2 comments about The Vermont Encyclopedia.

1. This is a great book! It's an encyclopedia just like it says and it's a good one! I love opening it up and just flipping the pages to find something that intrigues me. If you love the history of Vermont than you'll love this book!



2. The book was perfect for browsing before my vacation. It came quickly and was in good condtion.

5 comments about The Old Leather Man: Historical Accounts of a Connecticut and New York Legend (Garnet Books).

1. Very informative and enjoyable. Brings local history alive for us. Service was excellent as usual.



2. I grew up roaming the same woods that the Leather Man shuffled through one hundred years earlier. As a young man we would visit his caves, read and tell tales of his adventures, whether embellished by us or not, his story was always fascinating. "The Old Leather Man: Historical Accounts of a Connecticut and New York Legend" is an incredible assemblage of newspaper, personal and photographic first hand documentations of this mysterious historical figure. Dan W. DeLuca's obvious years of research and passion for the subject is plainly evident in the thoroughness and completeness that he brings to this biographic accounting of an enigmatic, almost mythical person dead some 130 years. DeLuca puts to rest Victorian embellishments to this lonely man's legend and attempts in the end to construct a more truthful picture of who the Leather Man really was. Great reading for anyone interested in New England history, a closer bond with the dark forested hills and tales of silent wanderers therein who's real identity we will probably never know.



3. The Leatherman had a circuitous route from the Hudson to the Connecticut Rivers. He would show up in the same location every 35 with amazing punctuality. The book is rich with old photographs, period street map and newspaper clippings. It needs a detailed map showing his route and camping sites.



4. Great collection of information on Old Leather Man... agreed it should have a detailed map of the route, outling camps, etc.



5. As a small child, my father used to take me on hikes to the "leather man's caves". For a long time I thought the leather man was just something that he made up to play around with me, so I was totally psyched to find this book. It's an amazing collection of information about one of history's most unique individuals. If you're into this type of thing at all, check this book out!
   
   The only bummer is that there's no complete map detailing the leather man's route.

5 comments about Lenten Lands: My Childhood With Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis.

1. In the preface Greshman makes it clear that the book is his story about his life. No doubt the publisher thought it necessary to throw "My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis" on the cover because this is the reason why we care about Douglas Greshman.
   
   Most of the book is about his early life and there is much on his mother Joy and Lewis. I found the parts that had nothing to do with Joy and Lewis to be enjoyable too. Gresham is a very good writer and you get a feel for what it was like to grow up in England in the 1950's.
   
   Only the last few chapters deal with his life after the death of Lewis. But in some ways, this is an important part of the Lewis story. Why you ask? Because we see how little Gresham, Lewis' stepson, benefited from being his stepson. Greshman was dirt poor and barely getting by. What happened to Lewis' money? Why were Lewis' two stepsons not in his will?
   
   Whatever one thinks about the book overall, it is an essential piece of C.S. Lewis history. Greshman saw Lewis up close and personal. He gives insights that few others can. Even if he did not live with Lewis all the time (he was at boarding school), he still lived with Lewis some of the time, and this is more than most. His memories are invaluable.



2. This is one of those books I think any authentic admirer of C.S.Lewis should read because Douglas H. Gresham writes so empathetically as well as objectively of his Mother Joy and his step father 'Jack' Lewis. Seeing these two people thru his eyes from childhood to young adulthood is fascinating. Be it the feel of his Mothers embrace that made him feel safe, to how mature his view was of his father who had problems with alcohol. Where some people would have been harsh or mean in how they saw such a parent Douglas was able to see beyond the issue of alcohol to something deeper.
   
   Reading of his first impressions of C. S. Lewis and his brother Warnie again shows reality vs visions one has in their heads of things and people not yet seen. From the cigarette stained teeth to the evening visits to the local pub, Douglas bring a sense of humanness to the great author. And his descriptions of the places he/they lived are so real one feels as if they are a fly on the wall.
   
   The thing that makes me appreciate Douglas so much is how the lessons he saw and was taught have taken root in his life . He now lives in Ireland and is active in walk the community helping women with unwanted pregnancies.
   
