• The Swem Library at the College of William and Mary Library (Virginia) is one of the oldest universities in one of the oldest states, and the collection is astounding. The special collections include Virginia tax lists for the 1780s; census microfilms for Virginia (1814–1920), North Carolina (1790–1850), and other states (1790–1820); and compilations of Virginia county, marriage, land, probate, church, military, emigration, and immigration records. The library’s catalog is located at https://swem.wm.edu/research/search-catalog.
• The Daughters of the American Revolution Library at http://www.dar.org/library has more than 160,000 books on American genealogy, and it’s open to the public. Click Online Research in the menu to search the catalog.
• The Library of Virginia (Virginia) at http://www.lva.virginia.gov is home to a set of powerful online card catalogs. This site has scanned images of Civil War records, family bible records, letters, and other material, all indexed and searchable by name. I ran a test with “genealogy and Powell” as the search terms. If I want to refine my search further, I could also use Boolean terms, such as AND, NOT, and so on. Overall, the Library of Virginia’s card catalog is easy to understand and read—and, I might add, a pleasure to work with.
• The New York Public Library (New York) at http://www.nypl.org/contains a genealogy section called The Milstein Division. This department collects materials documenting American history on the national, state, and local levels, as well as genealogy, heraldry, personal and family names, and flags. The card catalog is searchable at the top of every page in the site.
• The Newberry Library (Illinois) in Chicago at http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/collections.html has more than 17,000 genealogies. Search the catalog to see if you need to make a visit!
• The Sons of the American Revolution Library Catalog at http://library.sar.org/ can tell you if this collection has genealogies of interest to you. The SAR Library maintains a noncirculating collection of genealogy and American Revolutionary War history and military records.
• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Catalog (Illinois) at http://www.uiuc.libguides.com/genealogy offers an outline of the UIUC online catalog, describing its major collections, and a helpful guide to American genealogy research. Note that the university also has extensive collections of material originating outside the United States that may be helpful for genealogical research once you get “back to the boat.”
• The Filson Historical Society Library has material on the history of the entire Ohio Valley, especially the significant stories of Kentucky and the Ohio Valley history and culture (http://filsonhistorical.org). If you have any genealogy in that area, a personal visit to the Filson is something you will never forget. The library has 50,000 titles, a 1.5-million-item manuscript collection, a collection of 50,000 photographs and prints, and a museum with 15,000 items. The library has such items as original manuscripts, portraits, landscapes, photographs and prints, genealogical materials, printed family histories, local business records, and other primary historical materials about Kentucky, the Ohio Valley, and the Upper South. Search the catalog of the Filson at http://filson.ipac.dynixasp.com.
Where to Find More Online
There are more online library resources than you can shake a stick at. Be sure to Google the geographic area you need, plus “library” and “catalog.” You are certain to get some hits! Also, search for the name of a state and “public library” because many states have a network of their libraries.
Card Catalogs
Librarians love to make lists and catalogs for each other! Try some of these:
• Gateway to Library Catalogs (http://www.loc.gov/z3950) is a page by the Library of Congress. In addition to links to the LOC catalog, you will find an alphabetical list of catalogs around the world. Also, check out the Research and Reference Services page for librarians at http://www.loc.gov/rr.
• The Library of Michigan website has a database with the locations of more than 3,700 Michigan cemeteries and lists sources at the library where a researcher can find the names of those buried in each. The database can be found at http://libraryofmichigan.state.mi.us/MichiganCemeteries/.
• USGenWeb (http://www.usgenweb.com) lets you search under the state and then the county you’re researching to see if the library catalog is linked.
• WWW LibraryDirectory (http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/libdir/) is a list more than 8,800 library websites sorted by geography, not topic. It is useful and international in scope.
Using Your Local Library Online
You can do more than just peruse the card catalog of your local and distant libraries. Find out if your local library offers online services for home use as well. Usually, the login to use these will be some combination of your local library card number and your identifier with their system (name, phone number, etc.).
Periodical Source Index on Microfiche
The PERiodical Source Index (PERSI) is a subject index to articles in genealogical periodicals and journals. Remember using the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature (RGPL) in high school for writing research papers? PERSI is the same idea, but targeted to genealogy sources. It is searchable at http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/persi. With PERSI, you can look at indexes to articles in more than 2,000 periodicals, about 50,000 articles in all.
