Child's Gazetteer and Business Directory of Wayne County, NY for 1867 - 68

NOW AVAILABLE!!

Click the image above to see a sample ad -- an opportunity to learn "Phonography"!

Hamilton Child's 1867-68 Gazetteer is an important book for the Wayne County historian or genealogist to own.

It is singularly important because it both provides a history of Wayne County and its towns, and it also does what the histories do not: it lists the people and it tells what they do. That it also provides the information one expects from a gazetteer -- summary information about towns, with specifics about businesses, churches, newspapers, organizations and the like -- makes it all the more necessary.

In addition to the names liberally sprinkled through the history sections, the Gazetteer offers page after page of names (and some details) of everyone in Wayne County at that time who could possibly have been considered to be "in business" -- including farmers, and for farmers it even lists the number of acres owned or under lease.

Sample page from Wayne County Gazetteer

Child's Gazetteer is also useful in developing an understanding of rural life at the time, in the years immediately following the Civil War. What Child considered important general information (it appears as boilerplate in all his gazetteers) is interesting: "maxims of law", advice on succeeding in business, formulas for mixing peculiar substances, specific information about the states and territories and their attractiveness, and a discussion of how to claim the public lands are just a few of the subjects.

Child's Gazetteer on CD-ROM is now available. As well as the full text of the Gazetteer (all 260 pages of it). Child included a fold-out map in his later gazetteers, but none is present in this early edition. One page of advertisements is also missing, although we have determined the firms that advertised on these two pages. On the other hand, we have added some additional material that was not found in the original volume, including older topographic maps of Wayne County, the Wayne County chapter from French's 1860 Gazetteer of New York State, and nearly 100 pages about public welfare institutions, state and local, in Wayne County as reported in 1906.

Those with a spiritual or historic interest in the Mormon faith will be pleased to learn that this book documents the place in New York State where that faith developed -- and at the same time can expect to be repelled at the venomous treatment Child affords the Mormon Church editorially in his section on the history of Palmyra. Be forewarned: this is not for everyone.

Click the image to see a typical page from the Wayne County Gazetteer full-sized

**WHO NEEDS THE GAZETTEER?**

If you are working on genealogy or history with a Wayne County connection, we think that you do. People who have worked in the area know that 19th century source material about Wayne County -- particularly material like this with information about large numbers of "ordinary people" -- is scarce.

We think that libraries will decide that the CD-ROM represents a good way to avoid further wear and tear on that carefully guarded original of Child's Gazetteer -- if they're fortunate enough to have one.

We know that teachers, particularly in Social Studies and History, will find it useful. Since this is a CD-ROM, the kind of AV facilities used to display PowerPoint presentations in the classroom can easily display pages of the Gazetteer -- it is in PDF format -- and the onscreen navigational aids enable you to jump from section to section, page to page, without wasting time (and class attention).

If you're simply interested in Wayne County, NY -- even as it is today -- the Gazetteer represents an inexpensive, easy to use way of learning about the county's 19th century past.

This CD-ROM is now available for $15.00 plus shipping and handling. Click "Add to shopping cart" to pay with a major credit card or PayPal.

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Wayne County, NY history

Child's Gazetteer and Business Directory of Wayne County, NY for 1867 - 68

**WHO NEEDS THE GAZETTEER?**

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