This week’s roundup features rare, unique, and just plain fun new collections available online or coming soon. Go back in time to 1923 with new public domain additions, explore San Francisco as it was in 1940 online and in Google Earth, keep an eye out for rare Caribbean newspapers, a free database of Washington State newspapers, and a new collection from the Digital Library of Georgia. Get ready to time-travel and find your ancestors!
A Peek Into 1923
For the first time in 20 years, new works are entering the public domain in the United States and those works were all published in 1923. From the Internet Archive’s recent announcement, “Settle in with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, a Butterfinger, or a refreshing Popsicle (all invented in 1923!)” and explore the films, popular music, and entertainment from 1923. This update also includes 20,000 texts like newspapers, books, and poetry. You can browse fashion magazines, sheet music, and so much more. Get a glimpse into life in 1923, and your ancestor might just be hiding in plain sight!
San Francisco: David Rumsey Maps
Recently recovered after decades of dusty storage, and immense 42- by 38-foot wooden replica of the city of San Francisco as it was in 1940 has been cleaned and photographed by a dedicated team of individuals as part of the SFMOMA and San Francisco Public Library project called Public Knowledge: Take Part. The model is comprised of 158 pieces at a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet.
From David Rumsey’s website announcement: “The model pieces were expertly photographed by Beth LaBerge. David Rumsey created the large Composite image [right] of the 158 pieces, as well as the image and metadata database of all the images, which he hosts. Rumsey also georeferenced the large Composite image and placed it in Google Earth.”
[Image right courtesy of www.DavidRumsey.com]
Caribbean Newspapers
The University of Florida has received a grant to digitize Caribbean newspapers. From the announcement (scroll to second article on the link page): “The grant award will support a continuing partnership between the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR)-Rio Piedras Campus Libraries to digitize each institution’s unique, hidden holdings of Caribbean newspapers on master microfilm. The team, partners of the Digital Library of the Caribbean, will digitize and make freely available 800,000 pages of pre-1923 Caribbean newspapers.”
Washington State Newspapers
From the Washington Secretary of State: Browse and search historical publications with new Washington Digital Newspapers website. “The site features new titles in the State Library’s digital newspaper collection, with full-text article search of more than 400,000 pages from the State Library’s collection of historic Washington newspapers. Visitors can interact with the site with the help of text correction features to improve search results on dark or damaged pages, by attaching subject tags to articles, and saving their search history for larger research projects.”
Visit https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/ to start browsing now!
Digital Library of Georgia
The Digital Library of Georgia has recently announced a new collection for Atlanta’s Interdenominational Theological Center and Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Spelman Colleges. “As part of the CLIR-funded, ‘Our Story’ project, Atlanta University Center, Spelman College, and the DLG are happy to announce additional content documenting the largest consortium of African American private institutions of higher education.” In this collection, you’ll find scholarly journals, yearbooks, photographs, course catalogs, and more.
Time travel technology may not be available yet, but Lisa’s Premium eLearning Video is the next best thing! You’ll discover ways to find content that can immerse you in the past to explore the cultural and historical events, places, and people that affected your ancestors’ lives. You’ll explore interactive timelines, advances in video, and geographic tools that can dramatically impact your understanding of your family history. Plus a downloadable handout is included. Available now to all Premium eLearning Members! (Not a member? Sign up today!)
Lacey Cooke
Lacey has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi.
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!
It’s the end of another year, and as 2018 comes to a close we’ve rounded up the last of the new online records collections for you. Explore a unique collection of Catholic Church records in Peru, dating back to the 17th century. Next you can view Jewish registers online at Ancestry.com, browse unique historical collections for the U.S., and check out German civil registrations new and updated at FamilySearch.
Peru Catholic Church Records
New at FamilySearch is a growing indexed collection of records for Peru, Diocese of Huaraz, Catholic Church Records, 1641-2016. These records include baptisms, confirmations, marriages, pre-marriage investigations, deaths, and indexes. More indexed records will be added as they become available, but right now the collection boasts over 150,000 records.
About Catholic Church records: “Catholic Church parish registers were created by priests authorized to record the church sacraments of baptism, marriage, death, burial, and other ordinances in their parish jurisdiction. Catholic Church parish registers are the primary source for finding genealogical information of birth, death, and marriage in Peru prior to 1852, when the civil registration was implemented.”
Jewish Register Books
A new collection of Jewish register books from Poland is online now at Ancestry.com: Poland, Modliborzyce Ghetto Register Books, 1939-1944 (USHMM) A variety of information can be found in these records, including your ancestor’s name, age, birth date and place, occupations, residences, parents’ names, and more.