   So the nasty comment by reviewer Kona (Emerald City) 'The problem with this book is that Douglas Gresham did nothing in his own life to warrant an autobiography' makes me wonder just how much of the book did they actually read, since having taken the priceless lessons that the great C.S.Lewis wrote and taught and putting them to day to day use, makes Douglas well worthy of being an author. The title is after all 'Lenten Lands: My Childhood with Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis'.



3. If, as one reviewer states, you are an ardent fan of C.S. Lewis, you will want to read this book. The opposite is true, too. If you are not particularly interested in C. S. Lewis, this is a forgettable book, not very interesting. I am not particularly interested in C.S. Lewis, I'm not going to see "Narnia," I never read the Narnia books as a kid. I wanted to read this because I saw "Shadowlands" and wanted to know what happened to the little boy after his mother died.
   
   What stands out the most is Gresham's writing style: rather like that of the people who send anecdotes to Reader's Digest. It's clear enough, rather rambling, rather predictable imagery, lots of repetition. Not very interesting. I didn't even finish reading it.
   
   So, my recommendation, if you're not a fan of C. S. Lewis, is to skip this book, and watch "Shadlowlands" when it comes on television again - it is beautiful and stands on its own.



4. Gresham's Lenten Lands provides a private picture into live with C. S. Lewis.
   I envy Douglas for having the privilege of living with Lewis as together they traveled the "Lenten Lands!"
   I'm impressed with the amount of time that passed before Douglas finally internalized the both the Truth and the truths taught and role modeled by his step-father.
   But isn't that true of so many of us today, searching for Truth, but always testing that it's real!



5. This book adds to any C.S. Lewis collection. Anyone trying to undertsand better Lewis' life and works will gain some value from this book, but in addition, the book adds value to understanding Joy Davidman, herself a remarkable person and Doug himself. One reviewer is somemwhat upset about the book because the author writes mostly about himself, yes, it is subtitled "My Childhood...".
   
   Doug Gresham is remarkably candid about himself (he directs most criticism at himself, well and the Millers). He is also very forgiving towards his father, which I found instructive for all of us. His insights into Lewis' chairity (both in time and money) and Christian heart are an addition to what a Lewis admirer might already know, but it helps add to the Lewis icon. I do wish he had a wrote more on his brother, but it may be he is keeping in with his brother's wishes (it is well known that David has avoided the Lewis/Davidman limelight).
   
   This is a good book, at a great price, and it is a quick, nicely paced read.

1 comments about Beacon Hill: The Life and Times of a Neighborhood.

1. A great book from the pictures to the well-written text. A nice glimpse at how Beacon Hill has evolved and thrived since its origin. Written with feeling and flows like a novel!

3 comments about A Rabble in Arms: Massachusetts Towns and Militiamen during King Philip's War (Warfare and Culture).

1. Zelner's text proves that the old values of social history, combined with new perspectives on war and society, can produce important new additions to the historical landscape. The impressive leg-work that must have gone into the production of this book certainly pay off in its results. The assumption of the democratic status of the early American militia, and society more generally, is proven false. The society Zelner portrays is far more complex; at times petty, at times genuinely conflicted, the tragedy of war and the choices it forces communities to make are vividly described. This book would be a welcome addition to any historian of war and society, early America, or social history. Zelner should be particularly applauded for his contextualization of the American experience in its English (and colonial) context. An impressive display of scholarship in a genuinely readable format.



2. Names, Places, in our history. If you have family from Massachusetts or delight in learning about this countries early history in a personal way, this is the book for you!



3. A RABBLE IN ARMS: MASSACHUSETTS TOWNS AND MILITIAMEN DURING KING PHILIP'S WAR
   Kyle F. Zelner
   New York University Press, 2009
   Hardcover, $50.00, 325 Pages, Illustrations, Maps, Appendices, Tables, Bibliography, Notes
   
