Hunting For Bears Genealogical Society and Library collects and maintains large databases of early (predominantly pre 1900) marriage records from all fifty states. We are currently processing these records and will have them on line as the processing is completed.
We do two things with these records:
One, we publish these records in County Marriage Records in Books(3,000 to date), on CDs and in various electronic formats. We no longer publish on microfiche but have a fairly complete inventory of our collection up to 1980. To maximize information density, we restrict each marriage to one line of type in each book. Actually each marriage is listed twice in a combined alphabetical listing based on the Surnames and Given names of each party.
Two, surname searches of these large computer databases were available to individuals since the late 1960s via the U. S. Postal Service. The surname searches via U.S.P.S. were supplanted with e-mail. Currently, we search our marriage indexes on a state by state basis and provide the results via e-mail. By using the alphabetical listing described above, we are able to search on partial Surnames and partial Given names to limit the number of searches needed to a maximum number of results.
The Hunting For Bears marriage data collection as of about 1980, covering 16 states, was bundled with Family Tree Maker(c) and sold in the tens of thousands and was crucial in making an inferior program (FTM(c)) the most popular genealogical software in the world.
The same collection combined with other data acquired by questionable means was included in Ancestry's(c) initial data searches, playing a significant role in its rise to the world's premier genealogy data search engine. Not only was HFB's data taken but its business plan was also!
That was the 1980 collection, the 2013 collection dwarfs it in comparison. This book is part of that 2013 collection. It is maintained in a data base structure. Each party in the union is included in the alphabetical listing plus the date of the marriage, license or other source document. Using the records in a database format and listing both participants in the alphabetical sort was so unique in 1960 that the U.S. Government granted Hunting For Bears a (c)copyright on the collection in both electronic and print format.
Several things we are considering in the immediate future are; e_books to buy, loan or free downloads, books available through instant publication, and books on-line.
Oh, the name and logo, Russell, as Nicholas was called in his youth, loved puns. The newspaper genealogy column that he began writing in 1951, Hunting Your Forbearers, quickly became Hunting For Bears and the bear and hunter logo was created.