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The Handy Book for Genealogists is THE best-selling book in American genealogy. Since 1949 the first nine editions of this valuable research aid have been purchased by over a million people. The 10th edition integrates the winning formula of the previous editions with a number of important new features.

The genius of The Handy Book is its capacity to provide the researcher with at-a-glance genealogical guidance for every county in the U.S. Every chapter commences with an essay about the genealogical history of the state and its records. This is followed by an up-to-date listing of genealogical archives, libraries, and societies and a bibliography of valuable printed sources--a feature that has been vastly expanded for the 10th edition. At the heart of the chapter, however, is an alphabetically arranged table of counties, which is keyed to a corresponding state map. For each county, the table furnishes a map index number, the date of the county's creation, the parent county(ies) or territory(ies) from which it was created, and the address and phone number for the appropriate county court. A thumbnail description of each county's surviving genealogical records completes that entry. Every county in the United States--in fact, every county in the volume--is enumerated in the index at the back of The Handy Book.

Other new features of the 10th edition, however, are noteworthy as well. For one thing the information about counties in the new edition has been corroborated by county and parish officials around the country, 95% of whom responded to questionnaires sent to them by the publishers. The state maps, like the other graphics in the book, are now in color and show the state and county boundaries, county names, and rivers and lakes within the state boundaries. There is a special section pertaining to migration routes that includes migration trail maps and detailed descriptions of 120 different routes our ancestors traversed in the process of populating the nation. Each trail is described, and a summary of the states and counties through which the trail passed is given. Rounding out the book, which is about 50% larger than the 9th edition, are brief essays, with maps, on the genealogical records of nineteen foreign countries from Australia through Switzerland.

Whether or not you own a previous edition of this extraordinary publication, the blockbuster 10th edition of The Handy Book for Genealogists is one book you must have for your reference shelf.