From the collection description: “This database contains the names of the Jewish population in the Modliborzyce Ghetto. The registers were compiled by the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Modliborzyce between 1941 and 1942. The original documents are held by the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. This collection was indexed by World Memory Project contributors from the digitized holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.”
New U.S. Records & Databases
New from the University of Arkansas: a fascinating digital collection of the American Old West in the form of diaries. “Whiskey smuggling, murder, scandal and a ‘hanging judge’ — the latest digital exhibit from University Libraries has all this and more. The Deputy Marshal Addison Beck and Judge Isaac Parker’s Court collection is now available worldwide, free of charge. Addison Beck was a deputy marshal for the United States from 1875 to 1883 who patrolled for the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in Fort Smith. Addison Beck’s two surviving diaries chronicle 1880 to early 1881 and from April through August 1881.”
The Washington State Libray is wrapping up the Washington Rural Heritage Collection, which includes nearly 2,000 new items spanning 5 collections. This expansive collaboration provides historic photographs, ephemera and objects, documents, artifacts, oral histories, and more throughout Washington State.
Over at FamilySearch is a new collection for North Carolina, Historical Records Survey, Cemetery Inscription Card Index. This index contains images of Surname index cards listing county, name of cemetery, town, person, date of birth, death date, age, spouse or parents, location of grave, military information.
German Civil Registrations
Finally, check out these new online records for Germany, Saxony-Anhalt, Halberstadt, Civil Registration, 1874-1982, available for free at FamilySearch. In this collection you’ll find an index of the birth, marriage and death records from Halberstadt Kreisarchiv. Included in these records are these localities Aspenstedt, Emersleben, Halberstadt, Klein Quenstedt (Kr. Halberstadt), Langenstein, Mahndorf, Sargstedt, Ströbeck, and Wehrstedt. Original records held at Halberstadt Kreisarchiv, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
In addition, this collection was updated with more records: Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, Kreis Steinburg, Civil Registration, 1874-1983. This collection consists of civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths for the district of Steinburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Original records are located in the Gemeinsames Archiv des Kreises Steinburg und der Stadt Itzehoe (Joint Archive of the District of Steinburg and the City of Itzehoe).
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Lacey has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi.
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!
U.S. Naval correspondence letters top the list this week of new genealogy collections available online. Fold3 has two brand new collections of fascinating letters that could be a wonderful resource for anyone searching for their ancestors serving in the Navy. Also this week are two new Denmark Census Records collections and more new German vital records for you to explore.
Naval Records at Fold3
Military records database Fold3 has added two new collections of naval records this month. The first collection is Letters Received by the Secretary of Navy (“Captains’ Letters”) dated 1805-1885. According to the collection, “The Captains’ Letters collection is organized by year and contains correspondence from captains at sea to the Secretary of the Navy related to a variety of issues, including shipboard discipline, repairs of vessels, and conflicts with foreign governments.” The letters are all in original manuscript form.
“This letter is from Captain Stephen Decatur. He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the US Navy. In January 1812 he wrote to Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton requesting a court-martial for seaman Daniel Dailey. Dailey had strangled his fellow seaman, William Brown.” This image is from Fold3.com.
MyHeritage.com has added new nordic census collections. The first is 1787 Denmark Census, with over 800,000 records. The second is the 1801 Denmark Census, with nearly 1 million records in the collection. They cover only the kingdom of Denmark and does not include the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
A helpful research tip from MyHeritage when searching both of these collections: “Individuals often had multiple given names. However, in the census you may find individuals only listed with one of their given names—usually the one the individual most often went by—or even listed by their nickname. If at first an individual cannot be found under a particular given name, trying searching for the individual under one of their other given names, or by all of them together. Also, until the early 20th century, women were usually listed with their maiden name.”
German Vital Records
Last but certainly not least this week are two new collections of German vital records Ancestry.com. The Nienburg, Germany, Births, 1874-1905 collection. These civil registry records may include a child’s name, birth date and time, as well as parents’ names, occupations, residences, and denominations.
The Nienburg, Germany, Deaths, 1874-1974 collection will have records containing similiar information about the person’s name, age, occupation, denomination, and location and time of death. It may also include details about the informant. According to the collection, “beginning in 1938, the records may also include a Cause of Death and cross references to corresponding birth and/or marriage registers.”
More resources and insight on Naval records
The Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast episode #163 featured military expert Michael Strauss, as he helped a listener discover naval photos. Have a listen and be sure to check out the show notes for a large collection of additional resources for navy records! It’s available now to all Premium eLearning members. Not a member? Sign up today!
Lacey Cooke
Lacey has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi.
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!
