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This CD contains images of the pages of two classic works on Southern genealogy, namely, John Bennett Boddie"s 23-volume Historical Southern Families and Zella Armstrong's 6-volume Notable Southern Families. The combined works deal with hundreds of Southern families and provide information on approximately l50,000 individuals.

Boddie's Historical Southern Families, begun in 1957, has long been considered the foundation of Southern genealogy--the product of impeccable research and outstanding scholarship. Boddie himself was a Fellow of the American Society of genealogists (limited to fifty members) and one of the few Americans ever inducted as a Fellow into the Society of Genealogists (London). Although his 23-volume series was completed after his death by his wife, the same high standards that characterized the earlier volumes are present in the later ones.

Each volume contains a number of lineages that run from a few pages each to as many as several dozen, and in some cases, over a hundred pages. Thoroughly researched--often compiled in collaboration with the descendants of the families themselves--these genealogies are models of authority and scholarship and cover multiple generations of many of the largest and best-known families in the South. Writing in the April-June (1968) issue of the distinguished journal The Virginia Genealogist, a reviewer commented that "those undertaking research on Southern families, and particularly those of Virginia, will find an examination of these volumes a necessary first step in their investigations."

Zella Armstrong's Notable Southern Families was begun in 1918 and completed in 1932. It comprises a large collection of family histories that refer to thousands of persons of Cavalier, Scotch-Irish, and Huguenot descent, the one common denominator being the milieu of the South. In almost every instance family lines are brought down to the early 20th century, each line convincingly developed after a thorough study of court records, histories, family bibles, and miscellaneous family documents. Although the primary aim of the work is to trace the colonial or Revolutionary settler and his American progeny, treatment is sometimes given to the European forebears of the original settler. Each genealogy is carefully developed, giving all names in both collateral and direct lines of descent, dates and places of birth, marriage, and death, places of residence, and all other particulars of genealogical significance.

In preparing this work, Miss Armstrong drew on the services of a large group of specialists, in some instances publishing their findings in entirety, and in the case of Volume V--covering the Crockett family and connecting lines--actually collaborating with Janie Preston Collup French (who incidentally contributed the entire contents of Volume VI). The net result is a product of enduring reference value.

For purposes of manufacturing this CD, every page of these two multi-volume works has been electronically scanned; and for convenience an electronic name index is provided to enable you to search for your ancestors quickly and easily.

System Requirements: You must have a CD-ROM drive, and in order to read the CD you must use either the Family Archive Viewer (version 4.0 or higher), which is available as a free download at http://www.genealogical.com/content/dlfav6.html, or Family Tree Maker for Windows, version 4.0 or higher (Family Tree Maker software can be ordered from www.FamilyTreeMaker.com).

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using the Family Archive Viewer:

1. Install the Family Archive Viewer CD or download it from http://www.genealogy.com/dlfav6.html.
2. Start the Viewer if it is not already running
3. Insert the CD you wish to view into the CD-ROM drive. If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.
4. The CD should open automatically, but users of later versions of the Family Archive Viewer must click the CD/magnifying glass icon in the top toolbar (above the template in some versions) to read the CD.
5. When the screen entitled "About this Family Archive" appears, click OK where prompted.

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using Family Tree Maker:

1. Start your Family Tree Maker and open a Family File. (If the program is already running, skip to Step 2.)
2. Insert the CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive. (If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.)
3. From the View menu, select Family Finder, or select the Family Finder icon from the toolbar.
4. For FTM 2005, FTM 2006, or Version 16, you must go to the View menu, select Data CD, then View CD. For FTM 2008 or higher, you must download the Family Archive Viewer.

To search the CD for names, select the Search Expert button in the top right of your screen, then select "Search this archive for someone NOT from your Family File." You can also search for names by using the Index.

Note: If a window opens that contains a list of files on the CD, simply close it.