Betty Cook, left, along with co-author Jean Powell Banowit, center, and genealogist Barbara Baldwin Salyer go through stacks of old photos as they research a new book at the Arizona Historical society.

Lindsay a. miller / Arizona Daily Star

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They pored through records tossed in Rubbermaid containers.

They dealt with bored clerks and super-helpful ones.

They motored from Nogales to Casa Grande, Phoenix to Willcox. Sometimes more than once.

And when they were done some four years later, genealogists had their labor of love in hand: "Arizona Genealogical and Historical Research Guide: Early Sources for Southern Arizona Including the Areas of Cochise, Pima, Pinal, and Santa Cruz Counties."

OK, so the title's a trifle ponderous.

Even so, this 328-page tome should prove to be a well-thumbed, if not dog-eared, bible for genealogists and historical researchers alike, particularly those scouring for records in the counties of Pima, Pinal, Cochise and Santa Cruz.

"There is no other book that covers all four counties for records, type of record, where to find it and how to access it," says Barbara Salyer, 74, a professional genealogist and one of the founders of the Arizona State Genealogical Society, based in Tucson.

Salyer, along with Jean Banowit, 61, a retired special ed teacher who got "hooked" on genealogy 10 years ago, started the book in earnest in 2002 — along with scads of Genealogical Society volunteers.

"We were just going to do Pima County but we found out at one time Pima County ran close to the New Mexico border, to upper Pinal and all of Santa Cruz County," says Salyer.

The book covers the years 1540 to 1930. In it, you will find everything from cattle brands to a detailed listing of Southern Arizona ghost towns.

For example, did you know a town named Olive once existed a scant 17 miles south of Tucson? Neither did I.

But what really makes this book indispensable for the serious researcher is its detailed listings of 49 repositories, as well as 39 different types of records sources — ranging from adoption to voter registration.

More important, the book tells you how to access it all.

Say you want to research when someone died.

This book gives a detailed listing of funeral homes in Southern Arizona, including names, former names, addresses, phone numbers and in some cases, how far back their records go and if any records were destroyed in the ensuing years.

It took lots of legwork to gather all this information.

"When we'd call, the people in charge of the records would tell us, 'We don't have time to do this. You come down,' " says Sayler.

And so they did, everywhere from Tombstone to Florence, Bisbee to Douglas.

"That was one of the highlights, meeting the guardians of the archives," says Banowit.

Not so great was learning about the rat droppings scattered among the records stored on the second floor of a city hall that shall remain nameless.

After all the information was gathered, Sayler and Banowit sat down and compiled, wrote and edited it all.

"We found out we wrote together well," says Banowit.

"When we got through, we had to say to each other, 'Did we really do all this work?' says Sayler. "We started out small; it just grew."

Already, people are calling and asking, "When are you going to do the other counties?" says Sayler.

Never, she maintains, adding that their book can be a useful model for anyone wishing to take on that daunting task.

Meanwhile, Salyer and Banowit, along with Genealogical Society member Betty Cook, already are doing preliminary work on their next project: pioneers of Pima County, prior to 1900.

Think history is so over? Not for these folks.