5 comments about Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary.

1. This dictionary is of extreme help for me in learning Chinese. I always loved the etimological approach in language-learning, and this is even more true for Chinese.
   
   When encountering an unknown character, if you recognize any of the components (not only the radical), the search in this dictionary based on these components is easy and fun. I looked up one character, and found myself flipping through several pages for others. Great for getting used to characters: meaning+meaning, meaning+phonetic.
   
   Problem is that if you only know the simplified form and no pinyin or meaning, you'll have difficulty with this dictionary. The simplified forms are given, but you first need to find the traditional one... Sometimes the 'etimological' explanation may not be 100%correct (as other reviewers said).
   
   Altogether, still my most used dictionary when learning!!



2. I'm at a real loss as to how this book rated such good reviews. It's possible that it is a good book but I can't tell because the printing is VERY tiny. You would either need the vision of a Barn Owl or a really big magnifying glass just to make out the characters. It's going back tomorrow.



3. Chinese Characters: A Geneology and Dictionary makes searching for Chinese words easy. The author, Rick Harbaugh, has included six indexes
   to help the scholar and learner in what has often been a long, and sometimes futile, search through traditional Chinese dictionaries.
   The use of the radical index had been the only option if the pronunciation of the word is unknown.
   
   Harbaugh includes the traditional radical index, a stroke index, a pronunciation index, an English-to-Chinese index, a Chinese index, and an index using the Bopomofo phonetic system.
   
   The dictionary itself is structured around the radical system; all words
   derived from the same radical are presented in a geneological tree.
   Word combinations, bound forms, are then listed and explained.
   
   Pinyin romanization is used throughout.
   
   I highly recommend Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary.
   I wish this book had been available when I began my study of Chinese many years ago.



4. A unique tool for searching chinese characters for foreign language students. It's easy to read. The book includes all the possible ways of looking for words: by English entries, by Chinese sounds, by stroke counting, by stroke order. The body of the dictionary is designed to illustrate how Chinese characters are actually constructed starting from radicals.



5. I'm studying chinese language for 2 years now, have some conventional dictionaries and use internet for help me learning. After several months of using [...] as my prefered online dictionary to get definitions, and character genealogy, I bought this excellent book that has very clever indexes to find the information using the sounds, character components, pinyin, english meaning, stroke count, radical, etc. It is a great help for learning. Great work !

5 comments about Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People.

1. Since a DNA test recently turned up the interesting fact that one branch of my family tree is Jewish (on the father's side) several generations back, I enjoyed the parts of this book that discuss how genetics can shed light on our family and ethnic histories. I like imaging that, sometime in the early 1800s, a very brave ancestor of mine immigrated to the US from some much put-upon Polish ghetto, looked around and decided that an utterly unpronounceable Jewish-Polish name would not be an asset here. Looking still further, he concluded that Randolph was a most respectable American name and adopted it. That shows good sense, a trait that's quite common in my family. In fact, I like that tale much better than the alternative, which apparently isn't true, that my poor dirt-farmer ancestors were somehow related to the snobbish and aristocratic Randolphs of Virginia.
   
   If the author had focused on that, this book would have rated five stars rather than three. But unfortunately he attempted to do much, much more, delving into complex histories that should take years of study. The author seems to have tried a shortcut, reading two are three good books on a topic and writing from them. But that doesn't really work. To write you must know and the more you write about, the more you need to know.
   
   Take eugenics, a topic I know all too well, having edited several books on it. On page 241, the author gives a long list of important people who, he said, "enthusiastically embraced what became known as 'positive eugenics,' including "even Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood."
   
   Not so. Sanger's entire life was dedicated to opposing positive eugenics, the idea that superior people like herself and her friends should be pressured into having more children. She loathed the idea of a "cradle race" between 'fit' and 'unfit' to an eager audience of mostly affluent and political progressive women. Let 'unfit' and the 'feeble-minded' (meaning the poor and recent immigrants), she said, reduce their birthrates. Don't tell us to have more children. That's why she founded what became today's Planned Parenthood and why her first birth control clinic was in New York City's Brownsville, a neighborhood of mostly Eastern European Jews and Italian Catholics. And that, incidentally, is why to this day there's bad blood between Catholics and Planned Parenthood. Catholic hostility to Sanger's organization is just as legitimate as black dislike of the Ku Klux Klan.
   
   I could list other examples where his history is dubious at best, but I think I've made my point. He should have spent more time on the theme of his book, "Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People" and less on a thousand other topics. And having said that, this remains a very interesting book about a field that's likely to prove even more interesting as time passes.
   
