Great Sourcebooks
Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, written by Frank Esshom and originally published in 1913. There are scarce few of these books; the edition that served as my source was #156 of 1000 republished in 1966. A rare book dealer I spoke to said that he's never seen a copy himself, but he knows of a rare book dealer that sold a copy a couple of years back for well over $2,000. Even copies in poor condition can go for $600. This is not a book you can pick up for $20.00 at a flea market or thrift store unless you are exceedingly fortunate. (I look anyway...) And incidentally, Amazon.com has one...for $1,400. It's an original 1913 edition.
Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude, compiled, written and published by The Daughters of Utah Pioneers, © 2000. This is an extraordinary four volume set that is an absolute neccesity for anyone researching female Pioneer ancestors, in my opinion. The work and love and attention to detail that made these books possible is just incredible, and I'm grateful to the DUP that I was able to utilize this particular resource. Both of these sources are available at:
Davis County Public Library
North Branch
562 S. 1000 E.
Clearfield, Utah 84015
Please be aware that these books are for reference only, and are not available for circulation (check-out). You'll have to make xerox copies of your pertainant pages.
Conquerors of the West: Stalwart Mormon Pioneers, presented by The National Society for Sons of Utah Pioneers and edited by Florence C. Youngberg, published in 1999. This four volume set is for circulation in the library previously listed and contains some information not available in the above collections. I discovered this set in early September 2007 and found it to be a valuable source of information; it even helped me fill in a couple of gaps.
These books are simply wonderful, and with each passing year I grow to appreciate them even more. You don't have to be LDS or a descendant of a Mormon Pioneer to understand their value; you don't even have to be a genealogist. You need only a love of history to know how important they are. But when you touch them and know that your blood is in them.......there are simply no words to convey the emotions.
I own a book called My Country, 'tis of Thee: Readings In America; it belonged to my Grandfather George, and I got it when he died. He kept it pristine condition, in fact I think I'm probably the only other person who has read it. Anyway, it's full of some wonderful, incredible stuff. It was published in 1975 by Shaw-Barton of Coshocton, Ohio. Some of the authors appearing it this lovely book are The Marquis de Lafayette, Eli Whitney, Longfellow, Patrick Henry, William Cullen Bryant, and many others. They write about historic events as well as people, and there is even a list Mayflower Passengers.
Also in my possession are:
Bloodline of the Holy Grail (it's great for a laugh)
History of World War II ~ Armed Services Memorial Edition ~ Ann Woodward Miller, Director of Research, 1945
(Isn't it marvellous what you find when you're packing?)
The Warrior Queens: The Legends and the Lives of the Women Who Have Led Their Nations in War ~ Antonia Fraser (1988)
A Royal History of England: The Stuarts ~ Edited by Antonia Fraser (2000)
A Royal History of England: The Wars of the Roses ~ Edited by Antonia Fraser (2000)
A Royal History of England: The Houses of Hanover and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ~ Edited by Antonia Fraser (2000)
Warwick the Kingmaker ~ Michael Hicks (1998/2002)
Elizabethan Privateering ~ K.R. Andrews (1964)
The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd ~ Richard Zacks (2002)
Pirates of the West Indies ~ Clinton V. Black (1989)
Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship ~ Jon Meacham (2003)
Wars of the Irish Kings ~ David Willis McCullough (2002)
Kearsley's Complete Peerage of England, Scotland and Ireland: Together with an Extinct Peerage of the Three Kingdoms ~ George Kearsly (This covers only the 1700's and is actually a copy of a Peerage originally published in 1799)
Rommel the Desert Warrior ~ Richard L. Blanco (1982) Purchased from the Tempe Public Library for a quarter
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd ~ Jim Fergus (1998) Purchased from the Tempe Public Library for a quarter
I am building a Genealogy & History library, one I hope my parents and my Dad's father would be proud of. I had thought, in the past, about turning over the work I had done upto a certain point to an accredited, certified Genealogist. But then I thought, why bother? Why bother, when I can do the research myself. I mean, I've done 19 years of research already, why shouldn't I do the rest? I could wind up paying an agency $10,000 and not be certain if they actually did all of the work I paid them to do. Unfortuantely, the world is full of unscrupulous people out to make an easy buck off of someone else's hopes. I'd much rather do the work myself and even if I still wind up spending $10,000 or more over the rest of my life doing this, at least I'll know the work was actually done.
As more books are added to the library, the above list will be edited.