Wednesday, June 11, 2008

New Index to "Phelps Family in America" Available

Well-known to many Phelps family researchers is the two-volume book, The Phelps Family of America and Their English Ancestors, by Judge Oliver Seymour Phelps and Andrew T. Servin, originally published in 1899. While the book was published with an index standard for its time, the index is largely restricted to male surnames and is of limited use to many researchers. Margaret Phelps Swanson has developed an updated index and other comments to the 1899 book. She and Nancy J. Pennington took it upon themselves to re-index the two volumes totaling 1869 pages. This new publication, including over 250 pages of new index entries, is the result of their work. It includes geographic place names for nearly every entry along with the maiden names (when known) of all female spouses. A work in progress, I've collaborated with Margaret to make an interim version available to Phelps family researchers as an Acrobat file. This newly expanded index is now available from the site Phelps Family in America.