Nancy Hendrickson

This book is quite good as an introduction to all the key attributes of the Ancestry menu. Additionally, the section of the book on DNA is very good in how it describes the functionality of DNA, its benefits and its limits. There are many examples and some searches that step you through the process however, the book is really specific to the USA and is unless you have that subscription many of the examples can't be followed. Similarly many of the tips are US specific. Overall a good show more introduction book but one most suited to a beginner USA genealogist show less

Author Nancy Hendrickson describes using the Ancestry.com site. The book, aimed at new researchers more than experienced ones, contains good comment, but often comes up a bit short. For example, although she cautions new users about accepting information from trees if it appears wrong, she really fails to tell them they should never add the tree as a source but instead should verify the information and add it manually after it is verified. While she is correct that uploading information from show more a GEDcom file is quicker, she fails to mention reasons for not doing so--and many exist. In the chapters on using AncestryDNA, she fails to mention some of the tips leading genetic genealogists suggest. For example, she tells readers to email those who do not have a tree without telling them how they may be able to find an unattached tree by checking the match's profile or how the connection may be determined by looking at "shared matches." In fact, she never mentions "shared matches." She also failed to mention and caution users about some of the weaker databases such as some of the public records collections lacking dates and some of the collections drawn from older user-submitted sources which contain errors. Of course, the author could not anticipate the problems tree sync users currently experience due to some data migration issues. She could not anticipate the problems with the Rootsweb portions of the site which resulted in long outages for some resources and continuing outages for others. Most supplemental resources suggested appear to be mostly sources from the book's publisher rather than using the "best sources" for acquiring additional subject information. Recommended only for true beginners, but with the caution to supplement with additional resources and webinars to gain a better picture of the power of Ancestry and to understand the genealogical proof standard which did not appear to be a consideration of the author. I received an electronic copy for review purposes from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review. show less

Whenever I see a book on Evernote, I get pretty excited; I am always looking for new ways to leverage this powerful tool. I just recently picked up a book called How to Use Evernote for Writing and Research* by Nancy Hendrickson. In this book. Hendrickson talked about how to leverage Evernote to organize all her research and writing projects. She explained Evernote was her go to online service for collecting everything, and I wholeheartedly agree. READ MORE