The Family Tree Problem Solver: Proven Methods for Scaling the Inevitable Brick Wall

This book is a cut above many popular genealogy "how to" books.

I'm really picky about genealogy books, and this one is excellent. Most books don't discuss carefully evaluating evidence and really thinking through problems associated with conflicting information, burned counties, brick walls etc. The "thinking" in this book and the examples of alternative sources one may not be familiar with are what is outstanding. In addition, Ms. Rising's examples are clear, easy to follow and informative, and there are many of them. Her research methods are applicable to ANY time period you are working in. I disagree with another reviewer who complained that this book won't help someone with "late" immigrant ancestors.

I'm an experienced genealogist and a trained researcher who has been working for 25 years on my family lines. The land chapter, in particular, and the chapter on working in the years between the Revolutionary War and 1850, gave me several directions to go in knocking down some brick walls.

Beginners as well as experienced researchers will benefit from this book. What will help doing genealogy research most of all is knowing how to evaluate what you have and how to recognize what else you need. This book does much more!

As a genealogy reference or guide I found this book to be a dud.

It has almost the worst Index I have ever seen. Sources that are mentioned in the text are not in the index nor clearly explained.

As an example the source I know as the "Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature" was mentioned, more than once, under an odd acronym and I did not find any explanation or comment on the acronym or the different title.

This book is excellent to assist the serious genealogist. It requires some dedication to follow through the suggestions but if you do, you will learn a lot. Unfortunately, for all my dedication, I still have not uncovered my paternal grandfather's secrets. But I have not finished traveling all the paths the book suggests. Some I have, some are still waiting. I would recommend the book to give you a serious and straight forward path to follow rather than randomly searching.

I am sure that this book will prove very useful in my genealogy research. It is easy to follow with good examples.

This book is full of info to help you know the next step in trying to find a relative through non traditional methods. I originally got the book at the library, and I found I needed to buy the book - so I could highlight and mark it for future reference. Great resource!