Genealogy Research with Library Resources
With the Thanksgiving holiday break just around the corner, many of us will soon be spending time with our extended families. This is the perfect time to ask older relatives about their youth, and to talk about family stories: immigration stories, stories about hard times, birth and love stories, and ‘legends’ that have been passed down about family origins.
If investigating your family’s story (or searching for answers to unanswered questions about it) interests you, you can further your research using Miller Library resources.
Our most useful tool is probably the Ancestry Library Edition, which can be accessed for free (and without creating an account) from our A-Z Databases list. The library edition of the immensely popular Ancestry.com lacks certain capabilities
of the original version, such as the ability to create trees and form research collaborations
with other users, but it gleans facts from census and other vital record collections
(4,000 at last count) and contains over 1.5 billion names. To start, you only need
a single name, and preferably a location or date. Take notes or make printouts of
your findings, which you can later enter into a chart or tree.
A great resource for filling in details and researching family ‘legends,’ America’s Historical Newspapers is another resource on our A-Z Databases list. Search by time period, location, publication, and/or name. Keep in mind that historic newspapers were the social media of their day, and often posted regular columns about weekly news from small towns and neighborhoods within their readerships.
For Maryland-specific research, visit the Maryland Reference Collection on the second floor of the library, in the Ben & Judy Kohl Room. We also have microfilm of the Kent County News (and other Maryland papers) going back to the 1700s…just ask at the Circulation Desk!
For a list of free genealogy/regional history research sites or blank ancestry charts (‘trees,’) email jnesbitt2FREEwashcoll. A Research Guide is in the works.
