Added – Genealogy eBooks through Amazon’s Kindle

Just a few minutes ago, I finished adding another page to the site, this one is a new page (I’m still behind on updating some of the old pages), and it covers a topic that I’ve been very interested in lately – genealogy-related eBooks. Specifically it covers genealogy ebooks through Amazon’s Kindle – it’s only covering eBooks you can download for Amazon’s Kindle platform – the actual Kindle eBook readers, the Kindle software for Mac or PC, or for Kindle on iPhone or BlackBerry. I’ll be expanding it to cover other eBook readers (Barnes and Noble Nook, etc.) and getting third-party materials on the Kindle in later articles/entries.

One thing that surprised me – no genealogy magazines in the Kindle format. That’s one area I’d like to see a few publications try out – perhaps Family Tree Magazine or some of the others. I know that some magazines are either stopping publication, or have already stopped publication of their print editions (these past few years have been hard on a lot of companies), but there are still some genealogy-related magazines around.

I’d also like to see back issues somehow made available through services like the Kindle – don’t ask me how that would work. I just know I have a stack of older magazines that would make for great light reading if I had all of them on an eBook reader (or an iPad for that matter). You name it, I’ve got it – Everton’s, Family Tree Magazine, Ancestry, plus some of the smaller publications not to mention some of the UK publications I’ve bought over the years. While some of those have ceased publication, some companies have made their back-issues available in digital formats and you can easily (in my view) get the PDF-formatted files over to the Kindle, but I’d like to see it expanded. I think there is a market if they were reasonably priced. A lot of magazines had a lot of quality writing and interesting/unique articles. Given how tough things have been, I would think that more companies would be looking into trying to make more money from their older materials.

I’d also like to see more genealogy websites with regular/in-depth articles show up on the Kindle. Right now it’s limited to GeneaBloggers and Kimon Andreou’s IDTG. I wouldn’t mind seeing Dick Eastman’s Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter show up in the Kindle Store.

There are certain things I’d like to hold on to in paper format – original documents, some really old books, etc., but I have so much stuff in my home office that I would love to see in digital format, not to mention all of the genealogy and historical references I have. It would be worth it to me to buy a dedicated eBook reader as well for just genealogy books, magazines, and documents. Yes, I can store them on my netbook, or perhaps an iPad or another Tablet PC device, but dedicated eBook readers have advantages. I know talking about a separate dedicated device sounds funny coming from somebody who is trying to reduce the digital and physical clutter and who tries to “keep it light” when making trips to do genealogy research, but having used them, eBook readers have their advantages. Maybe the iPad (which will be supported by Amazon’s Kindle by the way) will change my mind, but for now I like them.

Link: Genealogy eBooks through Amazon’s Kindle

George Lewis