   Readers might also keep in mind that this sort of DNA tracking is still in the early, enthusiast stage. All those involved are so excited about its prospects, they're not examining its limitations as carefully as they should. Mother-derived mitochondrial DNA testing and father-derived X-chromosome testing only looks at a narrow slice of what we are genetically. It only looks at the branches of our family tree that are either maternal all the way or paternal all the way. It neglects the other parental source of our DNA in each generation. There's a lot more to what makes us up than this Adam and Eve in our distant pass, particularly when the group into which we marry becomes larger than a Middle Eastern village or a Polish ghetto.
   
   Michael W. Perry Editor of The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic and Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State



2. The author sets out to examine the physical identity of the Jews, as assessed by studies of their DNA. Do Jews have a coherent biological inheritance, i.e. are they a human race, or are they only a religious denomination? To answer these questions Jon Entine has to tell us a great deal about genetics, DNA, and how science can trace inheritance of individuals and groups. But, he also needs to examine the history of Jews. How did they originate, when and where did they migrate and who are they today.
   
   Entine's study thus casts a very wide net, which covers many topics in a mere 420 pages. He gives us an insightful, well written book. It would be too much to expect he got every answer perfectly right. No doubt he made mistakes, and further research will question some of his conclusions. The Biblical history of the Jews alone has occupied scholars for centuries and millions of pages, and is still much in dispute
   
   As to the major question, the answer is yes and no. Yes, there are several common biological threads uniting modern Jews, there are also many genes acquired from host population during their wanderings. Some Jewish groups have many common genes, others, though culturally Jewish, have virtually none. Hey, what else did you expect.



3. This is a racily written amalgam of a book. The hard part of it is about genetics (and this is enlivened by journalistic sketches of some of the scientists involved in the work). As an appetizer, we learn about CMH (the Cohen Modal Haplotype) - 98½% of Jews who describe themselves as Cohanim (the descendants after 3,000 years of the Jewish priesthood in biblical times) do in fact have the same haplotype, compared with only 3% of the general Jewish population.
   
   Then the book goes into the history of the Jews, their relations to other peoples and their migrations and dispersions. The early part of this is linked to the accounts in the Bible, with the caveat that the biblical assertion that the Samaritans were not proper Jews was unjustifiable and politically motivated: the Samaritan DNA shows that the lineage of this group is even more homogeneous and over a longer time than that of the Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity.
   The fact that from Ezra's time onwards Jewish teaching prohibited marriage between Jews and non-Jews - reinforced later by Christian rulers also forbidding it - contributes mightily to Jewish genetic identity.
   
   However, these prohibitions come relatively late in the history of Jewish genes, and are not likely to have been observed by the earliest male Jews who moved into new areas where there were no Jewish women. In any case, before the prohibitions, Jewish men did often marry non-Jewish women - there are plenty of references to this in the Bible. The male Y chromosome is pretty stable among a majority of Jews, and there is "powerful DNA evidence that Jews from around the world [i.e. whether Sephardi or Ashkenazi] share a common Near or Middle Eastern ancestry". (An exception seem to be some 50% of Ashkenazi Levites whose marker "does not even trace to the Middle East", leaving the possibility that some of these came from Khazars who converted to Judaism and took on the role of junior priests without being descendants of the biblical Levites. But all the Levites make up only 4% of the Jewish population.) Because of these early marriages between Jews and non-Jews, the mitochondrial DNA which comes from the females is more varied than the Y chromosomes which are passed down by Jewish men; and this is likely to account for the fact that some Jews look Middle-Eastern, some European, some Asian etc.
   
   Then there is a section describing the many far-fetched myths - some of them current even in this century - of what happened to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, locating them anywhere from Louisiana to Japan. In Africa there are tribes which claim Jewish descent. The best known are the Beta Israel (better known as Falasha) of Ethiopia. Their Judaism must be that of conversion rather than descent, since their DNA does not have any of the most common Jewish genetic markers. The Lemba in Southern Africa, on the other hand, do have such markers; 9% of them even carry the CMH; but among one of their clans, the Buba, it is as high as 53%. And the CMH is also prominent among the 4,000 or so Bene Israel group of Jews, living near Mumbai (Bombay) in India.
   
   Certain diseases are known as "Jewish diseases" because of the high incidence of them among Jews (perhaps intensified by inbreeding) and because they are very much rarer among non-Jews. One disconcerting result is that the descendants of converts from Judaism often discover their Jewish ancestry because they develop these diseases. This is the case, for example, among many Spanish American women in the southern parts of the United States who develop particular types of breast or ovarian cancers. These denote that their ancestors were among the large number of conversos who had moved out of Mexico when the Inquisition was introduced there, into what was then called New Leon where the Inquisition was not so active.
   
