Resource: Find My Past Ireland

Find My Past Ireland launched May 5th. It seems similar to the Find My Past for England in its setup. Their earliest records date back to the 13th century.

http://www.findmypast.ie/Default.aspx

Here is the link for the UK Find My Past:

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp

Resource: My Recommended UK Genealogy Books

2 1/2 year old Quincy models the book I bought this weekend.

Someone in the chat for geneablogger radio during their United Kingdom genealogy show last week asked me about books about the parish chest and records over there in general. I told them I would post a list of books I'd recommend this week.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. This is merely a list of books that I have used in my academic studies.

Information about Records:

• Herber, Mark D. Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998).
• Irvine, Sherry. Your English Ancestry: A Guide for North Americans. (Provo: Ancestry Publishing, 1998).
• The National Archives Research Guides  http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guide-listing.htm
• Tate, W. E. The Parish Chest. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946).
• The My Ancestor Was Series, which includes the following titles:
• ...Came with the Conqueror
• ... a Coalminer
• ...a Bastard
• ...a Merchant Seaman
• ...a Freemason
• ...a Policeman
• ...a Railway Worker
• ...a Royal Marine
• ...an Agricultural Labourer 
• ...an Apprentice
• ...in Service
• ...in the British Army
• ...were Baptists
• ...were Gypsies
• ...were Jewish
• ...Londoners
• ...English Presbyterians or Unitarians
• ...Thames Waterman

Books to Help Understand What Records Say:

• Cheney, C. R., ed. A Handbook of Dates: For Students of British History. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
• Humphery-Smith, Cecil. Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers. (Chichester: Institute of Heraldric and Genealogical Studies, 1995). 
• Ison, Alf. A Secretary Hand ABC Book. (Reading: Berkshire Family History Society Research Centre, 2000).
• Martin, Charles Trice. The Record Interpreter. (London: Reeves and Turner, 1892).
• Morris, Janet. A Latin Glossary for Family and Local Historians. (Bury: Federation of Family History Societies, 2002).  Note: available for purchase at www.familyhistorybooks.co.uk
• Stuart, Denis. Latin for Local & Family Historians. (Chichester: Phillimore, 1995).

Note: You can get quite a lot of these through the National Archives online shop: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/shop/

Resource: Ancestors Search, Library and Archives Canada

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/search-recherche/anc.php?Language=eng

Immigration, military, marriage and divorce, land records, and various other databases can be searched in one spot for Canadian genealogy.

Resource: Internet Archive and Connected Histories

http://www.archive.org/details/texts

Though I tend to find it easier to search for books through Google for the internet archive, I want to highlight it here because I have found a few books through the site that have been very useful. You can view the book in a variety of formats, some easier to to text search than others.

http://www.connectedhistories.org/

Connected Histories has several databases, a mixture of free and subscription, that you can search in one go for British history sources, 1500-1900. It has quite a few resources that will help the researcher in the area of context when researching your own history.

I also wanted to thank all the people who have stopped by my blog in the past few days from geneabloggers. Thanks for the welcome!

Free Resource for April 10th-April 24th: Gale Group Databases

In honor of National Library Week, the Gale Group is giving free access to their NewsVault Database for the period of April 10th-April 24th. This resource has both US and UK newspapers from the 17th century onwards. They also are giving free access to their Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transitional Archive as well. 


Link: 
Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transitional Archive
http://find.galegroup.com/sas/start.do?prodId=SAS&userGroupName=nlw2011


News Vault
http://find.galegroup.com/dvnw/start.do?prodId=DVNW&userGroupName=nlw2011


Thanks to Ladonna Garner for the link. 

Resource: Connecticut History Resources

Here are three Connecticut resources that I've used in the past that I thought I would share today.

Connecticut History Online (A lot of images of Connecticut, including the Latimer House in Chesterfield)

Connecticut Society of Genealogists (Several maps from different periods.)

University of Connecticut (Colonial Connecticut Records, 1636-1776)

Resource: Trafalgar Ancestors

The National Archives has a database of people who served the British side during the Battle of Trafalgar, which includes any service histories and biographies that they've found. (Note: There are  multiple nationalities that served on the British side, and there are even Americans who were serving on British ships. Searching 'America' in advanced search for place of birth, lists 84 people, let alone if you search for specific American locations.)

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/

Resource: DocumentsOnline

Now that this blog is a month old, I'm going to be easing from my post a day approach. I'm going to try for once or twice a week in order for me to write better posts (in theory). It's also entirely possible that I will post more or less depending upon my schedule and/or health.

This website is part of the National Archives (UK) which allows you to search through several databases, including Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, seals, and Ancient Petitions. You can download images of records, some for free and some, like the wills, for a reasonable fee. Really, I recommend looking around to see what you find. I've purchased a few wills that way and I likely will purchase a few more if I ever make any progress on my dissertation.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/

Resource: St. Louis Globe-Democrat Clipping File Collection

Since I'm still feeling pretty bad, I'm not going to be posting the Season 1 Episode 2 review today as I intended. I will get to it as soon as my head stops hurting so much. Hopefully somewhat normal service will resume soon.