   
   The militia in the English colonies evolved from the ancient Anglo-Saxon fyrd, which was based on the obligation of every member of society to participate in the common defense. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the military responsibilities of the militia, as the Latinized fyrd was called, gradually dwindled as medieval monarchs relied more and more on mercenaries and a hereditary warrior class to fight their wars. By 1600, the English militia was essentially moribund. Only a fraction of the middle and upper classes were enrolled; training was infrequent and ineffective; and weapons were scarce and often obsolete. The peculiar nature of the English colonial experience in North America led to a revival of the militia in the New World. Because the early English colonies were under-capitalized commercial enterprises rather than government projects, the colonists couldn't rely on royal military forces or expensive mercenaries for protection. As no one else would defend them, they had to defend themselves. The initial landing parties in Chesapeake Bay and New England usually included veterans of the wars in Ireland or the Netherlands, such as John Smith and Miles Standish. Their responsibility was to train the rest of the colonists in the military arts and provide military leadership in times of crisis. As the years passed and the early colonies became established, these ad hoc military arrangements were formalized by law and custom into English-style militias. The early settlements at Jamestown, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay weren't products of cross-Atlantic military assaults on hostile New World beachheads, but colonizing efforts by civilians for whom a professional military was anathema. Thus, as civilian-colonists whose only thoughts were of self-protection, their fundamental military organization was simple, defensive in nature, and based on the long-held English tradition of a citizen-soldiery, or militia. Militia represented a classical (and biblical) tradition of free people dropping scythes and shouldering weapons to defend hearth and home against invaders; then, the battle won, of returning to resume cutting hay. For a people with neither resources nor inclination-based on both religious and secular philosophical convictions-to maintain full-time defenders, a community-based militia wholly made up of citizen-soldiers dovetailed prefectly with their basic credos. Initially, militia service was universal. Varying slightly from colony to colony, every able-bodied male from 16 to 60 (which sometimes included slaves and indentured servants) was expected to keep and maintain a firearm and sufficient ammunition, and to willingly appear for regularly schedule drill. In a new book, A RABBLE IN ARMS: MASSACHUSETTS TOWNS AND MILITIAMEN DURING KING PHILIP'S WAR, author Kyle F. Zelner provides an insightful portrayal of Massachusetts soldiery in one of the most important but overlooked wars in this nation's history-King Philip's War. Drawing on muster and pay lists as well as numerous historical records, Zelner demonstrates that Essex County's more upstanding citizens, such as yeoman farmers, church members, and family heads, were often spared from impressments, while the "rabble"-criminals, drunkards, the poor-were forced to join active fighting u8nits, with town militia committees selecting soldiers who would be least missed should they die in action. He carefully peels away myths that have been reinforced so strongly through the mediums of popular culture (literature, movies, and television) that fact and fiction have blurred, but the reality was quite different. Zelner's book is a welcome addition to the literature of pre-Revolutionary War America.
   
   
   Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
   Orlando, Florida

5 comments about Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950.

1. If you'd like to wander down memory lane looking at photographs of businesses, mostly shops and restaurants, that the author enjoyed, this is the book for you. There's some mention and pictures of various new commercial buildings going up. But the book repeatedly covers the same places, like the Hong Kong Restaurant, while never mentioning Underdog, Goods, or Ta Tien. I appreciated learning that an eccentric widow owned most of the commercial buildings and rented them out very cheaply so that all those charming and marginal businesses could flourish. After she died the rents went up, those businesses died or moved away from the square, and national chains came in.
   
   There is material about the folk movement (based around the venues), the 60s riots (banks and stores were damaged), the building of the new T station and extension, and a couple of the buskers. I was expecting something else, a real history of the square, with architecture, facts, etc. based on the title. Endless slightly different photos of the same streetscapes a few years apart got a bit old, I could tell that the author put a LOT of work into finding photos, researching when certain stores opened, closed, and finding information about their owners, but there's just too much missing. If you're looking for a more general history of the Square you may also be a little disappointed.



2. Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950 offers an oversized, visual journey through one of this country's must influential public places, offering a decade-by-decade account of the events and people of Harvard Square. It will earn its place in any library strong in regional American or Massachusetts history, featuring fine photos and interviews with over a hundred of the people who influenced the square's history and development.



3. Hi:
   Excellent book. Brought back many memories of my working and socializing in Harvard Square from the 60's on. It was about time something like this was published. Great pictures!!!!