Note
PERSI is a subject index to articles, not an every-name or every-word index. You can search it by location and record type, surname as subject, or how-to topic.
Sample Search
In Figure 14-4, I have searched PERSI on Heritage Quest. I click Places; then I input Kentucky and keyword Jolly. The article titles, journals, and dates are listed with the result. Remember, this is not going to be a link to any actual article, but to the details on specific publications that have the articles.
FIGURE 14-4. Search PERSI for location and keyword, and results are presented most recent first.
So, I click the link for the title, getting details on the date, volume, and number. To read the actual article, I can click the title again and see whether the journal in question is held at a library near me. I can also search for the title of the journal in my local library catalog. If it is there, I can copy the call number from my local library’s catalog and find out about reading and copying the article (the journal in question may not circulate, so I may have to read it there).
An alternative is the Family History Library. Most of the periodicals in PERSI also are available at the Family History Library. Look in the Author/Title section of the Family History Library Catalog. If the periodical has been microfilmed, you can order a copy to use at a local Family History Center. However, most genealogical periodicals are under copyright and are not microfilmed.
I can also write to the publisher to get a copy of an article. Names of publishers are listed with the periodical in most library catalogs, including the Family History Library Catalog. Often, the publishers are genealogical or historical societies, and their addresses are listed in the Directory of Historical Organizations in the United States and Canada, published by the American Association for State and Local History.
America’s Genealogy Bank (NewsBank)
This resource contains more than four centuries of rare documents and records, including historical newspapers, books, pamphlets, and genealogies, as well as selected material from the American State Papers and U.S. Serial Set, the complete Social Security Death Index, and more than 29 million obituaries.
Success Story: Local History Online
Marian Pierre-Louis is a house historian and a realtor. Those two jobs combined mean that she gets to see a lot of old houses. Nothing makes her happier. Marian also regularly lectures on African-American and New England genealogy.
“My local library posted vital records from 1850–1900,” Marian said. “While it doesn’t show images, it’s a very easy-to-scan chart (transcription). I use it all the time. Actually, they have a whole portal of local history
for our town! (Search Facebook for “medwaylib.org” to see the pages.)
I’ve had also great luck with Heritage Quest and Sanborn Maps through the library. My library is now offering Ancestry, too, but I have my own subscription.”
America’s Obituaries & Death Notices (NewsBank)
An easy-to-use interface allows searching by name, date range, or text, such as institutional name, social affiliation(s), geographic location(s), philanthropic activities, etc.
Ancestry Library Edition (Available Only Inside the Library)
Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) gives individuals something truly priceless: the chapters of their own authentic, unique family stories. The world’s largest online collection of family history records and resources, ALE is a popular research tool. It offers a wide variety of unique content to help users trace their family lineage.
Heritage Quest
This has digital, searchable images of U.S. federal census records with the digitized version of the popular UMI Genealogy & Local History book collection, U.S. federal census records from 1790–1930, more than 22,000 family and local history books, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant application files with records for more than 80,000 individuals, and Freedman’s Bank Records containing key African-American data.
ProQuest Obituaries
This service offers more than 10.5 million obituaries and death notices in full-image format from uninterrupted historical archives of top U.S. newspapers. With content dating as far back as 1851, this unique database provides researchers with valuable clues about their ancestors in the United States, including proper full name, maiden name, spousal information, relatives’ names, occupation, religion, cause of death, and more.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Company Maps of Florida
These maps were created for insurance purposes from 1860 through 1923. They show the size, shape, and construction of buildings; dwellings (including hotels and churches); and other structures such as bridges, docks, and barns. The maps include street names, property boundaries and lot lines, and house and block numbers.
Wrapping Up
• Going to the library card catalog in your pajamas is fun!
• You can search the card catalogs of many libraries across the world from the Internet.
• Some libraries have begun scanning images and actual text of their genealogical holdings.
• Some libraries participate in interlibrary loans of books and microfilms.
• You can search for such libraries at several sites across the Internet.
• State libraries and provincial libraries are excellent online resources.
• Librarians like to maintain lists of online libraries for each other. You can use them, too!
• Beyond the card catalog, many local libraries allow you to use databases and indexes such as PERSI and Heritage Quest from your home as well as from the library. Check with your local librarian for details!
