In his 2016 best-seller, The Stranger in My Genes: A Memoir

- Winner of the 2022 Connecticut Society of Genealogists Literary Award -

A lineage or hereditary society is a member-based group that is organized around a common ancestor or ancestors of historical importance. For example, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants is comprised of members who can trace their lineage to one of the original passengers from the Mayflower. These societies aim to preserve the memory of their common ancestry, participate in historic conservation and education, and may provide original scholarship or a specialized facility to aid family historians.

This handy reference guide explains the most important and most common abbreviations you will encounter in your research. Also includes acronyms for sources and organizations.

The four-page laminated guide can fit easily in your research binder.

Author: Chip Rowe

This book follows the direct ancestry of Leonard Harold Walker DeBernardi and Judith Elaine Ontko. These families made their way from Europe to the eastern coast of America and eventually to Minnesota and beyond. Many of Leonard’s English ancestors—connected to the Claflin and Fenton families—migrated to New England and New Jersey during the 1600s, while others—connected to the Walker and Branson families—chose to settle in Maryland and Virginia during the 1700s.

A companion to Essential Abbreviations and Acronyms, this guide covers more specialized categories, such as Latin terms, legal terms, and terms related to genetic genealogy and Quaker and census records.

The four-page laminated guide can fit easily in your research binder.

By Chip Rowe

Print edition available here

Purchasing this product will provide EPub and Mobi (Kindle) editions of the book. After purchase, e-book download information will be delivered by email.

Whether you are new to genealogy or have been researching for years, our bestselling "writing guide" will help you present your findings in writing.

Author: David Allen Lambert
Published: July 2020 (print ed. 2018)

Print edition available here

As the eldest grandchild on both sides, Albert J. Zdenek, Jr. has always been the collector of his family’s stories and memorabilia. This thoroughly researched, beautifully designed and illustrated book explores how the branches of his family left Germany, Ireland, and Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic) to settle in America’s Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Pennsylvania was the hub most of these families passed through before 1950, when Albert James Zdenek, Sr.

The surname Goodwin, meaning “God’s friend,” originated in medieval times in England. Thomas Putman Goodwin’s ancestors were spirited risk-takers: early planters, seafarers, fishermen, and entrepreneurs. Their story is one of determination, capability, and courage. Thomas is a Mayflower descendant of Stephen Hopkins through Elizabeth (Kenney) Goodwin, the sixth-generation daughter-in-law of Thomas’s immigrant ancestor, Daniel Goodwin of Yoxford, Suffolk, England.