Look for Genealogy Records in a State Capital

genealogy at state libraryRecently we heard from Jennifer, who wondered what kinds of genealogy resources she might discover in a state capital.

“I’m tagging along on my husband’s thesis research trip to Columbus, Ohio. I have some ancestors from other parts of Ohio. I was wondering what exactly I could look for in a state’s capital collections/archives that could save me a trip to the city or county? I was thinking that the state capital may have a “gem” that I couldn’t find elsewhere, or even duplicated information [from local repositories]. Do you know?”

Yes, Jennifer is definitely thinking along the right lines! Here’s our advice:

At the state level there are often two key resources: the state library and the state archives. These might be combined. One might be called the state historical society.  You just have to look for each state. In Ohio, the Ohio History Connection serves as the state historical society and official state archives. But there is also a state library that serves as a repository for government documents and a resource for other libraries. Each has resources for genealogists, online and in-house. (Click here for digital genealogy content at the state library and here for resources at the Archives/Library of the Ohio History Connection).

In addition, public libraries of major cities often have excellent local history and genealogy collections. This is definitely true of the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Ohio’s state capital!

We suggest you contact librarians before you go and ask what they have that can’t be found anywhere else, both on a state level and for locales you are researching. Often times that will include photograph collections, company (business) collections, and my favorite newspapers on microfilm. If you can formulate specific genealogical questions that you want to try and answer and share those ahead of time with the librarian that will help her guide you toward the unique gems. Every state library and archive is unique, so consulting by phone with the reference librarian is the best way to go.

how to start a genealogy blogHere are a few articles on my website that can help you prepare to find genealogy records in a state capital repository or in any major library:

Video #4 of our 25 Websites for Genealogy – Digital Collections

VIDEO & SHOW NOTES: Video #4 of our 25 Websites for Genealogy Playlist. In this video, my guest presenter Gena Philibert-Ortega covers digital collection websites that are must-haves for family history research. You’ll find plenty of genealogy gems waiting for free at websites #18 through 22. 

Websites 18 through 22 of our 25  Websites for Genealogy

Some of these websites will be new to you, and others are going to be very familiar to you. In talking about the familiar websites, I want to get you thinking about them differently, explain a little bit more about what you can do at these websites, and how to get the most out of them.

In this series of 25 Websites for Genealogy, we’re going to be looking at websites in different categories. Our third category is Digital Collection websites (#18 through 22). 

Download the ad-free Show Notes cheat sheet for this video here. (Premium Membership required.)

Websites #18: Digital Public Library of America

https://dp.la/

At the DPLA you can search for public domain research materials that will benefit your genealogy research. It offers a searchable access to millions of items including photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States.

DPLA website search

Use filters to refine your search at DPLA

Website #19: Google Books

https://books.google.com

According to Lisa Louise Cooke, Google Books is the tool you should use every day for genealogy. It puts 25 million digitized and searchable free books at your fingertips. 

Learn much more about how to get the most out of Google Books with these videos by Lisa Louise Cooke:

Website #20: FamilySearch Digital Library

https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/

The FamilySearch Digital Library includes over 500,000 genealogy books, family histories, maps, yearbooks, and more. 

Website #21: Internet Archive

https://archive.org

If you’re looking for new information about your family history, an important website to add to your research list is the Internet Archive. It’s a free website that attempts to archive the web, and that includes a vast array of genealogy materials!

Visit the dedicated Genealogy Collection page: https://archive.org/details/genealogy&tab=about

Learn much more on how to find valuable genealogical records for free with this video by Lisa Louise Cooke: Internet Archive – 10 Records You’ll Love to Find

Website #22: HathiTrust

https://www.hathitrust.org

Founded in 2008, the non-profit HathiTrust provides access to 18+ million digitized items in the HathiTrust Digital Library. Reading access varies depending on the item and whether you belong to a participating organization, but it’s definitely worth a look. 

Resources:

Download the ad-free Show Notes cheat sheet for this video here. (Premium Membership required.)

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Genealogy Gems Premium Membership

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Season Three

Genealogy Gems Podcast and Family HistoryThe Genealogy Gems Podcast Episodes
2008 – 2009 Season Three

Scroll to the bottom of each Podcast Show Notes Page and click the episode mp3 file to download the episode for listening.  It will take a minute or two for the episode to download, and it will open in your computer’s audio program (for example: Quicktime or Windows Media Player.)

