Friday, October 8, 2010

State Census Records


State census records are available at Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, The years available vary by state.

FamilySearch is has digital images of the following state census records available at http://pilot.famliysearch.org

Florida: 1885, 1935, 1945
Massachusetts: 1855, 1865
Michigan: 1885
Minnesota: 1885, 1895
New York State: 1865, 1892, 1905
Rhode Island: 1915
South Dakota: 1905, 1915, 1925
Wisconsin: 1855, 1875, 1885, 1895, 1905

Ancestry.com has state census records for: 
 
 

Friday, June 11, 2010

FREE access to the Footnote.com Civil War Collection

The following announcement was written by Footnote.com. The entire Civil War collection is available FREE during the month of June. 

Millions Of Original Documents Help Americans Gain A New Perspective On The War -

June 10, 2010 – Lindon, UT – Today Footnote.com announced that its U.S. Civil War Collection will be made free to the public through the month of June.  Footnote.com has worked with the U.S. National Archives over the past three years to create the largest repository of Civil War documents on the web featuring over 30 million documents, photos and maps. 

“Our strong partnership with the National Archives has allowed us to build an extremely valuable resource for researchers, historians and genealogists,” explains Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com.  “Now more people than ever have access to records relating to one of the most prolific events in our history.”

The original documents found in this collection provide a different perspective on the “war between the states.”  Major events as well as accounts from individuals are brought to life on Footnote.com. Visitors to Footnote.com will find:
•    Union and Confederate Soldier Service Records
•    Widow’s Pension Files
•    Emancipation Documents and Slave Records
•    Confederate Amnesty Papers and Citizens Files
•    Lincoln Assassination Investigation and Trial Papers
•    U.S. Civil War Photos and Maps
To see how Footnote.com is changing the way we view U.S. Civil War history, visit http://go.footnote.com/civilwar/.    

About Footnote, Inc.
Footnote.com is a subscription website that features original historical documents, providing visitors with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit http://www.footnote.com.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Helps for reading Handwriting

Here are some web sites that will be helpful to learn to read old handwriting.

Early American Handwriting Quiz
This quiz will test your skills at identifying upper and lower case letters.

How to Read 18th Century British-American Handwriting
This is a guide to reading 18th century handwriting with sample images.

Script Tutorials
Tutorials for reading English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese handwriting

Palaeography - Reading Old Handwriting 1500-1800
An online tutorial from the UK National Archvies

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Newspaper Digitization Projects

International Coalition on Newspapers
Links to international newspaper digitization projects listed alphabetically by country.

United States Newspaper Digitization Projects
Links to U.S. newspaper digitization projects, sites with national coverage as well as state or regional projects.

This page highlights and links to past, present, and prospective digitization projects of historic newspapers. The focus is primarily on digital conversion efforts, not full-text collections of current news sources.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Free Access to Newspapers at Footnote.com this month

Justin@Footnote.com just posted -- For the month of May all the historical newspapers on Footnote.com will be open to the public. A free registration is needed to view the images.

To access the newspaper collections visit www.footnote.com/newspapers.

On Footnote you will find newspapers ranging from small towns to major cities and dating back to the 1700’s. Whether a historian or a genealogists, historical newspapers are one of the best resources that provide a unique window into the past.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

300 Million Names and New Tools Help Genealogists

Press Release from FamilySearch:

FamilySearch International announced today that it has posted an additional 300 million names to its huge family history database. The names come from extracted original sources and include many collections that have never before been available online. The move bolsters FamilySearch's earlier announcements regarding ongoing efforts to digitize the billions of genealogical records stored in its Granite Mountain Records Vault near Salt Lake City, Utah.

The names can be found on the beta.familysearch.org Web site. That site and several other online tools and resources, can be accessed at labs.familysearch.org. FamilySearch intends to migrate these resources to its main FamilySearch.org Web site later this year.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

ProGenealogists Online Links

Click on the links below for a list of Web sites thatProGenealogists use daily when conducting genealogy research. These are all searchable online databases or informative tools.

United States Genealogy Sleuth

International Genealogy Sleuth

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Library of Congress Puts Thousands of Historic Books Online

Readers worldwide have free access to nearly 60,000 books from the LOC collection.

These and the other digitized books can be accessed through the Library’s catalog Web site and the Internet Archive (IA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free online digital library.

Click here to see an article about the digitized collection.