   Naturally, all this raises the still immensely controversial question of race, which is bedevilled by the way the concept has been and is being used by racists. All humans are genetically 99.9% identical, and that has led some people to the conclusion that there is no such thing as race. But if the figure of variables between different `population groups' (the word geneticists use to avoid the loaded word `race') is 0.1% (and it may actually be as high as 0.3%), that 0.1% contains some 3 million nucleotide pairs in the human genome; and these determine such things as differences in skin colour or susceptibility to certain diseases. On the basis of such significant differences, one geneticist frequently quoted by Entine has identified 491 broad population groups. Almost none of these will be "pure", since almost all of them have interbred with other population groups; but all of them are characterized by the prevalence of one or other group of genes which contribute to geneticists being able to differentiate between particular population groups.
   
   Of course all this raises the intensely controversial question of whether the exceptionally high achievement of especially Ashkenazi Jews is due to their IQ being genetic or environmental. Entine's chapter on debates relating to this issue is extremely technical and, as far as I can tell, even-handed. Suggestions (and they are rarely claims of proof) that IQ has a strong genetic component have run into such a storm of hostility - some from scientists and some from anti-racist political correctness, some from Jews and some from non-Jews - that many geneticists have decided not to engage in this kind of research or even to give it up. It is clear that Entine sides with those who think that the research should continue. It may open (or re-open) Pandora's box; but asking and answering problematic questions "is what scientific enquiry is all about."



4. Of the several DNA books and articles that I've read, in my opinion, this is truly an interesting book to read. It brings you information without making it boring. Reads like a DNA novel at times. I loved it.



5. Jon Entine deserves congratulations for his well-written and thought-provoking book. As an introduction to the subject of Jewish identity, I would recommend a concise book by Avri Barr entitled "The Jewish Singularity: Genes, Memes, and Mystery" which appeared in 2006 and which covers a wide spectrum of issues, from basic elements of Genetics to Jewish history and traditions The Jewish Singularity: Genes, Memes, and Mystery.

5 comments about The Island.

1. I found "The Island" to be predictable, lacking in character development and passion, and trite. We are told that Maria is the good, dutiful daughter, while Anna is the rebel, but to me these characterizations were one dimensional and stereotypical. I thought it defied logic that Andreas for years didn't catch on to what was going on between his wife and Manolis, when even Maria, her sister banished to Spinalonga, knew. Also, I would imagine that in such a small area everyone would know when someone contracts leprosy and is sent to Spinalonga. Yet Andreas'parents didn't know. Wouldn't you think that they might ask how Anna's mother died before she married Andreas? Inconsistencies such as these irritated me.



2. I bought this book based on all the glowing reviews here on amazon and ended up being really disappointed. Obviously a lot of people really loved this book, but I thought I'd add my opinion anyway. I didn't think the writing was very good. I felt that it kept you distant from the characters instead of drawing you in to their lives and story. Much of the story was told in summary, so instead of being with the characters as the important events happen, the narrator describes the events to you after the fact. I didn't make it past the first 70 pages or so and ended up returning it to amazon. I just couldn't force myself to keep reading. None of the characters seemed well drawn to me; they seemed more cliches, stock characters, character types instead of real people. The dialogue was stiff and unrealistic. Sorry! I just wasn't a fan. However, again, based on all the fabulous reviews, maybe I just missed the point.



3. A good book with good moral values and an interesting plot involving historic Crete and a leprosy colony. Is it a little contrived? Yes. Does it all work out in the end? Yes. Does it pull at your heartstrings, have at least one love story, feature well-wrought locales and characters that at least once display more than one dimension? Yes, yes, and yes. A "beach read"? Probably. Does it matter? No :-)



4. I thought the subject was very interesting so I bought the book, but was terribly disappointed by the cheesy style of Hislop's writing. Her style is so ordinary, simplistic and in such poor English that it could be attributed only to a very young, romantic schoolgirl. Perhaps a course in writing before undertaking her project might have helped. Being greek, I see how she uses lengthy, stereotypical descriptions of local customs to fill pages. Still, it might make a good film, if the characters on screen are built with some depth (a quality they lack in the book).



