Treasures in Cookbooks
Cookbooks published by churches sometimes contain a lot of information on the way of life, especially the older books that can be found at yard sales and flea markets.

One gem is “Lutheran Church Basement Women” published in 1992. In addition to recipes, descriptions of life and customs in Minnesota are included throughout the book. The section on “Dead Spreads” brings memories of the meal always served to everyone after a funeral. There is a three-page explanation of why in Minnesota the favorite dessert is called a “bar.” Another page demonstrates how to tie on an apron. A few other gems include cabbage and pineapple salad made with lemon gelatin, egg coffee, and watermelon pickles.

Mabel Loesch

Organizing E-mail Correspondence
I organize my e-mail correspondence by surname. For instance, for all the Granger surnames, I do the following:

Granger, Emily
Granger, Harvey
Granger, Larry
Granger, Mildred
GR-Adams, David
GR-Edwards, Phil
GR-Jones, Bill
GR-Miller, Kenneth
GR-Taylor, Elaine
and so forth.

This way, all of the people/addresses for any given surname are all grouped together, first by those with the actual surname, then by those who relate to that surname.
 
Sometimes I have only one person for a surname, so I list the entire surname first, then the person’s name:
FAIRBAIRN-Miller, John

P.A. Almquist

WorldCat
To locate the library nearest you that may have a copy of a specific book, don’t overlook WorldCat. 

Enter the title of the book in the search box (e.g., “Place Names of New Mexico”), then click on the Search button. Select the title from the results list that best matches what you think is the title of the book or resource you want to locate. My sample search above returned several titles that would be of interest in verifying place names in New Mexico. Hew are a few:

1. The place names of New Mexico / by Robert Hixson Julyan [Book]
2. Spanish place-names of New Mexico / by Elizabeth Elmira Hayslip [Thesis]
3. New Mexico place names; a geographical dictionary / by T M Pearce [Book]
4. The Indian map of New Mexico : Indian place names in the Land of Enchantment, plus unusual historical detail of the Indian southwest / by Tony Jojola; Dale Chaney [Map]
5. Users guide to the 1860 territorial census of New Mexico : showing place names, post offices, and pages in all counties / by Glenn Robert Scott [Book]
6. New Mexico frontier military place names / by Daniel C B Rathbun; David V Alexander

The titles in WorldCat are hyperlinked. Click on the title to get more information about a particular book. To quickly locate this information again, use the “Add This Page to Favorites” link to create a Bookmark in your browser; or, copy/paste the URL that follows “Link to this Page” (this URL is a permalink to this WorldCat page).

To locate the library nearest you, use the Libraries tab. Enter your postal code (zip code) in the box labeled “Enter Location Information.” Then click on the name of the library to connect to that library’s online catalog. (This will give you the collection name and call number.) You now have all the information you need to locate the item in the library.

You can also e-mail this information to yourself in HTML, Plain text, or Delimited format.

Don’t overlook the Subjects links as a great way to zero in on exactly the type of content that you are seeking. In this example, clicking on the subject link “Names, Geographical — New Mexico” returns thirty-eight titles for books and other resources that contain geographic names in the state of New Mexico.

Irma Holtkamp

Click here for a printer friendly version of this article.

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: mailto:[email protected]. Thanks to all of this week’s contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the “Ancestry Weekly Journal,” please state so clearly in your message.