When Your Ox Is In The Ditch
Genealogical How-To Letters
by Vera McDowell

McDowell's letters containing practical advice to genealogists first appeared in the Augusta Genealogical Society's newsletter, Southern Echoes, in July 1982. Since then she has become something of a "Dear Abby" in genealogical circles.

McDowell's emphasis is on problem-solving. Thus, all her letters bear the unstated refrain, "When your ox is in the ditch" (i.e., when you're stuck), "here's what you do."

Her enthusiasm for genealogy is obvious; the focus is on fun, personal fulfillment, and pure joy. Her letters resonate with the excitement of the chase.

Ten years after they first began to appear in Southern Echoes, McDowell's letters were assembled in the form of a how-to manual and grouped into chapters covering topics ranging from record-keeping and numbering systems to courthouses and cemeteries--traditional fare with a special McDowell twist! Under the title When Your Ox is in the Ditch, the compiled letters were published to universal acclaim in 1992.

"Through the device of good-humored, chatty letters to her cousin Bette, Vera manages to give sound advice and detailed instruction, and…make genealogy sound like fun--which it is." The Connecticut Nutmegger

161 pp., paperback, 1995, ISBN 0-8063-1484-2