5. "The Island" is one of those books that is as captivating as it is aggravating. Whether or not the fact that the dwellers on Spinalonga know all to well that they are going to die is a metaphor for all of us (after all, aren't we all going to die too?) the story is superb, the plot golden, and the journey it takes you on is spellbinding. What makes it so frustrating is due to the fact that the author depicts the characters with black and white personalities and speeds through major events in the story.
   The two main characters, Anna and Maria are sisters, and couldn't be further alike. Anna, the headstrong oldest daughter, never gives her family any peace with her selfish demands and her rejection of their simple country lifestyle. On the other hand young Maria, is patient with her sister and like a saint, cares for her father, tends to the house, and does everything perfectly. There isn't an imperfect bone I her body and as a result her character is far less human, as is Anna's for being so purely selfish. People have more depth than this and its sad that Ms. Hislop made the sisters caricatures of 2 female archetypes: the beautiful saint and the selfish vamp.
   (There is also a horrible scene of domestic violence in the book and the townspeople as well as the voice of the author seem to treat the at of violence as if the female got what she deserved which is horrific in its own sense.)
   My second criticism is the pace of the book. For the most part the pace matches the content, but the very beginning and the very end of the book seem to fly by which is unfortunate because key elements of the story lie in those pages leaving the tale ripe for expansion. Namely, Maria, who goes through many trials and tribulations throughout the story, finally has something wonderful happen to her, and we hear very little detail about it. It is a climax of the book but glossed over which was very disappointing.
   Overall, the book left me wanting more, which is both a good and a sad thing. At the end of the day, "The Island" is an excellent read and I strongly recommend it, but I felt the characters deserved more than the author gave them, so much so it made it seem worth mentioning on Amazon. But yes, read "The Island". And if you have daughters, nieces, etc. and give it to them to read as well. In short, "The Island" is about humans triumphing over adversity. The book illistrates in a realistic way how we can live our lives in the face of fear and death and that makes it well worth the read.

5 comments about Deep Ancestry: Inside The Genographic Project.

1. This book seemed to rehash most known basic facts about genes and genetic history without adding any new or interesting material. May be a good book for someone just learning about genetic history but too boring for anyone with prior knowledge and interest.



2. It is remarkable how an author can take an absolutely fascinating field of scientific research and turn it into a dreary bore of a book.



3. This is the second book I have read by Spencer Wells, and I have found this one to be equally interesting. In this book you will learn about haplogroups, which identify people with similar genetic markers and how those markers are identified in the genetic code. There are two types: the mitochondrial (mtDNA) and the Y chromosome groups. Various maps in the book show where the many haplogroups had there probable origins. The evidence presented in the genetic code (Y chromosome), indicates that we had a common ancestor dating back about 60,000 years ago and this ancestor looked pretty much like modern humans today.
   
   What I found interesting was the sudden change of events about 50,000 years ago. All of a sudden we see the development of sophisticated art forms, the migration out of Africa, the development of speech and complex technology and a leap in brain function. One must wonder what was going on.
   
   I highly recommend this book, and if you want more information, you can go to the[...] Web site which discusses the genographic project in detail. It is a pretty cool site.



4. Deep Ancestry is the story of us. Or the story of how scientists are figuring out the story of us.
   
   Meant to be an introduction to the National Geographic's Genographic Project, Deep Ancestry provides a summary of the complicated genetic discoveries being made by researchers every day.
   
   Author Spencer Wells uses real life people's stories to introduce concepts like haplogroups and population genetics in order to break up the technobabble that cannot really be avoided without entirely dumbing down the ideas he's trying to convey.
   
   A good chunk of the end of the book is a detailed appendix with entries describing each haplogroup (Y chromosome and mtDNA), including all the various markers that point the way to the groups earliest common ancestor. This section seems best suited to those who have purchased a DNA testing kit and want to research their test results.



5. While his books are interesting, one thing that becomes abundantly clear to anyone with a working knowledge of ancestral genetics is that Wells goes out of his way to preach "we are all the same" and "race is meaningless". While both statements have an element of truth to them, they don't tell the whole story. Good scientific writers don't try to push a message. Rather, they lay the facts out and allow the reader to do with it what they will. There are very real, empirical genetic differences between ethnic groups--an indisputable fact embraced by serious medical geneticists. This may make some people uncomfortable and provide ammunition for racial bigotry, but playing a shell game with facts does a disservice to science and humanity.

5 comments about The Seven Daughters of Eve.

1. This was one of those books I read in one day because I just couldn't put it down. It was so different from anything I'd read before (even given that I was an anthropology student back in the dark ages). Granted that his portraits of the seven clan mothers are fictitious, I found it interesting to speculate on their lives, given the time period and geographic areas in which they must have lived. I also found the whole scientific process interesting to follow - quite the drama in itself.



2. This is a book popularizing a scientific fact. In it, the author describes several characters representing branches of a genetic tree, and brings them to life based on theoretical timelines, which could place these individuals in particular times and places. Because the "trait" being followed is passed only through females, the individuals represented in each genetic branch of the tree are female, and called "Eves".
   
   One of many problems is that the author assumes that genetic mutations are introduced at a constant rate. By examining many different current versions of the " trait " - the DNA of a cellular component called mitrochondria - one could theorize how long it would take to go back in time to when there was only one version, or this case seven versions. In fact, genetic variation typically takes place at very different rates over long periods of time. The concept of punctuated equilibrium, for example, shows that a population may be rapidly enriched for a certain variation of a genetic trait, if one should suddenly prove more advantageous. Similarly, isolated populations may lack diversification for exceptionally long periods of time on a geological, or evolutionary scale. This wreaks havoc on placing fictional characters in specific times and locations, and describing their lives, without supporting anthropological data, for example.
   
