Earlier you were introduced to the thousands of family histories to be found in books, journals, and other printed publications. But these publications can be essential for their guidance as well. From them you can learn about new or unusual record sources, less-used repositories, and current genealogical standards.

Books

One such fundamental book for genealogists is The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, third edition (Ancestry Publishing, 2006) by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, which covers genealogical record types in great detail. This is a book that genealogists turn to again and again as they encounter new records or research situations. The second edition of The Source is also available online as a searchable database (www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3259) for subscribers to Ancestry.com. Other very useful books in the same general category include Val Greenwood's The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, third edition (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2000), The Handybook for Genealogists, eleventh edition (Everton Publishing, 2006), and Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources, third revised edition, edited by Alice Eichholz, PhD (Ancestry Publishing, 2004). The latter is also searchable as an online database (www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3249) at Ancestry.com. These books are such standards in the field that you'll generally find them at any library with a genealogy section.

Just about every professional genealogist subscribes to, or reads on a regular basis, one or more genealogical journals. These quality scholarly publications typically contain case studies, compiled genealogies, articles on new research methodologies, critical reviews of current books and software, and previously unpublished source materials. Some of the most widely read genealogical journals are the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (www.ngsgenealogy.org), the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (www.newenglandancestors.org), and The American Genealogist (www.americangenealogist.com). There are dozens of other excellent journals published by ethnic, state, and local societies. Subscriptions to these journals may be either part of or independent of a membership in the society. As an alternative to the traditional published journals, the Annals of Genealogical Research (www.genlit.org) offers an online forum for genealogists to publish compiled genealogies, case studies, and other scholarly genealogical articles with the same high standards as found in the published journals. Only a few articles are published here each year, but it's free.

Magazines

Popular genealogy magazines publish articles of more general interest, discussing record types, websites, new online databases, software, and upcoming genealogical events. For Internet genealogy, the aptly named Internet Genealogy magazine (www.internet-genealogy.com) focuses entirely on researching your family tree online. Other popular print genealogy magazines include Family Tree Magazine (www.familytreemagazine.com) and Family Chronicle (www.familychronicle.com). The very popular Ancestry Magazine ceased publication in 2010, but sixteen years of back issues can be viewed for free in Google Books (http://books.google.com/books/serial/FTgEAAAAMBAJ), and individual articles from the last few years of publication can be read online at AncestryMagazine.com. An interesting digital option is the weekly Case File Clues (www.casefileclues.com) by Michael John Neill, available by e-mail subscription.

Blogs

There are a lot of great genealogy blogs to choose from, and it's hard to select just a few to bring to your attention. Just about all genealogists have Dick Eastman's blog, Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com), on their blogroll. He's the one that genealogists expect to keep them up-to-date with the latest and greatest in genealogy tools, software, and online resources of interest to family historians. Leland Meitzler at Genealogy Blog (www.genealogyblog.com) also does a great job, commenting on news, current events, new websites and databases, and other items of interest to genealogists. DearMYRTLE (http://blog.dearmyrtle.com), also known as Pat Richley, has a popular genealogy blog that continually informs and always makes me smile. Genea-Musings (http://randysmusings.blogspot.com), by Randy Seaver, is a pleasure to read because he updates almost daily, blogs on a wide variety of topics, and lets his passion for genealogy really shine through in his writing. Jasia will unleash your creative side with the thoughtful and inspiring posts on her Creative Genealogy blog (http://creativegenealogy.blogspot.com). You can find links to hundreds of other excellent genealogy blogs through Chris Dunham's Blog Finder (http://blogfinder.genealogue.com) and the Genealogy Blog Listing at Thomas MacEntee's GeneaBloggers (www.geneabloggers.com). There is definitely a lot of informative family history-inspired writing going on out there in genealogy cyberspace, so go explore.