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EAST BAY — If you have a budding genealogist or a seasoned researcher on your holiday giving list, they would love a book to help them in their quest. The types of genealogy books are endless — from how to get started to historical fiction that can add some color and detail to a period when ancestors lived.

Once you pick a book, remember you can easily order it from your local bookseller.

• For the beginner, I like “Unpuzzling Your Past” by Emily Anne Croom. It’s the best-selling basic guide to genealogy for a reason. And, there are lots of forms and a map in the back that you can make copies of to use for your research.

• “The Genealogist’s Companion and Sourcebook” by Emily Anne Croom is a great resource for someone beginning to get more serious. It’s subtitled “A Beyond-the-Basics, Hands-On Guide to Unpuzzling Your Past.”

• For the computer researcher, there’s “Genealogy Online for Dummies” and “Digitizing Your Family History” by Rhonda R. McClure.

• The New England Historic Genealogical Society is a great source for genealogy books, including research and writing guides, resources on searching in various areas of this country or abroad, published genealogies, and books on history and culture, photographs or the Mayflower families. Visit www.americanancestors.org/store.

• If there are Mayflower ancestors involved, you can’t go wrong with “Mayflower” by Nathaniel Philbrick or “Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World” by Nick Bunker.

• “A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England” by David D. Hall (2011) is a fascinating read. Ever since I found a court record fining a colonial ancestor for wearing a satin cape, I’ve been curious about the Puritans. This book is an eye-opening look at our forebears, who weren’t simply the rigid and strict taskmasters they are portrayed as, but turned their backs on the English class system and created a community where land was apportioned fairly and everyone participated.

• I have Revolutionary War ancestors and loved “1776” by David McCullough. I just wish someone could persuade him to write “1777.” Or, check out “The Guide to the American Revolutionary War” series. The first volume covers 403 battles, raids and skirmishes fought in Canada and New England and the second volume covers 602 engagements in New York. A set of interactive Google Earth maps for all three volumes can be accessed online. Norman Desmarais of Lincoln, a re-enactor with the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment and a member of the Brigade of the American Revolution, recently wrote the third offering, “The Guide to the American Revolutionary War in New Jersey.” The series is published by Busca Inc.

• “Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing,” edited by Ilan Stavens, would be interesting to anyone with immigrant ancestors. It features poems, letters, journal extracts and bits from novels and stories written by the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Frank McCourt, Fanny Kemble, Vladimir Nabokov, John James Audubon and many more. There are thoughts on leaving one’s home and settling in a new land from 80 writers from 40 countries over four centuries.

• When I started genealogy research in earnest, one the first things I bought was a good basic history book — two actually — one on American history and a second on world history, so I could look up dates and places and other background material on weekends or late at night when the library was closed. Of course, nowadays, that’s easily accomplished online, but I still like to settle back with a book.

• When it comes to placing our ancestors in history, Maureen Taylor’s books are a must. The Photo Detective has written books on identifying the people in old photographs based on their clothing, hairstyles and accessories. Her newest books are of Civil War images (“Finding the Civil War in Your Family Album”) and “The Last Muster,” a collection of photos of the Revolutionary War generation. She also wrote books on preserving photographs, “Scrapbooking Your Family History,” pictorials of Rhode Island and much more. See www.maureentaylor.com.

• For those who love maps and tracing their ancestors’ moves, “Names on the Land” by George R. Stewart (1945) is fun and useful at the same time. Learn how the names given to places here evolved in different languages and where those names came from. (Broadway was originally Breede Wegh in Dutch).

• Historical fiction is a double-edged sword. I’m not usually in favor of it because it’s difficult to sort the history from the fiction. That said, I’m a fan of the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom. These novels of Tudor England (the first takes place in 1537) are fascinating to me. My English ancestors lived during Henry VIII’s reign and it’s an exciting period — far beyond Henry and his multiple wives. But, the best part of Sansom’s novels are historical notes at the back of each book that lay out what parts of the story are historically accurate and mention other books on the period the reader might find interesting.