‘Mug books’ were part of an explosion of genealogical publication that happened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Veterans and civilians of the Civil War were aging; the generation was dying, which had heard the stories of the Revolution and the founding of our nation from those who had lived it. Our ancestors wanted to feel connected to their past and to connect that past to the larger political and cultural landscape of the nation that America had be- come.
The result of this drive for connection was the development of American genealogical studies among wealthy hobbyists, research into and publication of tracts on local history and the biographies of local luminaries, and the foundation of many genealogy organizations and lineage societies. The majority of these works, published before 1923, are out of copyright and can be found in their entirety, free online, for well-informed researchers.
The organizations that carry these works are mostly non-profits and government institutions, but the single largest purveyor of digitized books is a commercial corporation. While the Library of Congress, Family Search, and the Internet Archive have sizable collections, Google Books has outdone them all…….
If you are interested in checking out the rest of this article by our editor Erica Halsey, MLIS, CPL and the other great topics all you have to do is become a member of the Butler County Genealogical Society. With your membership you will receive our quarterly newsletter “Pathways” and access to our growing members only section of our website.