4. If you've ever spent any time in Harvard Square, the heart of Cambridge, this is a treasure of a book. It is well organized, with interesting commentary on what was happening when, as well as terrific photos of Harvard Square as it changed over the years. This book has provided many hours of nostalgic wandering down memory lane.



5. I would stop at Harvard Coop and look through this book but could never see spending the money. I finally used the bonus money from my Amazon credit card to purchase it from Amazon. It doesn't cover EVERY store or business that you might remember but oh so many! So many stores and restaurants that have come and gone. This would really be a great gift for some 60 year old who was a student in Boston/Cambridge or one, like me, who grew up in that area and would take trips into the Square for the shopping or the museums. Oh, to have a Bailey's sundae again or look for fun things at Truc or have an apple beer at the Wursthaus or or ... it's all here. A wonderful book, full of photos and memories. You'll be saying "I remember THAT!" as you turn the pages.

2 comments about Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors.

1. For close to 10 years I have been researching a great-great-great-great-grandfather. And another g-g-g-g-grandfather on the maternal side for close to 8 years -- and for the FIRST time in a LONG time, I actually have a plan of action!!!! Chapter Two is titled "Finding Information on Your Colonial Ancestors". Two sentences and the action item list starts -- 9 things to do. Now some of them I've seen in various forms but not THIS concise and straight forward.
   
   Chapter One has info on the colonial calendar. For genealogical research, one looks for dates -- we LOVE dates. Well let's just say that George Washington was born on Feb 11 AND on Feb 22!!! And she explains how and why! And you understand it immediately! Which may explain why you have two birth dates for some early ancestor.
   
   How to research colonial records - the very first bullet I'm sure I've read before. Probably many times but clearly states to not research your ancestor but to research the ***jurisdictions*** and records. Well, duh! Makes sense but I'm totally guilty of what she said NOT to do.
   
   Well sourced, tons of references -- this was published in 2006. I'm delighted I ordered this book -- I haven't even read it in any detail yet and absolutely KNOW it is going to be one that I reference again and again.



2. This is an excellent resource for those who are researching the genealogy of their Colonial New England ancestors, where to look for information, how to interpret information given the different circumstances of Colonial New England, and what to look out for in terms of bad or incomplete information. Very comprehensive in its scope. Be aware that I am an amateur at Colonial research; more experienced researchers may already be aware of the advice and resources available in this book.

4 comments about Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700. Lineages from Afred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert ... other Historical Individuals. Eighth Edition.

1. This book has an extreme amount of valuable information contained in it, but for the novice researcher, you may want to wait on this one. There's no plot to this book, simply titles, dates & places of birth/death, spouses and parents. Occasionally you'll get tidbits like 'participant in War of 1066' or 'Sheriff of Berkley Castle'.



2. Just cut to the chase. This book is in its 8th edition due to the devotion of Weis and his colleagues who carry on his life work. Do NOT spend hundreds of dollars buying research that the geneologist gathers from free online sources. FIRST, if you have ancestors from Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Conneticutt and Virginia you very probably are descended from or cousin to many lines documented from about 350 A.D. Gallo Roman period right through to the Pilgrims, Puritans, etc. Why? Because as Nathaniel Philbrook states in his book, 'Mayflower,' 35 million AMericans are descended from the 52 survivors of the first winter in Plymouth. Why are they related to uddles of British and continental nobles? Because the some 2,000 Norman families who ruled England married the rest of Europes nobles and by 1600 they had grown to 20,000 and had more spare children than Davey Crooket has money. The spares took up Puritism and or wanted to flip properties in the new world. SECOND, load up a good family tree software program (about $30.00)... Spent 2 years entering...



3. For anyone who has a link from New England to England of any of the colonists listed at the beginning of the book, this is an essential book. The eighth edition is the best of the editions. The amount of research it took to gather all the information is amazing. It is great to see that more recent researchers are carrying on in the tradition of Frederick Lewis Weis. I bought it new on amazon.com, and have used it extensively. It has post-it notes sticking out of half the pages, since I seem to end up looking at just about every other page. The resources given are excellent, and I'm glad they have given plenty of resources for each entry. If I want more information, I know where to go.