Chapter 15
International Genealogy Resources
Sooner or later, you’ll get “back to the boat”—that is, you’ll find your original immigrant in a certain family line. The first immigrant in your family might have arrived just a generation ago or centuries ago. Either way, that doesn’t have to mean your genealogy is “done.” When you find that first immigrant, finding the boat can be just as important. Although finding where he or she boarded won’t tell you a birthplace, it is good information to have.
So where do you look? Many sites have ships’ passenger lists and manifests. For general lists of such sites, you can check out Cyndi’s List at www.cyndislist.com/ships. If you are fairly certain your ancestor entered the United States through New York during the right time period, search the Ellis Island site profiled in the last chapter.
For other centuries and other countries, you can investigate the Immigrant Ships Transcribers’ Guild at www.immigrantships.net. Another such site is The Ships List (www.theshipslist.com), which not only has passenger lists, but also newspaper reports, shipwreck information, and information on shipping lines.
For U.S. immigration, you can search the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm catalog for immigration records for arrivals to the United States from foreign ports between approximately 1820 and 1982. See www.archives.gov/research/immigration/#where for details on how to order microfilms that match. Also, look at naturalization records at the NARA page (www.archives.gov/research/naturalization), state archives, and county and state courts. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services have a good genealogy page at www.uscis.gov/historyandgenealogy.
Note
You can give back to the online genealogy community by getting involved in a project such as the Immigrant Ships Transcribers’ Guild project.
USCIS Genealogy Program Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Genealogy Program (USCIS) is a way to pay the government to do research on immigrant ancestors. After the program launched in August 2008, there was a tremendous response, and the turn-around goal became to respond to all requests within 90 days.
The program accesses records from five different types of agency records:
• Naturalization Certificate files (C-files) from September 27, 1906, to April 1, 1956
• Alien registration forms from August 1, 1940, to March 31, 1944
• Visa files from July 1, 1924, to March 31, 1944
• Registry files from March 2, 1929, to March 31, 1944
• Alien files (A-files) numbered below 8 million (A8000000) and documents therein dated prior to May 1, 1951
An index search costs $20 and uses data you provide to come up with record citations. You also get instructions for how to ask for those records from the USCIS or National Archives, which costs between $20 and $35. If you do not have the right file number, find it with an index search.
If you have questions about index search results or record copies that you have already received, e-mail [email protected] and include your case identification number in your message.
Following the Past
Of course, the next step is to start researching in “the old country,” outside the United States, Canada, or whatever country where you live. Can you do this online? Well, that depends on the country. Some countries have online records for you to search, especially those countries where English is spoken. But some countries only have sites with the most general information, and you’ll be lucky to find the address of the civil records offices. You’ll probably wind up doing a combination of online and postal mail research and possibly some in-person research, too.
One thing that can help is the book International Vital Records Handbook: Births, Marriages, and Deaths by Thomas Jay Kemp (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2013). At this writing, the fifth edition is the latest. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, from Alabama to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Kemp has gathered not only the right offices and phone numbers and address, but if a website or fax exists, he has included that, too. Most important, Kemp has done the research for what records are released for genealogy research for each entry and included the proper form ready to be photocopied and mailed in. If your local library does not have this important resource, you can order it from Genealogical Publishing Company at www.genealogical.com.
Beyond the Boat
Once you have found the boat and the port of departure, you can really begin to search the life of your immigrant ancestor. In many of the online sites covered in previous chapters, you can find links to sites for genealogy beyond the United States. For online links, I recommend starting at Cyndi’s List at www.cyndislist.com and RootsWeb at www.rootsweb.org. Other good places to look are discussed in the following sections.
National Archives
A country’s national archives might have a webpage describing genealogy how-to’s for that country. For example, I recently searched for “Poland National Archives” in Google. Quickly, I found the English version of the archive
s’ website: www.archiwa.gov.pl/en/state-archives.html. This site has pages that explain how to start a genealogy search, what records you can ask for, and where to look for records.
Note
Immigrate means to come into and settle in a country or region to which one is not native; emigrate means to leave one country or region to settle in another.
Note
Be sure to check www.familysearch.org/ask for research guides and videos for the country you need.
Genealogical Societies
Search in any major search site (Yahoo!, Google, Bing, and so on) for the country of origin for your immigrant and “genealogy.” Often, at the top of the list will be a genealogical society devoted to that particular nationality. These organizations can help you learn how to conduct research in those countries. Each place has its own method of recording vital statistics, history, and other information.
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