Using the website booksgoogle.com can be a very helpful aid in doing family history research.
While conducting both my personal research as well as research for my clients, I have located biographies in books that have been extremely helpful in finding out information to add to a family tree.
For example, use the ancestor's name that you are researching along with a location and place quotation marks around the name and location in the search box. If you're lucky, then books with that name and location may show some information on your ancestor.
Just recently, while researching for a client, I followed this procedure. The results of what I found are below in a book entitled Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by J. H. Beers & Co.:
A short two paragraph biography of Henry B. Hoffman gave his name, his parent's names, and even his grandfather's name, occupation, church he attended, the names of his children and their spouses as well as their occupations.
From this information, I added more to the family tree and then researched the names to see if it "all added up" and to document and verify the facts.
Of course, not all ancestor's names are in books, but it is pretty amazing how many do show up in a book. To put this to the test for this blog, I decided to choose a random ancestor's name and do a search in google books to see what I could find. Here are my results:
John Nilson
Sawhill Family by Benjamin Wesley Sawhill
John Nilson worked in the saddle and harness business for about twelve years. He and his wife established their home in Weddelville, Jackson County, Indiana. Although John Nilson had two sons at the outbreak of the Civil War , he enlisted, August 19, 1861, at the recorded age of 19, in the 25th regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Co. G,, and was appointed a corporal.
This excerpt gave me some interesting facts about John. I checked out his both the census records and the military records to prove the facts contained in the short biography.
The 1860 Census of Carr, Jackson County, Indiana listed a child, Oscar, who was nine months old in 1860. The 1870 Census of Jasper County, Missouri, lists Oscar then Walter born about 1861. So it is true that he had two sons at the time he enlisted in 1861. His occupation in the 1860 Census was harnessmaker and the 1870 Census was farmer. Last, the Indiana Civil War database index showed ed that he was in the 25th Indiana Volunteer Infantry in Company G and was a was a corporal at the time of enlistment. His age was listed as age 29. The only discrepancy in the biography above was that his age was 19.
Just one more example . . .
Squire Elmer
The Vermont Historical Gazeteer
Squire Elmer was a soldier in the War of 1812 and was born in 1781 in Connecticut. At the age of 37, on a January day, as he was out on business he froze both of his feet and had to have them amputated. For the next 47 years he was a hard working man and had to walk on his knees.
Family records show that he was born in 1781 in Connecticut. But the other information was not known. He died in 1844 at age 63 and that would have meant that he would have "walked on his knees" for 26 years, rather than the 47 years stated in the biography! Nevertheless, a very interesting tidbit! Military records do show that he served in the war of 1812. Bounty land was given to him in 1817 when he was 36 years old, so shortly before the amputation would have occurred. It appears he never took advantage of the bounty land in Illinois and remained in Vermont where he passed away in 1844.
YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU MIGHT FIND, SO JUST GIVE IT A TRY!
