By reading this book from cover to cover, you will gain exceptional insight into Confederate resources and save yourself countless hours lost in wrong turns and dead ends. Neagles starts with a brief historical overview of the formation of the Confederacy and a chronological account of the important campaigns and historical events. He then describes how to effectively search for records, first in the Confederate states, then in the border states, and finally at the National Archives. Neagles then discusses the wealth of potential information available in publications such as military histories, unit histories, biographies, and other publications. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who wants to locate Confederate ancestors' records in archives and other repositories.
Photographs are wonderful windows into the past, evoking memories of other times and places.
The boxes, drawers, and albums full of photographs taken by our ancestors can supply us with lots of ancestral details. Unfortunately, many of our photos may be unlabeled, providing us with the challenge of identifying the subjects. One of the ways we can narrow our research range is by using clues about the photographs themselves. Karen Frisch-Ripley's book Unlocking the Secrets in Old Photographs provides an excellent guide for photographic research. She recommends studying the photographs, talking to relatives, identifying locations, and recognizing patterns of repetitive groups of the same people.