   Several people that I spoke to who had read the book for a discussion group, all left with the impression that these "Eves" walked out of a forest fully formed, with no mention of the crushing onslaught of other evidence in human evolution, or the examination of the other 30,000 genes thus identified in the human genome. They were also drawn to the convenient coincidence that the author's lab, for a fee, will tell the reader which fictional character they are related to.
   
   While mitochondrial DNA is actually passed only through female lines, the book took far too many liberties in extrapolating that fact into a bin of nonsense. Its lack of references, peer reviewed material, or mention of other relevant scientific, and evolutionary facts, was more than a little frightening to me, especially from the Department Head of a prestigious University, who should know better.



3. The author writes with a wonderful style that explains scientific subjects fully. This book is the first of several on examining the groups found in Europe by DNA patterns. This book is of great interest to descendants of British ancestors. The author's categories of groups of "clan mothers" are both fascinating and informative, especially for those interested in genealogy. The reader can get a real thrill of the complexity of this science especially when you have had your DNA examined and you know which of the seven you belong to. Sykes has written stories based on archaeology showing the kinds of lives these "mothers" may have lived. To know that you have descended from a woman living in a cave and surviving the last Ice Age brings the meaning of survival right home. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history and genealogy.



4. Overall, I found the book to be good. The author's descriptions of DNA replication, the role of proteins, the epochs of prehistory (e.g. Paleolithic) were all done well, providing reference material for later inquiry. I enjoyed the author's stories of discovery including the impact of politics, chance and misfortune. As with religion, politics have a big impact on the progress of science. Fortunately for science, the methodology eventually reveals the correct conclusions, regardless of who might dominate the field, unless, of course, the methodology is politically repressed as was done in the Dark Ages.
   
   The author's account of human evolution seemed plausible but with overemphasis on mitochondrial DNA and the maternal line of descent. He strove to build a story that satisfied (as much as possible) his stated objective of finding one woman as the ancestor of all living people. Doing so appeared to warp the story of human descent. He used the term "clan" for all the people who descended from the same woman. I think of "clan" as being a group of related people living together at the same time. Every one of his Eves lived in a tribe including other woman who may have contributed as much DNA to subsequent generations as that Eve, only doing so via nuclear versus mitochondrial DNA.
   
   It seems implausible that all living people came from one Eve at the dawn of humanity. By the author's own construction, that Eve would have lived among many other women. Using very rough figures, drawn from the book, there might have been 2000 people in the "first" human population 150,000 years ago. That population, as the author suggests, came from earlier human-like ancestors. If I accept the figure of 2000 people, about half, or 1000 were women. It seems implausible that only one of these women would be the female ancestor of all living humans. But even if that were true, it would probably have taken many thousands of years for the mitochondrial descendants of the other women to die out. So, it's not like there was a single Eve who, from the beginning, was the ancestor of all subsequent generations.
   
   Otherwise, the author's accounts deduced from mitochondrial DNA seemed essentially valid and enlightening, for example, in the way he settled some arguments. However, I felt he may have overreached in some of his conclusions, based on the available data. But then we all do that. We fill in the blanks as best we can within our own minds in order to construct a whole. (That's how we get religion.) The author indicates that the presence of Polynesian-type genes in South America resulted from a somewhat obscure coastal migration northward along the east coast of Asia and then south along the west coast of the Americas. This may be correct, but Easter Island, which he recognizes as populated by Polynesians via the direct ocean route, is relatively close to South America (and is now a territory of Chile).
   
   The author dismisses the existence of human races, seemingly prompted by political correctness in recent times. Scientists point out that there is more genetic variation within races than between them, thus claiming that the term "race" is meaningless. But the term "race" was used long before anyone ever knew what DNA was. Race does indeed define segments of humanity which have relatively distinct characteristics and geographical origins. Perhaps races evolved as humans spread out over the world and their populations became isolated from one another. Races were probably on their way to becoming separate species when "civilization" and technology arose and brought the races back together while they could still interbreed.
   
   There should have been more charts and some maps to support text. It was difficult to follow some descriptions without such aids.
   
   I did not find the seven fictional chapters on the seven daughters of Eve to be helpful. A scientific discussion of their place in time would have sufficed.
   
   It will be very interesting to see how the story of mankind unfolds as more discoveries are found and the nuclear DNA history is unraveled. I don't believe that the "hobbit" had been discovered when the author wrote his book. I'm referring to fossils of the miniature man found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003. This miniature hominid is currently classified as homo floresiensis and may have lived only 18,000 years ago, contemporaneously with modern humans, similar to Neanderthal Man.



