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From the waning years of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th, thousands of mugbooks were published in the U.S. The term “mugbook” refers to a single- or multi-volume collection of genealogies/biographies of accomplished individuals from a particular city, county, state, or region. Each essay is usually accompanied by a photograph of its principal subject, hence the term “mugbook.” Mugbooks differ from local histories in that they are generally unconcerned with political, social, or institutional history–except as those subjects had a place in the personal essays.

The creation of a mugbook was usually a subscription affair; in other words, the central figure of each sketch agreed to pay for the privilege of being included in the volume and, in turn, received a copy of the published work. The book’s publisher assigned an editor to the project (often a respected genealogist from the area), whose job it was to compile/edit the essays, many of which the subjects had submitted themselves.

By the end of World War I, publishers had released hundreds, and possibly thousands, of mugbooks, many of them from the local history publisher, Lewis Publishing Company (now defunct). Most, but not all, mugbooks are collections of family histories, containing an enormous number of potential clues for researchers. One must proceed cautiously, however, because the genealogies have some age on them and because the submissions sometimes went unchecked.

While the majority of mugbooks are no longer in print–which means you need to find a library or used/rare book dealer to use them–we have reprinted a number of the most sought-after mugbooks within this vast literature.