Rural Route Bookstore -Genealogy Resources

Genealogy Resources

For Children

My Family Tree Workbook: Genealogy for Beginners by Rosemary A. Chorzempa

This is an ideal starter book for young genealogists. Large-print forms help children learn more about their heritage, connect them with it, and steer them down the path to self-knowledge. A short glossary defines new words and phrases, and pedigree charts and "trees" help youngsters learn how they fit in with the larger world.

By studying and using the tools of genealogy, children learn which questions to ask and how to document family records, correspondence, family stories, and interviews.

These 57 pages provide the budding family historian with places to document information about self, father, mother, siblings, and other relatives — both paternal and maternal. Protocol about research methods and etiquette teaches the beginner good genealogical techniques, and introduces the child to ethnic crafts, foods, and customs.

The workbook — which could be used as the basis for a classroom project -- also includes pages for photos, autographs, foreign words, and geography notes. A bibliography and list of ideas for more study allow the youngster to take this hobby further. Suggested ages: 9 to 12 years, or grades 4 through 7.

GLY - 02 Paperback $3.95

Genealogists' Resource and Guide Books

A Guide to Family History Resources at the Minnesota Historical Society     by the MHS Staff

This book is a tool for all genealogists, beginning and experienced, who are researching family, local, or state history. The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) has one of the richest collections in the nation, but such vast resources can be overwhelming. Compiled by the experienced MHS staff, this book is a great guide to the Society’s myriad holdings.

New and revised, this book features a lengthy, annotated list of resources related to biography, census, naturalization; cemeteries, schools, religious or business affiliations; legal, military, and veterans’ records; death records/index (1908-96); photos, personal papers, oral histories, ethnic resources; newspapers, directories, passenger ship lists; and maps, atlases, etc.

Also, general researchers will find it a source of information about new social histories: studies of gender, families, ethnic groups, urban and rural pasts, labor, material culture, and everyday life. In other words, this would be an excellent gift for both the researcher or genealogist in your family.

GLY - 07     Paperback       $14.95

Making Family Journals: Projects and Ideas for Sharing and Recording Memories Together
by Linda Blinn

Making Family Journals is a comprehensive and inspirational collection of how-to projects and activities, from handmade family trees to photo scrapbooks, to travel journals, family recipe books, and dream journals. The book is geared toward creating projects that the entire family can enjoy and participate in, from making actual mini books to keeping a shared journal during a trip.

Families, creative parents, children, and scrapbook artists seeking to expand their craft and book artists looking for projects to share with family will all benefit from this book.

Included are outlines for making a family tree, and projects that show how to track a family's history, document travels, create a memory book of friends or special events. There are also tips for making a family memory collage, a homemaking journal of family traditions and recipes, as well as a time capsule scrapbook.

GLY - 06 Paperback ~~$22.99~~ Now $17.99

Six Feet Under: A Graveyard Guide to Minnesota by Stew Thornley

In the introduction, Thornley writes, “Cemetery surfing has become an increasingly popular hobby... . People making treks include genealogists tracing their roots, artists and writers admiring the monuments and epitaphs, travelers looking to get off the beaten path... . Visitors respond in different ways to what they encounter, taking pictures, making rubbings, leaving offerings. . . ."

This guidebook — splashed with interesting, enlightening and often unknown factoids about the state's history — also contains a helpful appendix with a county-by-county listing of Minnesota's cemeteries and their specific locations and lists the 400 famous, infamous and just plain interesting Minnesotans whose graves were visited by Thornley. The author's interest in cemeteries is not new. He has also visited the grave of every member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame, a quest that took him across the United States and to Cuba.

GLY - 03 Paperback $14.95 To get the most out of a Minnesota Genealogy Roadtrip, combine this book with The Pocket Guide to Minnesota Place Names and/or Minnesota History Along the Highways found here.

The Red River Trails: Oxcart Routes between St. Paul and the Selkirk Settlement, 1820-1870
by Rhoda R. Gilman, Carolyn Gilman, and Deborah M. Stultz

If you heard stories about your grandfather taking the oxcart to St. Cloud for supplies and being gone for two weeks, this book, recently re-issued by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, is for you. It traces the paths running through Minnesota, North Dakota and Canada that were used as international trade routes for furs and merchandise between St. Paul in the south and the settlement that was to become Winnipeg in the north. Supplemented with maps, sketches, a full index and reference notes, the book is divided into chapters featuring six main trails: Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota Valley, Woods, Middle and Metropolitan.

"At the risk of sounding like a full-blown geek, this is about to become my favorite book. Maps for the Middle Trail even show my little hometown, right there, two weeks from St. Cloud...a trip that takes about an hour and a half today!" Suzann Nelson

GLY - 01

Paperback $14.95

They Chose Minnesota June Drenning Holmquist; ed.

Why did emigrants leave their homelands and move to Minnesota? Where in the state did they settle? What did they do, and how did they organize? How did they maintain their ethnicity? These are just a few of many deep questions addressed in this massive document making the subtitle, "A Survey of the State's Ethnic Groups", almost a misnomer. This is not "survey", as in quick scan or exit poll. This is an 8 1/2" X 11", 614-page tome with photos, illustrations, and charts covering 60 ethnic groups that settled in Minnesota. This is by far the largest and most expensive book carried by Rural Route Bookstore, and if it weren't worth the price, we wouldn't carry it. The various scholarly contributors read like a Who's Who of ethnic studies.

When published, the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press wrote, "If you are a descendant of Icelanders or Lebanese, Greeks or Japanese, you will find interesting material in this book about your forebears and how it was when they settled in Minnesota." And yes, all five Scandinavian groups are covered in detail in this "must have" book for historian or genealogist.

GLY - 04 Paperback $39.95

Between Rocks and Hard Places by Ann Urness Gesme

Now in its fourth printing, it has a beautiful new cover that reflects the beauty of Norway and does justice to Gesme's thorough research. Quite a few books cover the lives of Scandinavian immigrants in the United States. Between Rocks and Hard Places is one of the few books written for the non-Norwegian reader that looks at daily life in Norway before mass emigration. Gesme fully explains the "push factors:" the conditions, customs and traditions in the early 1800s that drove so many people from their homeland into the unknown. It is perhaps the most comprehensive book on this topic designed for the English reader.

GLY - 05 Paperback $13.95

Genealogy-related Books based on Specific Locations or Families

The History of Urness Township

For information on this great new book about Central Minnesota, click on The History of Urness Township.

Order by using the 'Place an Order' form or you may order by phone (800 494-9124). For payment and shipping charges, see 'Place an Order.'

All Caragana Press products are available at wholesale prices to qualified retailers, organizations, churches, schools, and libraries. Call 800 494-9124 for details.

An online-only bookstore featuring books about Rural and Small Town Life and the History, Heritage and Humor of Scandinavian-Americans

An online-only bookstore featuring books about
Rural and Small Town Life and the History, Heritage and Humor of Scandinavian-Americans