5. Bryan Sykes has an exceptionally clear and engaging writing style and he has lot of interesting material to share. I found this book very interesting on multiple levels:
   
   a. Exceptionally interesting DNA case studies of the Hamsters, the last Russian Czars, the Polynesians and Europians in particular as well as other ones comparing Homo Sapiens (us) with the Neanderthals. As an aside - the history fo the hamsters described is very interesting - did you know that these are originally from Syria and that all the millions of pet hamsters living today are the direct descendants of a single feamle hamster that lived in 1930! This whole interesting story is one among many described in this interesting book.
   
   b. Very good perspective from a top scientist - the incredible rigor involved, the difficult questions to address and how solutions were slowly developed by his team, the competition, the challenges from the establishment and others alike, the emotions involved.....
   
   c. Exceptionally clear explanations of the actual genetics involved - very clear and concise descriptions of concepts that are all too often glossed over in many other books written for the general reader
   
   d. The actual recreations of the 7 Eves - an approach that several reviewers have objected to, however, i found those chapters insightful as well
   
   Some reviewers have taken exception to the "self-centered approach" but in my view that is part and parcel of describing several ground-breaking and cutting-edge studies in the first person.
   
   Overall, a very interesting book and one that has got me thinking of getting my own DNA analyzed as well. I expect to read other books from Bryan Sykes as well. Can't recommend it strongly enough.
   
   -Sudip Chahal

5 comments about Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.

1. Ms. Mills latest book is a great tool for evidence citation in genealogy research. I have used it frequently since purchasing. I strongly recommend it.



2. This book is a must have for historical researchers and writers. Up-to-date it is a wealth of information. I would recommend this for every researchers library.



3. I have only begun to use this reference tool but have been very impressed so far. I needed a guide to thorough citing of sources in my genealogical and historical research. I am an amateur and is has been many years since I learned documentation. I was thoroughly confused about how to document electronic sources.
   
   This book gives numerous and specific examples of citations for a wide range of possible sources. Even if you don't choose to use an established style, you can easily discern what information is needed to provide for a return to the source of your information. It is very much worth the purchase price if you are desirous of effective documentation of your work.



4. "Evidence Explained" by Elizabeth Shown Mills is by far the most comprehensive resource I have seen for accurately and effectively citing historical sources. The book is well organized and the author provides excellent citation examples for just about every source imaginable. Whether you are a novice or experienced researcher, I would highly recommend this book.



5. If you are an author, this 885 page book contains everything you will ever need to know about citing your sources, including books, magazine articles, journals, federal, state and local government records, radio and tv broadcasts, web sites and blogs, newspaper articles, church records, maps, cemetery records, court records, business and institutional records, and on and on and on. If there is any source author Elizabeth Shown Mills has left out, it probably isn't worth citing.
   
   If you are an author and don't have this book, you should order it now. You will use it over and over and it will save you much grief should anyone be inclined to challenge your sources.
   
   Robert Summers
   Author of The Fall and Redemption of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd

5 comments about To Our Children's Children: Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come.

1. As a member of the DAR, preserving my family's history is extremely important. This book asks questions most people might never think about, such as "can you remember any stories you heard about your grandparents when they were children?" It is important to document our pesonal heritage for our grandchildren, and this book makes that easy. I would highly recommend it. In fact,I have purchased several copies for other family members.



2. This book (purchased 4) is an excellent guidebook for my customers
   whom I film as I video their life histories. Customers use this as a tool
   to to revisit memories they'd like to share with their families. Some folks not sure what to talk about, yet when they read through the many questions they really reconnect with how faceted and fascinating their lives' really are!



3. Simple and easy questions to guide anyone through writing details about their life. I interviewed my parents using this book and was surprised at what I learned. Mom, when asked if she lived on a busy or quiet street as a child, said "It must have been a busy street because I remember hearing the traffic light change." That very detail bespoke of an era -- a time when traffic lights had arms that popped up to say STOP or GO and would ding in the process. I've recommended this book to many people and have given it as gifts.



4. To Our Children's Children Book A stranger told me about this book and I became interested in purchasing a copy. Recently cleaning out my father's house found old pictures, WWII, Boy scouts, VFW memorabilia. I am fortunate to be able to ask my dad a lot of the questions in the book. It is an excellent start to preserving those precious family histories for other generations to come. Now I am taping and writing down the information which will be placed in archivalbe scrap book to be tresured for years to come. Pleas take the time to pick this book up and start own family history.



