UNUSUAL SOURCES ON THE WEB FOR FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH Jeri Steele Bowling Green, KY 1
2 NOTE: All websites change their navigation over time. Please contact me jeri.at. Jerijsteele.com if the navigation to one of these sites doesn t work. Contact the speakers bureau at APCUG.org about getting speakers for your member computer club.
3 WHAT ARE UNUSUAL RECORDS? Josh Taylor at RootsTech 2017 said, Unusual records basically fall into two different categories: unusual information found in common places and unusual records that appear in places people might not think of.
4 EXAMPLES Marriage date & military services in land records (Common record but unexpected information) Archives (Typically historical records not used for genealogy) Completely unexpected Books not genealogy related
5 UNUSUAL SOURCES How do I find them? Look everywhere! How do I Track where I ve been? How do I document the sources?
6 WHY USE THESE SOURCES? Everyone starts with Census Records and Vitals (Birth, Marriage, and Death) Family Stories, Will or Probate, Cemeteries (Billiongraves.com or findagrave.com) For more in-depth research Wills, Probates, Naturalization Newspapers, Military Records, Church records, Passenger Lists City directories, Court or Prison records Photographs, Unions, Taxes Local Histories, Compiled genealogies, and other records/published
7 USE MAJOR SITES IN UNUSUAL WAYS FAMILYSEARCH.ORG SEARCH BY RECORDS (FORMER CATALOG OF FHL)
8 RECORDS SEARCH CATALOG TAB FAMILYSEARCH.ORG
9 HINT: Count is by catalog entry; Each one can be numerous films
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14 USE MAJOR SITES IN UNUSUAL WAYS FAMILYSEARCH.ORG SEARCH BY RECORDS (FORMER CATALOG OF FHL)
15 BOOKS & PAPER EPHEMRA CHECK FAMILY KEEPSAKES & BOOKS
16 "GREEK TESTAMENT, WITH ENGLISH NOTES" / BY S.T. BLOOMFIELD (1860)
17 ABEBOOKS.COM
18 ONLINE ARCHIVES CHECK BOOKS, GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS, DIARIES, LETTERS
19 DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY DP.LA/
20 DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY WHAT IS DPLA? The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is An all-digital library that aggregates metadata (information describing an item) Contains thumbnails for millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, movies Content from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Content made freely available to the world.
21 EXAMPLES FROM DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY The Larson Studio Collection contains portraits and landscape photographs from Thomas Larson and his son O. Blaine Larson, who operated the Larson Studio in Provo, Utah County, Utah.
22 EXAMPLES FROM DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION Declaration of Intention 1927 William Kirkpatrick Age 31 Declaration of Intention in US Dist Court, Boston Mass on Sept 26, 1927 Minor Child Mary 1 yr from Everett, Mass
23 EXAMPLES FROM DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY FLORIDA MILITARY William Dow, Jacksonville, FL Inducted June 21, 1918 at Jacksonville, FL Born Boykins, SC Birth date July 24, 1887 https://dp.la/
24 DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY HINTS: REFINE YOUR SEARCH USING QUOTES IN SEARCH, FILTER ON LEFT
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26 Name of File Enlarge image & Thumbnail navigation DPLA LINKS TO NATIONAL ARCHIVES WHICH HAS SOME FOLD3 MILITARY DOCUMENTS
27 Fold 3 is a pay site but on some filming projects NARA bargained for rights to use the images!
28 KEEPING TRACK OF RESEARCH ON DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY
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31 Downloaded spreadsheet dp
32 DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY DP.LA/
33 ARCHIVE GRID FINDING ARCHIVES https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/
34 Find Archives near you Many have documents online ARCHIVE GRID HTTPS://RESEARCHWORKS.OCLC.ORG/ARCHIVEGRID/
35 FOUND FROM ARCHIVE GRID EAST TEXAS RESEARCH CENTER
36 CLICKING ON ARCHIVE SHOWS MORE
Read How to Search on each site! 37
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40 EAST TEXAS RESEARCH CENTER Take time to read how to use the site Look for Digital Archives
41 EAST TEXAS RESEARCH CENTER PETITION FOR CUSTODY OF ORPHANS HINT: Look for original records Like Runaway slave project or early loose records
42 PORTAL TO TEXAS HISTORY HTTPS://TEXASHISTORY.UNT.EDU/
43 PORTAL TO TEXAS HISTORY ILLUSTRATION OF FINDING UNEXPECTED RESULTS
44 42 PORTAL TO TEXAS HISTORY Searching saving lists https://texashistory.unt.edu/
45 PORTAL TO TEXAS HISTORY Obit for James Gutherie from Sumner county Tennessee Appeared in collection of the Charles B Moore (McKinney, TX) family papers. HINT: Look at major digital collections in migration states!
46 HATHITRUST HTTPS://WWW.HATHITRUST.ORG/ Online library of millions of titles digitized from academic and research institutions Search the catalog for descriptive terms or title Full-text search that includes words within the digitized book Search on Name, place, citation or favorite quote Use quotes to search an exact phrase (such as The Great Depression ) or use wildcards (* or?) to search for alternate forms of a word (wom?n will find woman and women).h
47 HATHITRUST PAMPHLET ABOUT SETTLING IN TEXAS BY I.& G.N. RAILROAD BY SEARCHING FOR LARISSA, TEXAS
48 PEOPLE MENTIONED https://www.hathitrust.org/
49 HATHITRUST CITE THE SOURCE https://www.hathitrust.org/
50 HATHITRUST https://www.hathitrust.org/
51 HATHITRUST SEARCH JOE LAND REPORT FROM SECRETARY OF STATE https://www.hathitrust.org/
52 SEARCH FOR JOE LAND TEXAS https://www.hathitrust.org/
53 UNUSUAL SOURCES Presented was: Example of records How to find documents How to track your searches How do I document the sources
54 QUESTIONS? Unusual Sources on the Web for Family History Research Jeri J Steele, President BGAMUG Computer Club Jeri.at. jerijsteele.com