Table of Contents
Searching Tips
Quick Find
- If you know the book you are after, you can search by Title, Author, ISBN, or Item #. Author Search is by Last Name only.
- Title Search will search from even a few letters. Since this field needs an exact match, start with only a word or two.
- ISBN Search will work with the last 5 digits or the full ISBN, no dashes.
Narrow Your Options
If you aren’t looking for a particular book, for best results:
- Begin your search with a Region or a Subject
- Narrow your search by Time Period.
- If you’re looking for a guide or how-to book, under Time Period choose Current.
Reading our eBooks
If you are having problems opening and reading one of our eBooks, this is for you. We’ll cover the basics here. This may go a bit long, so bear with us.
Most of our eBooks are ePubs. That format requires a particular type of reader. Unlike pdf files, ePub files cannot be read by the simple Adobe reader. If your confirmation shows a file extension (ePub) your first task is to find and install a reader that can read the ePub format. There are a number of free readers available for both computers and iPads. On the web you’ll find lots of these readers. Here is a link to an article that has links for some of those readers: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-an-epub-file-2621084 For free readers, I prefer the Adobe Digital Editions software for reading, searching, etc. The #1 recommendation in the article is Calibre. I do use Calibre for converting formats but I’m not a fan of using it as a reader.
Your next step involves the download of the file. Not all browsers work the same way when downloading a file so you want to be sure you have access to your book in a download folder.
[Note for Mac users: in this piece we are not referring to the Downloads folder on your Safari browser.]
On a PC, find the file and right click on the file. In the window that opens, find the “Open with” line and using the arrow on the right, choose the reader you installed. If your computer does not show your new reader as an option, the easiest way to get to your book is to open the reader and use the built in tool to find and open a new file.
Mac users will follow a similar path, only using Control click and Get Info.
For an iPad, the process is similar, meaning you need to have a reader that works with ePubs. Once that is installed, you can use your iTunes library to get the file from your computer.
We do hope this gives you enough detail. Let us know if you have questions. And if you used your 5 downloads before reading this, send an email to website@genealogical.com and we’ll take care of that, too.
Existing Account Holders
Not finding your account?
Bonanza Users:
We have moved our eBook library to a new subscription site that offers a far better experience, with tools for taking notes, creating bookmarks, and doing global searching of the entire collection. On the new site you will find a number of new titles along with a group of titles we’ve been offering in pdf that we were not able to load to the old site. It’s our hope that the new tools will have you using the books a lot more.
For details, go to https://genealogical.com/subscriptions/sitemove/
We apologize for the inconvenience and we’ll do our best to make it up to you with new tools and new content.
Subscription Access and Use
After the purchase, when you want to go to the eBooks, login to:
https://genealogical.vitalsource.
Use the email address that you use on our book site.
The site has a number of videos and tips available from the Help option in your Account Settings.
As we continue to learn what our customers want, we’ll look for changes and improvements. Let us know if you have any other questions or suggestions about the site.