5. Not only is this a thoughtfully written and organized book, but this is also a handy little book. It's small size easily fits into a backpack or overnight bag. I put the book and a really good gel pen and a pad of paper into a gallon-sized Ziplock-type baggie so that I can write anytime, anywhere. I always take it with me to the beach and often take it with me on overnight trips, too, finishing one question per trip. I randomly open the book, choose an appropriate question, close the book and start writing whatever comes to mind about the subject.
   It is surprising how the questions in the book really make one think back. One time I took my 18-year-old son to the beach with me. I showed him the book, we each chose a question and wrote for over an hour, sitting amongst the grasses in the sun and wind. I discovered he was definitely not too young to write down his history! Yes, I hand-write the entries and then transcribe them later with a word processor. A workbook or journal would be too space-restricting for me, and no way can I do a question per day!
   I'm okay with not answering all the questions in the book. It is nice to know that even if I don't get very far in the book, my three children and my siblings will know me a lot better than if I never answered one. If I had no children, I would write anyway because you just never know who would be touched by your life. This is a must-have book for anyone wanting to pass some history down because it makes it so much easier to do. This book made it easy enough for me, the single mom with two jobs, to start a personal history!

5 comments about Quicksheet Citing Online Historical Resources.

1. Any genealogist worth his or her own salt must have this useful reference tool. In this day and age of electronic genealogy it is growing more and more important to fully document your sources found online. They can be here today and gone tomorrow. This easy to follow guide takes the guess work out of documentation. It lays a firm foundation with its basic principles and has models for common record types such as census images, census indexes & databases, digital articles & books, historical records, land-entry records, newspaper & newspaper items, passenger lists, social security death index and vital records. It gives examples of three different entry types--source list entry, full reference note, and short reference note. It is four pages long and comes laminated for long lasting use. This is something you definitely should keep at your fingertips!



2. First Revised Edition with updated sample citations and style changes.
   
   Elizabeth Mills's QuickSheet provides a template for citing historical sources on the Internet. It also lays down rules to help you judge the reliability of these sources.
   
   Published in the form of a laminated folder, the QuickSheet contains a series of sample citations showing the correct way to identify online sources such as databases, census images, and digital books and articles.
   
   Based on the premise that online sources are publications that have the same characteristics as printed publications, it provides rules and models for common record types such as passenger lists, vital records, and newspapers. Since a website is the online equivalent of a book, the QuickSheet shows you how to cite author/creator/owner of a website, title of the website, place (URL), date posted, and so forth.
   
   Convenient for desktop use at home or in the library, the QuickSheet answers all those niggling questions left unanswered by the standard citation guides; it is also a perfect companion to the classic citation manual Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian and Mills's 885-page definitive guide to the citation and analysis of historical sources, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.



3. Item was as advertised and seller's delivery was prompt. What else can you ask for?



4. Lots of valuable information in a concise fashion. Easily transported and readily available for review. Wonderful source citing tool. Handy to carry in a notebook or file folder when doing research for review of material accessed.



5. This is a great little item. Easy to carry. Lots of quick, useful info. I'd recommend it.

5 comments about The Story of a Lifetime: A Keepsake of Personal Memoirs.

1. This book has questions that really get to the center of who you are. It really makes you think about life and choices. You can learn a great deal about who you are while completing it to be left to you family. I purchased one for all of our family members to be left to my two daughters. I was worried people would think I thought they were old and going to die soon (haha) but everyone was excited about the book.



2. My siblings and I bought this book for our mother who just turned 65 and is home alone often. She needs nothing material and so it is very hard to buy gifts for her.
   
   Because she is on her own, she enjoys quiet and sedentary activities such as reading, puzzles,etc. We thought this would be a good gift to keep her mentally alert and engaged in something meaningful. She has expressed delight in the book. We just now have to see her start to fill it out! The book contains so many different topic areas that we feel she will be kept busy if nothing else.



3. We gave this to my mother in law as a gift. It is a beautiful book, and seems to have an extensive amount of ideas to help prompt her in telling her story.



4. I bought this book years ago for my parents. My Mom is now 90 and in a dementia home, but my Dad is 88 and still going strong. He finally got time to start on the book. He took out all the pages, and 3 ring-punched them so he could put each page in his typewriter to respond to the questions and then I added old photos from his Dad's scrapbook and also ones from their old photo albums. Some of the questions are repetitious and those pages, we did not use. When he only had a short answer to type, I attached a photo that went with the answer. It's taken us months to complete but he loved working on it and everyone wants a copy. At the end, I added our own section where everyone in the family submitted their own question to him and included a photo of themselves for their personalized page in the book. I highly recommend getting all parents to make such a wonderful keepsake!



5. A great book. Thorough prompts for any writer or non-writer. A jumping off point to something truly wonderful or a stand-alone journal for keepsakes. Loved the book. Gave it to my mother on my wedding day. Thank You!