St. Louis Mercantile Library

This is a searchable clipping collection that was compiled by the staff of the St. Louis Globe Democrat of their newspaper from the 1930s to 1986 and is made available through the St. Louis Mercantile Library at UMSL. 

Resource: Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project

I'm almost over the cold I caught, but since the pressure in my head still isn't conducive to thinking or writing much, I'd thought I'd share the link to the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project that was shown on Sarah Jessica Parker's episode of Who Do You Think You Are.

http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/

Hopefully tomorrow I might actually watch episode two of season one, and actually write about it.

Resource: Welsh Wills Pre-1858

The National Library of Wales has a very helpful database of wills proved before 1858. I'd suggest looking all over this website for plenty of excellent genealogical resources and tips though, but I felt the wills to be a particularly useful resource.

National Library of Wales

(Note: Having spent a lot of time there last year, I recommend having one of their paninis should you visit and need some lunch. Also, take the bus up to the University and walk down the hill. Trust me.)

Resource: Find My Past

For those of you with ancestors in England, this website is extremely useful. It operates on a paid credits system, which is a bit different to ancestry, or a subscription. The site has the 1911 English census available, which Ancestry does not yet have. It also claims to have the most complete BMD (birth, marriage, death) index from when they began national registration in 1837 to 2006, indexes of parish registers, and some military records.

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/home.jsp

Information on how much the credits and subscription costs can be found here. For those that need a quick currency exchange to know how much it will cost, I've found this tool to be useful during my travels: Link.

Resource: Scotland's People

I haven't had much of an opportunity to use this website for research, but I wanted to make note of it because you can see the census images for Scotland as compared to just an index of the census records on ancestry.com. The site also has indexes for parish registers, vital records, and wills. Credits can be bought to view search results. Also, the 1911 Scotland Census will be available on this site on the 5th of April.

Link: Scotland's People

Resource: The Old Bailey Online, 1674-1913

Anyone researching their family history may have to prepare themselves for the fact that at some point one's ancestors were not always squeaky clean models of society. I myself have a rumored horse thief on my father's side and possible counterfeiters on my mother's side.

Resource: General Land Office Records

Public Domain Land


After the American Revolution, the United States took control of the lands that had been previously claimed by each of the colonies west of the Ohio River. In 1785, Congress passed the land Ordinance Act allowed the public domain lands to be sold for profit. When the land was sold, patents were issued to the person buying the property from the U.S. government. The land sold to the settlers form the bulk of the Eastern States Land Records held by the Bureau of Land Management. More than a billion acres of land and 7.5 million transactions are recorded in their office.

Homestead Act of 1862

The Homestead Act was signed into law by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862. This allowed any U.S. citizen or intended U.S. citizen who had not borne arms against the United States to file a claim to 160 acres of land. The homesteader had to live on the land for five years, during which he had to 'improve' the land by building a house and growing crops on the land. Due to the difficult conditions of prairie life, however, many people did not stay the full time. 

The Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 repealed the Homestead Act after millions of applications had been processed for government land. (Note: The Act was extended for ten years in Alaska with the last title under the law being given in 1988.)

For those of you fond of the Little House on the Prairie books, Laura Ingalls Wilder's father Charles Ingalls and her husband Alonzo Wilder filed claims for land under the Homestead Act. NARA has an article about them on their website: Link. 

You can look up land patents at the Bureau of Land Management: Link

(My 3rd great-grandfather Solomon Osborn Atchley purchased 40 acres in Indiana in 1838.)

Historical Note: Not all land west of the Ohio will have a land patent on this website. Missouri, for instance, was owned by the Spanish and French, and many people went west and got patents from those governments instead.

Sources:
Bureau of Land Management. "Our Record Keeping History." http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/reference/default.aspx#id=01_GLO_Records|01_Our_Record_Keeping_History.

National Park Service. "Homestead National Monument of America." http://www.nps.gov/home/historyculture/index.htm"

NARA. "Teaching with Documents: The Homestead Act of 1862." http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act/.

Resource: Civil War Faces (Library of Congress)

The Liljenquist family donated a large collection of Civil War Soldier photographs to the Library of Congress and the LOC has posted several on a Flicker account here: Link

There have even been attempts to identify some of the soldiers, like this photo of someone's beloved son: Carl, died April 1, 1865...

Though I haven't done it yet, I am sorely tempted to purchase as many old portrait photographs as I can at antique malls regardless as to whether I'm related or know who the person in the photo is. I think the only thing that has prevented me from doing it so far is lack of funds while in college. Seeing them makes me feel sad, like the photos are all orphans that need to be adopted. Anybody else get that urge to buy them like I do?

Resource: Memorials & Monuments in Portsmouth

Link: Memorials & Monuments in Portsmouth

I found this website when I googled my 11th great-grandfather Colonel William Willoughby. Coincidently, I found this when a year before, I had been in Portsmouth Cathedral and the Royal Dockyards on a pleasure trip. I find him extremely interesting because I already had a minor interest in the Royal Navy at the time, and after generations of my family being in as few records as seemingly possible, as I'm sure you all understand, to find him and his son (Francis Willoughby, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts) in several government documents was absolutely fantastic to find.

All I'm saying is do a quick Google search of any ancestors with a few location or date parameters, sooner rather than later!