4. First published in 1950, Weis improves with each new edition. There's hardly a noble family in Europe west of the Dnieper River that does not appear in this book. The plan is straightforward: Line 1 (of nearly 400) begins with Cerdic, King of the West Saxons, and follows his descendants, step by step, down to Capt. Edward Pelham of Newport, Rhode Island, who died in 1730. Most of the intermediate generations refer the reader to another line, and another descent (or several); in this first one, No. 30 is John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who becomes the root of another, different lineage. No. 14 is Ethelwulf, King of Wessex, who is the root of the next lineage (revised for this edition), and so on. The whole book becomes a cascade of the lineages of a relatively small number of colonial American "gateway" ancestors, most of whom interconnect among themselves by marriage -- usually several times. Each brief listing (this is not a narrative history) includes page-level citations to well-regarded sources, including published histories, journal articles, parish registers, the _Complete Peerage,_ and others. Which means that if one can work one's way back to one of the colonial gentlemen or ladies who anchor the lines in this work, one instantly steps onto the express highway to medieval Europe.
   
   Dr. Weis died in 1966 and Sheppard, himself a renowned genealogist, undertook (successfully) to maintain his high standards, until his own death in 2000; the 4th through 7th editions were the result of his own editorial labors, after which the Bealls (who had been assisting Sheppard) took up the mission. Re-checking and verifying all the previously published lines against both the original sources and newer ones, they were able to extensively revise and extend more than ninety of them, add sixty entirely new descents (mostly Continental), and delete a dozen or so that had failed of sufficient proof. This edition is 100 pages longer than even the one just previous. This is a very inexpensive work indeed, especially compared to many of the other titles on this list, and it should be on *every* genealogist's bookshelf.

4 comments about The Genealogist's Internet: New and Expanded.

1. I borrowed the second edition from the local library and have decided to buy the third edition. While the reviews of software and how to set up a website can become a little dated, you only need get one or two good ideas out of a book like this to make it more than worth the cost.



2. The Internet is perhaps the greatest innovation in the past hundred years for the amateur or professional genealogist. "The Genealogist's Internet" is an updated and expanded fourth edition of this acclaimed reference for the genealogist who embraces the internet as an invaluable tool. Outlining major resources to look for, joining discussion groups to aid one's search, sifting through general information, and more, "The Genealogist's Internet" is a must have reference for those who want to use the internet to its fullest.



3. It gives great resourses for the internet. Glad to have the book. Would recomend it to others



4. Easy to read. great references. full of information for those interested in researching ancestors overseas by computer.

3 comments about Plymouth Colony: Its History and People.

1. In doing research on my own ancestor who was a passanger on the Mayflower and one of the original Pilgrims, I have used over 50 books. This one is by far the best. Very readable, this book provides an excellent narative of many of the events of the first 70 years at Plymouth, and detailed descriptions of many of the Pilgrims. For anyone interested in this era, this book is a must.



2. There are hundreds of books out there about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving and all that goes with the subject. But the majority of these books are written either in a stodgy, encyclopedic (read: Boring!) format, or they are written for children. Well, now I have one that is actually written for adults, as well as in an easy to read manner. Written mainly from a genealogical stance, the author, Eugene Aubrey Stratton, did his "putting flesh on the bones" research; that is, he sought out how the pilgrims lived their daily lives in all aspects of their time and place. Instead of the cartoonish figures we all see come November, Mr. Stratton actually gives an authentic look to these early Americans. He makes the reader feel that they now know the pilgrims, not only through their historical prominence in our early history, but by name, and we feel their hardships, especially of their first winter here. After the first time reading this book, I re-read it, only this time I read the 'Biographical Sketches' section, located toward the back of the book, first, THEN I went to the beginning. My advice to the first time reader is to do the same. You will then know who you are reading about as names are mentioned.
   This book is, simply put, the best of its kind. Maybe more genealogists should write our history books! At least they bring history to life!



3. My husband & I are both descended from The Mayflower - He from William Brewster & Stephen Hopkins and I from William Bradford. This book has added so much information for our Genealogy. I cannot tell you how many times I have used it to add information to our family history file. It has many years of use.