5 comments about 100,000 + Baby Names: The Most Complete Baby Name Book: Including 300+ Fascinating Lists, The Latest Naming Trends, Key to Gender-Neutral Names.

1. First, let me state the obvious: You will find many, many names in this book. Besides American and Christian names the book lists many ethnic names: African, Indian, Arabic, Chinese, Irish, Italian, etc.
   I can't comment on the quality and accuracy of all the names, but being East Indian I do have a fair bit of knowledge regarding Indian names.
   The problems with this book:
   1. Many of the name meanings are wildly inaccurate.
   2. Some boys names were incorrectly classified as a girls name and vice-versa.
   3. Some Arabic names were incorrectly classified as Indian.
   4. Quality: many Indian names listed in this book are archaic and woefully outdated-- the sort of name that conjures up images of someone in their 80s. The American equivalent would be names like Ebenezer or Nimrod. Those names were popular at some point in the 1880s, but how many parents would give that name to their child today =)
   The bottom line: there are a wide variety of names to be found here, but if you're going to go with a name you are unfamiliar with be sure to check alternate sources for meanings, source attribution and gender-appropriateness.



2. I PURCHASED IT USED AND LOVED IT. I WILL BE SELLING IT BACK. I LOVE HOW EVERYTHING WAS DIVIDED IN IT INTO SECTIONS. WE FOUND OUT BABY GIRL'S NAME IN IT :o)



3. I guess it includes all the names. The problem is, if you are actually looking for an american name - good luck finding one, you have to go first through pages and pages of foreign names. It would have been better if they divided the names by countries or religion.
   Overall the selection is there, you just need the time to go through it.



4. We found our first son's name in this book. I like that the books gives the top 25 most popular names for every decade for the past 200 years or so, and the most popular names from countries around the world. There are also a lot of fun lists titled, "Names Inspired by People, Places and Things," which include characters from various books, TV shows, movies, & stories, sports figures, singers, nature inspired names, and names to match personalities.
   
   The main part of the book lists names in alphabetical order (one section for girls & one for boys). There are over 600 pages of names, over 100,000 names. It gives the name in bold print, the origin, the meaning, and alternative spellings. People LOVE our son's name, as do we.
   
   I would definately recommend this book to parents looking for names for their unborn baby. We were looking for Irish names and found many we loved, even though we had to look through all the names to find just the Irish names. I'm just a Mom, obssessed with finding the PERFECT name, and this book was very helpful to me!! This book is FUN, too.



5. Well my wife and I found out we were having a little boy at our ultrasound the other day. After I got through embarrassing her by screaming out the car window, "I put the stem on the apple!!!" We were very much relieved to finally eliminate half the baby names. Here in lies the problem with this book: You can't find a 100,000 good baby names!!!! I suppose you could name your child one of the over 97,000 hideous names in this book, but the little man or women might hate you for it when they enter our brain washing institutes better known as public education system. I suppose you could name your boy Sue if you wanted to toughen him up, and I'm equally sure you'll find that name in the boys and girls section in this book. No sir EEEE bob, you just can't fill a book with baby names without wasting half the book.
   
   Now I can't say this book has no value. It does give you a list of the most popular baby names throughout the decades (I believe from the 1900's until present). You also get all the STARS names. After all who wouldn't want to name their child "Moon Unit" to honor the Zappa family? Want to name your child after a Harry Potter character? Well there's a list in there for you too. I thumbed through the whole book and found probably a 1,000 viable names (most of which I would still never use, but I'm giving the book the benefit of the doubt). I honestly ended up searching on the internet and found some very useful sites there that in my opinion were far more helpful (and free). I even picked up a hundred page book that had just about every name I liked in it (plus it eliminated most of the absurd names). In the end I can justifiably give this book 3 stars. There are some pretty unique baby names out there, and this book has just about every name you wouldn`t want to name your child. On the other hand, one of my coworkers used to work in pediatric and neonatal ICU, and this book can`t compare to some of the names he ran across. I could give you a list of names that would have you dying on the floor for hours. Ah, if it wasn't for that patient confidentiality thing. Lets just say I hope none of you name you child after a venereal disease because it was on the side of a bus, and "the word looked pretty." Hearing stories like that make you realize that if there was a child named ******* than there's probably a child named Gonorrhea out there as well. So maybe having a boy named Sue isn't so bad?
   
   Bottom Line: thorough book, but you will probably hate most the names in it.
   
   Postscript: I looked up the name Jackson in this book and it's definition was, "The son of Jack." Well, what if the father's name isn't Jack? Was there a milk man involved? Given this new knowledge of how names are formed I thought of the name Stan. After all it's only one letter shy of sAtan. This must have been some parent who was exhausted from chasing a 2 year old around and decided they were in fact "a little devil." Oh, if only that child knew.