Our Library Collections: International Books Introduction

Two beginner guides published in 2007

One in a series by CGS member Chris Pattillo, highlighting some of our holdings at the CGS Library in Oakland.  For a fuller listing of books, journals, and more, consult the CGS Library catalog in WorldCat.

Today I decided to start a series on our international books. I’ll begin with a confession – until I started writing this series, I hadn’t known we had such a large collection of books on places outside the United States. I’m guessing that I am not alone in this gross misconception. For others like me I want to tell you about our wonderful collection of books from places beyond our national boundaries. We have a very large collection for Great Britain, a good number from Germany, and collections for Canada, Sweden and more.

Our international books begin where the Family Histories end. There you will first find an assortment of books for Canada and a few from Baja California, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Cuba . . . You get the idea. I found a pair of books published by Ancestry Publishing in 2007. One is Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide and a similar book for Mexican Ancestors. Each of these books is a how-to-find-records source. The one for Canada has twenty-six chapters and four appendices that cover such topics as libraries and archives of Canada, Canadian geography, immigration, Aboriginals, Acadians, and each state within Canada.

Two volumes on Scots research for Canada

We also have two volumes of Some Early Scots in Maritime Canada by Terrence M. Punch published in 2011. For anyone with Scottish ancestry these may be books you’ve missed and may want to check out.

CS-400 is where you will find books on Great Britain and Ireland. Like other sections this one begins with several sets of journals. One is The English Genealogist. We have ten years of these covering 1976-1985. Next is The Genealogist New Series, for which we have issues spanning the years 1906-1921. A bookplate inside the oldest copy indicates it is a loan to CGS made in 1916 . . . I wonder if the donor may want them back soon. The covers on these journals are quite tattered but the content is intact. (Yes, I added a blue ribbon to alert our book repair team that help is needed). In total we have about five shelves just for various journals for Great Britain. Next week I’ll tell you more about our books for Great Britain.

One of several journals in our collection for British researchers

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