Why we sell what we sell….

Many of our customers at Between the Lakes Group are primarily interested in genealogy, and they can be pardoned for occasionally wondering why we sell what we sell. Yes, occasionally we do some “original” history — history that has not been told before — but most of our business consists of republications of old and out of print material.

Amy Johnson Crow is a professional genealogist who has written an article (and created a podcast) about why genealogists need to be concerned with material that goes beyond “names and dates” — why genealogists need to put meat on the bones, so to speak. We were sufficiently impressed by her article that we wanted to refer to to you. You can find it HERE.

The podcast, in case you are into podcasts, and we know that many people are, the link to the podcast is there as well.

One point she makes in her article is the importance of finding out organizations to which your ancestor may have belonged. They can tell you a whole lot about your ancestor. For example, does your ancestor’s obit say he was in the GAR? Well, that’s an easy one — it stands for Grand Army of the Republic, and it means that even if you cannot find any other documentation of the fact, your ancestor was a Civil War veteran.

However, there are a zillion other organizations, and many are not quite as easy as the GAR. We know that because we kept track of how many people downloaded our old free list of abbreviations for organizations — how you make the jump from the initials of the organization that appear in the ancestor’s obit to the full name of the group.

Suffice it to say that this is a two part assignment. First, read Amy Johnson Crow’s article, and then consider whether you actually can identify all of those organizations your ancestors belonged to that were only identified by initials.

We modestly offer a book we prepared a couple of years ago that can help with that task. Acronyms for Organizations is a great compendium of initials for organizations, and for each there are the organizations those initials stand for, and have stood for in the past.

You can get Acronyms for Organizations via Amazon, and we think that after reading Amy Johnson Crow’s article you might decide that you actually need it.

Acronyms for organizations
Here’s the front cover! Here’s more about it.

Here are a couple of ideas if you don’t want to spend quite that much money. First, consider the Kindle version. This is one book that is probably as accessible on your portable electronic device as it is in book form, and it’s cheaper too. Furthermore, you’re more apt to have it with you the next time you’re stumped by a set of initials that stand for an organization.

There’s one more alternative that will also save you some money and quite possibly answer most of your questions about acronyms for organizations. The book pictured above is actually the second (and greatly expanded) edition of this book:

The first edition — but still available at Amazon

We know it’s a bit unusual to be offering two editions of the same book for sale at the same time, but we considered that What Does That Stand For? might just be sufficient for many people’s needs. It’s also at Amazon, and it also is available in a Kindle edition at a savings.

Well, that’s a long way of saying why we sell what we sell — or at least why we sell a couple of things that we sell — but we hope you find it helpful!

Acronyms for Organizations

Our newest book, Acronyms for Organizations, is now available in paperback and for the Kindle™ on the Amazon website.

Acronyms for organizations

To view it at Amazon.com, please click HERE!
You can also read more about it, and about our efforts in “real” publishing (you know — like books) and how it compliments our usual business of e-publishing, here’s the front cover!Close observers will note that we published an earlier book of initializations (or initialisms, if you prefer), acronyms, and abbreviations for organizations around four years ago, called “What Does That Stand For?”  Around half the length, it was our initial experience in modern print publishing, and we learned from it.  Many people spoke well of the earlier version, but it left us with the feeling that we had only skimmed the surface of what such a book really ought to contain.  (You can read a little more about our own historical process HERE.)

So, we took what we had there, and began a systematic process of collecting acronyms for organizations (as well as abbreviations and initialisms, of course) for thousands of additional information.  We discovered whole categories of abbreviations for organizations we had not considered — and we went into far greater depth with those we already had.

A little about the book — and it’s also available for Kindle:

Paperback edition:  562 pages, $23.99

Kindle edition:  598 pages, $13.99

(if you buy the paperback edition, you can also get the Kindle edition for a small additional charge).

In any case, please do have a look at the listing in the Amazon catalog — CLICK HERE to go directly to this listing.

Newton MA Blue Book for 1910

The Newton MA Blue Book for 1910 is an important piece of social history (and history of Boston “Society”) that we are delighted to bring back into our catalog.  Originally published on CD-ROM, it has been unavailable since we discontinued our CD line, but now we have taken the original material from the CD and made it available as a download — at a substantial savings, by the way.

In case you wondered what communities are included in the Newton MA Blue Book for 1910, here’s the list:  Thompsonville, Newton Upper Falls, Newton Highlands, Newton Lower Falls, Chestnut Hill, Waban Hill, Newton, Newton Centre, Newtonville, Nonantum, West Newton, Waban, Reeds Corner, and Auburndale.  Today — and doubtless in 1910 — residents frequently would say where they lived according to the small community — e.g. Waban — rather than the more inclusive Newton.  In case you’re trying to correlate any of these to today’s locations, the Blue Book contains a large and detailed map of all of Newton as well.

Since the Blue Book is first and foremost a directory, it has the predictable names and addresses of the residents — with some additional touches, such as summer addresses for those who went to the ocean in the summer (a bit like the Social Register).

The ads are fascinating.  You’ll find the usual trades, but you will also see ads for riding stables and private schools, as well as seating maps of the major theatres of Boston — and you’ll not find that in many other municipal directories of the era!

If this sounds interesting, you can CLICK HERE to go directly to the Newton MA Blue Book for 1910 page on our website to learn more.  There we have a list of the surnames included, in case you would like to check further.  We would be remiss if we failed to mention our catalog as well.  Who knows what you might find there!

Newton MA Blue Book for 1910

 

Grange Directories from Genesee County NY

As we continue our process of migrating information from our discontinued CD-ROMs to availability as downloads, we are very happy to announce the availability of two Grange directories from Genesee County NY in the 1930s.

While the Grange still exists in some rural areas of the United States, the “Patrons of Husbandry” has been in a long decline since the 19th century in the United States.  An organization that fulfilled several functions for rural farm families — it was a social organization, an organization for young people, a unified voice in speaking to legislatures, a charitable organization — in an age before telephones, radio, television, and the internet, it was vital.  We think that these directories represented a resurgence of the local Granges due to the Great Depression, so they are social documents.

Because they list members and officers, as well as businesses catering to the agricultural sector, the Grange directories from Genesee County NY will be useful to genealogists tracing families in Genesee County, of course.  Those interested in cultural history and social history will appreciate the clear view of agrarian life in upstate New York in the 1930s these represent.

Of a few Grange directories we’ve encountered, these are by some measure the most complete and likely represent a good picture of much of Genesee County at these points in time.  The two that we have are the ones for 1934 and 1938.  They previously appeared on our Genesee County Collection CD-ROM, which we have discontinued.

Do have a look.  You can purchase them here on our Genesee County page.

More items from our

Abbreviations for Organizations

“What does that stand for?”

Is this a question you’ve ever asked when you see a string of letters that pretty clearly refers to an organization of some kind?   When you can’t tell from the context what KIND of organization?  A lodge?  A religious group?  A self-insurance plan? A political party?   A company?  A governmental department? Even a railroad?

If you’ve asked that question, you’ve got company.  Acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviations for organizations have been around ever since the Roman legions walked around with “SPQR” on poles (that was an initialism for Senatus Populesque Romanus, by the way).  We’ve asked that question over and over for a long time, and we decided to do something about it.

This is what we did:

Amazon_screen
This is what our new book looks like on Amazon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wrote a book — 318 pages, mostly an alphabetical listing of abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms for organizations of all kinds.  Now we’ve published it, and you can see it on Amazon.com.  (Of course, if you’re so inclined — and we hope that you are — you can also buy it there!).

So, CLICK HERE to see it on Amazon.  You might just decide that it really fills a need.