LESSON NINE
THE VALUE OF GENEALOGICAL & HISTORICAL PERIODICALS

This Lesson will cover:

• The awesome contents of genealogical periodicals
• The Periodical Series Index (PERSI)
• How to cite periodical sources
• Comparing different citation formats

When presented with a pile of current and older genealogical periodicals to study for their content, most beginning genealogists are surprised and delighted to find so much within the small pages. One genealogists remarked that for several years she worked on a state-wide genealogical periodical and was asked to read approximately 150 periodicals a month in order to pull out events for their state-wide calendar and events series. During that time, she came to recognize some outstanding examples of education through periodical literature.

As introduced in the Chapter reading for this lesson, the Periodical Series Index, or PERSI, is a subject index to genealogical and local history periodicals that have been produced in the United States since the 1800s. Periodicals are identified as publications produced regularly as part of a series--magazines, newsletters, journals, etc. Every year since the early 1800s a great amount of genealogical records and how-to information has been published in thousands of periodicals. PERSI is an index to this material but it does not include every surname or locality in every publication, but it does index major articles. Therefore, you must use different techniques to find its secrets.

PERSI can be found in at least three formats:

1. published printed indexes are available in book form;
2. additional information has been added to a microfiche collection; and
3. and the latest computerized version is available through ProQuest-Hertiage Quest available at many public, univerity, and college libraries. (See more information on this below.)

There are some limitations to the PERSI index:

1. Your ancestor will most likely not be listed by his/her name. It is best to search these subject topics:
   Biographies
   Cemeteries
   Census
   Church
   Court Records
   Deeds
   Directories
   History
   Institutions
   Land
   Maps
   Military
   Naturalization
   Obituaries
   Other
   Passenger Lists
   School Records
   Tax Lists
   Vital Records
   Voter Lists
   Wills
2. You will need to know the location of the ancestor when a certain event occurred in order to take best advantage of the index, and then use the subject topics listed above.
3. The actual periodicals are not as yet linked to the index, so you must request copies of the periodical pages from Allen County Public Library unless a copy of that periodical is found in the local Family History Center. Use the form at this link http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/database/graphics/order_form.html

There are hundreds of bound periodicals in libraries and some Family History Centers throughout the country. There are also hundreds of periodicals at state libraries such as the Sutro Library in San Francisco. And there are thousands in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

The Allen County Public Library has the back issues of all periodicals indexed in PERSI since they are the originators for the PERSI index. You may contact the library for copies of the articles at the following address, but to order copies of specific publications it is easier to use the form cited above.

Historical Genealogy Department
Research Center
Allen County Public Library
P.O. Box 2270
Ft. Wayne, IN 46801-2270

In June of 2003, ProQuest announced that it had acquired exclusive rights to the PERSI index from the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. “We intend to include the PERSI index in the HeritageQuest Online product (which is sold to libraries on an annual subscription basis) as well as continue to publish the database both online and on CD-ROM to individuals. Ancestry.com has been offering the PERSI index as part of it's consumer web site for the last several years and we are working with the folks at Ancestry.com so that this access may continue.”

“Moreover, ProQuest has developed some expertise over the last several years in delivering full-text periodical indexes online. These products have been created for fields of study such as medicine, business, social science, and general reference. We hope to create such a product for genealogy that expands on the excellent work done by Allen County in compiling and indexing articles in PERSI. It would grant researchers online access to actual articles. . . Most importantly, we intend to create this product in full cooperation with genealogical societies and publishers. We have sought quite a bit of input from several groups already and are even now fine-tuning the program so that everyone will benefit from the increased use this periodical content would receive. Any publisher's participation in the PERSI Full-Text project would be voluntary.”