PERSI as a Finding Aid for a Genealogical Literature Search

The search for genealogical sources can be a series of Sunday drives through country roads. Meandering here and there may be scenic or annoying when stuck in the mud of an old road.

Planning the research with a map and a trip diary gives better odds for preferred scenery, avoiding the costly ruts.


Genealogical maps are not limited to geographic topology, government or religious jurisdictions, newspaper coverage or neighborhoods of the historic time period.There is also the evolutionary map of which sources still exist in what form and with what access. Methodically collecting potential sources, prioritizing what may be most helpful and keeping track of the results helps refine the goals and expedite the process.

That doesn't preclude taking some impromptu Sunday drives. Finding Aids for genealogical research can still be found outside the beaten path.

It's just that starting with a scatter gun approach is less productive than beginning with a map of traditional resources like PERSI.

Who/What is PERSI? The PERiodical Source Index. Kimberly Powell gives a nice overview on About.com.


Note that PERSI provides an index to millions of genealogical and historical articles. Though primarily for genealogy articles in English speaking countries, the coverage spans two centuries of articles and even earlier families.

PERSI is a project maintained by The Allen County Public Library. Any PERSI article may be ordered for a nominal fee.  PERSI charges $7.50 per order of up to 6 article requests and just 20 cents per page.

A Wish List style bibliography from Finding Aids like PERSI can be honed by process of elimination with  information from other Finding Aids.

The PERSI index and search depth has limitations. It pays to explore other Finding Aids to zero in on what resources are most likely to produce results.


Negative results are important to document at any stage.

For example, if I use the Heritage Quest library version of PERSI to search on just the surname Barrett, I get 486 results.

I am specifically interested in the Barretts of Bedford, New York. When I add Bedford to the search key word criteria, I get no results.

If I change the Bedford criteria to Westchester (Bedford's county), I get one article:
Title of Article:        Barrett family, Westchester co., NY
Periodical:        Pioneer Heritance Larchmont, NY: Winter 1969. Vol. 6, Iss. 2

If I change the key word criteria to New York, I get 4 results:
1.              D. M. Barrett-M. J. Ollis marriage note, m. 1882, SC
York County Genealogical and Historical Society Quarterly. Rock Hill SC: Sep 2005. Vol. 17 Iss. 2
2.              Putnam-Barrett-Streeter mystery, NY
Genealogical Journal of Jefferson County, New York. Boise ID: Mar 1993. Vol. 5 Iss. 1
3.              Joseph Bradford Barrett family, NY
Early Settlers of New York State-Their Ancestors and Descendants. Akron NY: Oct 1939. Vol. 6 Iss. 4
4.              Stephen Barrett tombstone, 1832, NY
New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York NY: Oct 1871. Vol. 2 Iss. 4

PERSI searches do not provide results for the Barrett surname when NY is used as a keyword, even though the above article titles include the NY abbreviation.

New York abstracts and family tradition placed the original Barrett immigrant in both Connecticut and Yonkers, New York before a 1686 Bedford, New York land reference. Neither CT nor Yonkers as a keyword  yields any results, yet one result does come up with the keyword Connecticut that includes CT in the title.

1.

Moses Barrett married Mary Dow, CT Connecticut Nutmegger. Glastonbury CT: Sep 1987. Vol. 20 Iss. 2

Apparently the periodical name is indexed but the article title is not completely indexed even in its abbreviated form. Be forewarned about such PERSI indexing and search limitations.


Meanwhile, as a result of a ruminating Sunday drive with Barbara Mathews, The Demanding Genealogist - I was warned that my questions about the purported European origin of the Barretts of Bedford, New York quacked like a Gustave Anjou duck! I found no listing of the Barretts in known Anjou forgeries. I did not find a Barrett genealogy for the family in question in the Family History Library catalog.

What I did find in the Bedford Barrett family archives was a note about Anjou as the author of a Barrett genealogy and then voila! The previously undiscovered Anjou fraud in a bound typescript.

OK, so the Bedford Barrett suspect European origins are an Anjou forgery. Now what?

Barrett searches with Bedford, Westchester, New York and Connecticut had not yielded much in the PERSI article index.

Using a google search, I found a 2003 Leslie Mahler, FASG article in the American Genealogist (TAG)  regarding the purported original immigrant Samuel Barrett in Connecticut and New York - but only because TAG has an online index of articles since 2002.

The abbreviated title in PERSI is not indexed for searching on the New York and Connecticut connections or the NY and CT abbreviations in the title:
Title of Article        English relatives of Samuel Barrett and his sister Hannah Barrett Jenner Coe, 1600s, NY, CT; Eng.
Periodical:        American Genealogist Demorest, GA: Jan 2003. Vol. 78, Iss. 1

Note also that PERSI does not index the author. Leslie Mahler has written many articles about English wills that reference American colonists.

While PERSI has limitations it can be augmented by other Finding Aids to help us build a map of potential sources and pathways to sources. We have to be creative to use these Finding Aids effectively.


If Dr. Suess and P. D. Eastman were genealogists, we might have ditties like "How Gustave Anjou Forged My Ancestors,"  "The Till in the Will," "One Source, Two Source, Red Source, Blue Source," or "Are You My Tenth Great Grandfather?"