume of 1,800 surnames and 8,000 individuals, dealing with the descendants of the 17th century Marblehead, Massachusetts fisherman, David Shapley. There is a section about the Pennsylvania members of this family—a family who lacked distinction—but through 11 generations took part in America's westward sweep from New England to the Pacific. Many of the illustrations are of the Family Album variety, but the book represents impressive genealogical research. John A. Baird, Jr. The Art of Heraldry. By Carl-Alexander von Volborth. Blandford Press, Dorset, 1987. 224 pp., indices, 527 plates. $95.00. This volume is intended by its author "to draw . . attention to the artistic side of heraldry" as well as to lead to the exploration of "the artistic possibilities of heraldry." In pursuit of these goals it succeeds, but it must be stated at the onset that it is of little value to the genealogical researcher who might seek in its beautifully illustrated pages a due to the background of an illusive family. It is certainly of value to an artist who seeks help in rendering an armorial achievement and would be of greatest value to an artist or a genealogist who has been commissioned by a civic or commerical entity to design a new coat of arms. In discussing the theory behind the design of a coat of arms the author touches on several points that would be of use to the designer. This is also helpful in analyzing existing arms, but adds nothing material to the many references already available to the genealogist. It is perhaps understandable that there is a fair concentration of German arms. This coverage could be of help to the researcher who does not have access to more extensive material in Book Reviews 339 this specific area. It covers the German, Swiss and Scandinavian arms more thoroughly than most other general works that tend to limit their presentations to the arms of Great Britain. In much of the first part of the text in which the component parts of an achievement of arms are discussed separately, von Volborth is careful to give an historical perspective with a summary of the development of current style. He also takes some care to point out niceties of usage that might escape the contemporary designer such as "An airplane, a locomotive or a microscope look rather odd on a medieval helm or in a shield." However, he offers encouragement to the creative designer—"There is, however, nothing wrong with the invention of new abstract patterns and forms which adapt themselves to the ancient heraldic spirit." A section comparing the interpretations of the same element, e.g. the lion, eagle, helm and other figures, and extending to the varieties of presentation of the arms itself is a fascinating tour through many countries and eras and should be a source of great inspiration to the designer. The genealogist will also benefit from the realization that not every difference in interpretation is significant of anything but the differences of the artists and craftsmen who rendered the arms at various times. This may clear up some mysteries in the minds of researchers delving into some minor differences in coats of arms in search of hidden genealogical meaning. A large section on the many uses of armorial representations through the ages is both attractive and useful and should fire the designer's imagination as to ways in which arms may be used for a Client-although many of the uses illustrated are, of course, obsolete. Finally, an extensive section on contemporary armorial design arranged by the artist brings to a colorful conclusion this volume of useful artistic information and inspiration. This is perhaps a disappointment to the practicing genealogical researcher, but it should prove most helpful to those studying heraldry as an art form, and will make a beautiful addition to any library. Stuart Henri Yost Books in Brief A Guide to Irish Parish Registers. By Brian Mitchell. Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988. 134 pp., clothbound, $25.00. A concise accounting of Irish parish registers for all denominations, giving their starting dates, locations and a linking of these 340 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine records to Griffith's Valuation of Ireland, 1848-1864. The chart format covers all the parishes in each county for the Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic and Presbyterian congregations. It also provides map references to Mr. Mitchell's New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland, published this year [Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988, 123 pp., paperback $18.95.] Boston Taxpayers in 1821. Edited by Lewis Bunker Rohrbach. Picton Press, Camden, Maine, 1988. 256 pp., index, hardbound, $35.00 + $2.00. This comprehensive list of Boston taxpayers was first published in 1822, and has until lately been an unknown source to researchers. It is a virtual gold mine of data on 45,000 residents of Boston and South Boston at that time. The charts provide the name of the householder or business; ward; street; value of real estate and personal estate; poll tax; state and county tax; abatements; total tax and owner(s) of the real estate. The summation of these facts may well give the researcher a new prospect for the person he seeks. Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records. Book 2, 1745-1762. Compiled by H. L. Rounds. Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988. 365 pp., index, $25.00. The probate records of Bristol County are located in the Registry of Probate in Taunton, Massachusetts. They begin in 1687 through 1870. [These comprise Book 11 The abstractions contain wills, inventories, administrator's accounts, receipts, divisions of estates, petitions, guardianships and other matters relating to the probate of estates. These records provide a rich lode of genealogical material. Also included in the abstracts are records of Rhode Island towns then situated within Bristol County. This work should not be overlooked by Mayflower researchers. Vital Records Handbook. By Thomas J. Kemp. Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988. 231pp., paperback, $19.95. This is a most remarkable idea—the kind that makes the reader say "Why didn't I think of ghat?: "—a wonderful and very useful tool for the genealogical researcher. Here are all the forms needed to apply for official vital records of births, marriages and deaths in all of the United States, Territories, Canada and the British Isles. No more groping puzzlement over "How do I find that record?" It is all there! - the application form, the fee, the correct address. This reviewer has only one complaint, it would have been a great help if Book Reviews 341 the pages were perforated for easy removal, as I am not too sure how well adapted the book is to xeroxing. [My own solution was to buy a copy so that I could rip out the forms I wanted reproduced.] Pittsburgh [Pennsylvania] Gazette Abstracts, 1797-1803. Compiled by Clara E. Duer, Closson Press, Appollo, Pennsylvania. This is arm-of-the-mild abstraction of business notices, letters at the Post Office, estate sales, public notices, runaways, legal notices and deaths. It is much helped by a surname index. Lineages of Members of the National Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims., compiled from original applications to the Society. Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1988. In Two Volumes. 1,004 pp., indexed, cloth (reprint 1929, 1958, 1953), $75.00. Sixteen Hundred Lines to Pilgrims, Book III. Edited by Mary E. Mayo. Published by the National Society of the Pilgrims, Manchester, Connecticut, 1982. 1,035 pp., index. The National Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims was founded in 1908 for men and women who were the lineal descendants of an early settler (Pilgrim) in the original colonies prior to 1700. The two—volumes published in 1988 follow the same format as the first two reprinted volumes. These are a help in offering clues to a lineage, but should be used with caution. Book III, contains the lineage records of 6,800 members of the Society. Most run 8 to 10 generations back to a 17th century ancestor. It is unfortunate that in most cases the documentation is not always conclusive. A Correction Were there gremlins in the editor's typewriter? Something went wrong with the review of In Search of Your German Roots by Angus Baxter. The last sentence in paragraph 2 should read: "For instance, no mention is made of the Pennsylvania German Society, which has among its publications research that has been done locating the villages of many 18th century emigrants; research of historians in Germany and this country on findings from the archival records in Europe, and research that has been done on so-called Hessians who remained in this country."