Episode 41 Listen & Show Notes
Family History Expo Wrap-Up, California Voter’s Database at Ancestry and Day of the Week Tool, Mailbox, Lulu, Valentine For You: Stories of Love

Episode 42  Listen & Show Notes
Family Tree Magazine, Genline, and another great Venice Song

Episode 43 Listen & Show Notes
Genealogy at Borders, Roots Television Interview, the new U.S. Census Bureau History Website, and Crossword Puzzle

Episode 44 Listen & Show Notes
Canadian Border Crossings, Godfrey Memorial Library, U.S. Census Bureau, and Digital Preservation Cheat Sheet

Episode 45  Listen & Show Notes
Prison stories & research, Google customization, & Free British Records

Episode 46 Listen & Show Notes
A listener’s Leatherhead, Handwriting Analysis, and Genealogy Gems Premium.

Episode 47 Listen & Show Notes
A Walk Through Childhood Memories, Family Tree and Me Displays, Girding Your Loins with James Mowatt of the Historyzine Podcast, Birthday Alarm Website, Ancestor Handwriting Analysis Winner and a new analysis of a single signature by Paula Sassi, Announcement of the NEW Family Tree Magazine hosted by Lisa Louise Cooke.

Episode 48  Listen & Show Notes
Lisa’s exclusive interview with Kathy Lennon of The Lennon Sisters.  Kathy discusses her passion for family history and the Lennon family tree.  Also, Paula Sassi analyzes the handwriting of our contest winner’s ancestor.  Plus a new look for the Genealogy Gems Podcast Newsletter.

Episode 49 Listen & Show Notes
A great idea for genealogy societies, new Family Tree Magazine Podcast episode and Lisa’s genealogy podcasting article and videos for the magazine, Train Robbery History, Part 2 of Lisa’s interview with Kathy Lennon of the famous Lennon Sisters from the Lawrence Welk Show, Premium Discount, Handwriting Analysis opportunity and the Best Pals Contest.

Episode 50  Listen & Show Notes
The Louise Carousel, Amos Alonzo Stagg, A Little Genealogy Daydreaming with genealogy podcasters, Interview with Tim Russell of A Prairie Home Companion, America’s first radio stations, Handwriting analysis of a victim of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, State Fair History, Best Pals Dolls Winner Announcement, and Upcoming Conferences.

Episode 51 Listen & Show Notes
Interview with Jim Beidler, Chairman of the FGS 2008 Conference, The History of the Ice Cream Cone, Discount on Premium Membership, Mac Minutes with Ben Sayer, The MacGenealogist, Favorite Genealogy Sayings, Census Abbreviations.

Episode 52  Listen & Show Notes
Gems From Across the Pond: Interviews with genealogy author and lecturer Rick Crume, and British Records Specialist Dr. Christopher T. Watts, and British History Podcasts.

Episode 53  Listen & Show Notes
Virginia Halloween History, Mailbox, Navy History, Interview with Yvette Arts of World Vital Records & Search Tips, Chips the U.S. War Dog, The MacGenealogist reviews iFamily for Leopard, and Name That Tune!

Episode 54  Listen and Show Notes
New podcast launch: Family History: Genealogy Made Easy, History that puts a little cash in your pocket, Interview with the Forensic Genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick, Some Ideas on Creating family traditions and Heirlooms, The MacGenealogist, Another Linguistic History Trivia Bit, and Name That Tune Round 2!

Episode 55  Listen and Show Notes
Genealogy News, New Google Gadgets, Discover the census records you probably aren’t using, but should with Curt Witcher of the Allen County Library, Taxing Bachelorhood, and Name That Tune Round 3!

Episode 56  Listen and Show Notes
The 2009 Genealogy Gems Christmas Podcast

Episode 57  Listen and Show Notes
Frisbee & Fuller Brush History, Southern California Genealogical Jamboree, Interview with Sally Jacobs the Practical Archivist on Photo Preservation

Episode 58  Listen and Show Notes
Review of Behind the Scenes with Ancestry, Exciting New Records Online, Income Tax History, Creating a Family History Valentine, Lisa answers Listener Questions

Episode 59  Listen and Show Notes
Review of new online records, The First U.S. Presidential Photograph, Interview with Holly Hansen of Family History Expos, GenClass with Lisa Alzo, Number Please?

Episode 60  Listen and Show Notes
We celebrate the 2nd birthday of the podcast with our special guest Darby Hinton who starred in the 1960s TV show Daniel Boone. Lisa also makes recommendations to a listener on her Bristol Brick Wall.

Sanborn Maps and Other U.S. Resources: New Genealogy Records Online

Thousands of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and a national Civil War burial database are among new genealogy records online. Also: newspapers in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania; vital records for Idaho, Utah, and Washington; Catholic parish records for the Archdiocese of Boston; Maine cemetery plans; New Hampshire Civil War records and New York passenger arrivals.

Breaking news! The Library of Congress has put online nearly 25,000 additional Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps–and more are coming! Over the next three years, more will be added monthly until all 50 states are covered from the 1880s through the 1960s.

Sanborn maps show detailed information about neighborhoods, buildings, roads and more for thousands of towns in the U.S. and beyond. A sizable collection of pre-1900 Sanborn maps are already online at the Library of Congress (use the above link). Watch the short video below to learn more about them. The full-length class is available to Genealogy Gems Premium Members. 

 

Civil War burials. Ancestry.com’s new database, U.S., Civil War Roll of Honor, 1861-1865, lists over 203,000 deceased Civil War soldiers interred in U.S. cemeteries. “Records in this database are organized first by volume and then by burial place,” says the collection description. Entries “may contain the name of soldier, age, death date, burial place, cemetery, rank and regiment.”

Newspapers. We’ve noticed the following new digital newspaper content online recently:

  • Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania: Newspapers.com recently added or updated newspaper content for the following newspapers (with coverage shown): Chicago Tribune (1849-2016), Fort Lauderdale News (1911-1991), South Florida Sun Sentinel (1981-2017) and the Morning Call [Allentown, PA] (1895-2017). (With a Newspapers.com Basic subscription, you can see issues through 1922; a Publisher Extra subscription is required to access issues from 1923 onward.)
  • Hawaii: Newspaper content has been recently added to the Papakilo Database, an online archive of The Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The collection currently contains nearly 12,000 issues from 48 different publications, with a total of 379,918 articles. Coverage spans from 1834 to 1980.
  • Louisiana: A New Orleans feminist newspaper is now available online at Tulane University’s digital library. An online description says: “Distaff was the first and only feminist newspaper published in New Orleans….Distaff served as a forum for women’s voices in politics, activism, and the arts….A preview issue was published in 1973 and the newspaper continued to be published until 1982. There was a hiatus in publication from 1976-1978.”

State by state:

Idaho vital records. New for Ancestry.com users are two Idaho vital records databases, Idaho, Death Records, 1890-1966 and an Idaho, Divorce Index, 1947-1966. A companion Ancestry.com database, Idaho, Birth Index, 1861-1916, Stillbirth Index, 1905-1966, was recently updated.

Maine cemetery plans. “Many Maine cemeteries have plans originally created courtesy of the Works Progress Administration, which reside at the Maine State Archives,” states a recent post at Emily’s Genealogy Blog at the Bangor Daily News website. The post advises us that all of them–nearly 550–are now viewable online at DigitalMaine.com (search for WPA cemetery plans). “These plans are great for locating veterans; some graves are coded by the war of service,” advises the post. “With such an item in hand one could also visit the appropriate town clerk and locate a civilian’s burial as well, I should think.” Thanks for that tip, Emily!

Massachusetts Catholic church records. The New England Historic Genealogical Society (AmericanAncestors.org) has added 13 new volumes to its browse-only collection, Massachusetts Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900. “This addition, drawn from the collections of St. James the Greater in modern-day Chinatown, includes the largest volume we’ve scanned yet–1,035 pages,” says an NEHGS announcement. The collection description states that an index is being created and will be available to site members in the future.

New Hampshire Civil War records. The free site FamilySearch.org has added about 25,000 indexed names to its collection of New Hampshire, Civil War Service and Pension Records, 1861-1866. The collection contains an “index and images of Civil War enlistment papers, muster in and out rolls of New Hampshire Regiments and pension records acquired from the New Hampshire state archives.”

New York passenger lists. FamilySearch.org has added nearly 1.2 million indexed names to the database, New York Book Indexes to Passenger Lists, 1906-1942. According to the collection description, names are taken from “books of indexes to passenger manifests for the port of New York. The indexes are grouped by shipping line and arranged chronologically by date of arrival.”

Utah birth certificates. Nearly 33,000 names have been added to an existing FamilySearch database, Utah, Birth Certificates, 1903-1914. “This collection consists of an index and images to birth certificates acquired from the Utah State Archives,” says the site. “The records are arranged by year, county, and month within a numerical arrangement by box and folder number. Many of these volumes have indexes at the beginning or end.”

Washington vital records. Ancestry.com subscribers with relatively recent roots in Washington can check out two new databases relating to marriage: Washington, State Marriage Indexes, 1969-2014 and Washington, Divorce Index, 1969-2014.

Sanborn maps are a rich resource for genealogy–but they’re just one kind of map that can lead to genealogical gems! Lisa Louise Cooke teaches tons of strategies for using maps to chart your family history in her Genealogy Gems Premium video series. Discover these for yourself with a Genealogy Gems Premium website membership.

Thanks for sharing this great news on Sanborn maps and more with your genealogy friends!

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

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