If you’re looking for cemetery records, you’re in luck! This week there have been massive updates to Find A Grave’s global databases at Ancestry.com. But why search Find A Grave at Ancestry.com? We can think of 3 good reasons.
Find A Grave at Ancestry.com: Updated Collections
Did you know you can use Google Earth to find cemeteries? Click here to learn how.
The following Find A Grave collections have all been updated to Ancestry.com, where they can be linked directly to your tree:
Global, Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current
You’ll also find these records updated at FamilySearch.com as well.
If there’s a specific grave you’re looking for, ask Find a Grave to help! Click here to learn how to submit a photo request to both Find a Grave and Billion Graves.
Why Use Find A Grave at Ancestry.com?
Sunny Morton, Genealogy Giants Guru
Find A Grave is a free website with crowd-sourced tombstone images and transcriptions from cemeteries all over the world. Last we checked, they boast 162 million grave records! Their catalog of cemeteries tops 400,000, spread out over 200 different countries, and they have at least a partial listing of graves for well over half of these (over 250,000).
So why would you go to Ancestry.com to search records that are already free at Find A Grave? Genealogy Gems Contributing Editor Sunny Morton, our resident expert on the giant genealogy websites, says:
“If you’re already an Ancestry.com subscriber, searching Find A Grave from within Ancestry.com may be a good choice for these three reasons:
1. One-stop searching. You’re already searching in Ancestry.com: you don’t need to remember to switch over to search Find A Grave separately for each ancestor.
2. Ancestry.com’s search tool. Find A Grave has a nice but basic search tool. It’s pickier about the search results it returns: does the spelling match? And is a potential result in the exact place you requested? (If you search a specific county, Find A Grave will only return results from that county–not in an adjacent county, across the state line, or even across the country where an ancestor may have been interred.) Lacey has a great example below.
From Lacey: Here’s a search of my 3X great grandfather at Find A Grave:
Unfortunately, no results:
I then hopped over to Ancestry, went to the card catalog, and searched the U.S. Find A Grave Index:
Turns out there was an extra “t” on his surname (see results below). I didn’t search on a partial name because I’ve never come across a different spelling of his before, and I certainly didn’t expect to see one on his tombstone! But sure enough, the name is not spelled as it had been throughout his life. It’s awfully nice that Ancestry could find it:
Ancestry.com is much more forgiving and flexible about spelling and places. It will return search result possibilities that don’t have to match exactly. As you can see from the screenshots above, Ancestry offers more fields to enter, including relatives’ names (and people are often buried with relatives), a more detailed place field, and keywords.
3. Tree-building ease. If you build your tree on Ancestry.com, it’s easy to attach Find A Grave search results to your ancestor’s tree profiles. If you search separately at Find A Grave, you have to create a separate source citation to attach to your tree.” (Note: hopefully, if you’re building your tree on Ancestry.com, you’re syncing it to your own software. RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker will both sync to your Ancestry tree–click here to see why Lisa Louise Cooke prefers RootsMagic.)
More Cemetery Resources
Get detailed step-by-steps for using Find A Grave and Billion Graves, plus guides for understanding tombstone epitaphs and symbol meanings in this brand new book: The Family Tree Cemetery Field Guide. Discover tools for locating tombstones, tips for traipsing through cemeteries, an at-a-glance guide to frequently used gravestone icons, and practical strategies for on-the-ground research.Use coupon code GEMS17 for an extra 10% off! *Coupon valid through 12/31/17.
Disclosure: This post 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!
This week the entire Genealogy Gems team is heading to Dallas to present a two day event at the Dallas Public Library. With Lisa, Sunny and Diahan so busy, I’ve decided to take the reins this week and bring you a roundup of my favorite genealogy records of 2017! This compilation includes collections that are new, updated, and just plain fun! I’ve really enjoyed digging back into these and finding new genealogy gems. And I’d love to know: what exciting and helpful collections have you been using this year? Please share in the comments below!
The Catholic Heritage Collection at Findmypast
In February of 2017, Findmypast announced the new Catholic Heritage Archive. Roman Catholic Church genealogical records go back centuries and are meticulously preserved, but difficult to obtain for the general public. Findmypast partnered with British and American Archdioceses to bring up to 100 million Catholic Church records online. Millions are available to search online now, and more will continue to be added.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps at the Library of Congress
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. This is definitely a collection to keep an eye on!
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.
Click here to learn more about how to use this outstanding online collection.
WWI Centennial – Free Records at FamilySearch
2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the United States entering World War I, and there was a wealth of records and historical resources featured online. I’m highlighting the collection of millions of WWI records available for free at FamilySearch.org, because who doesn’t love free?!
Back in March, FamilySearch added to their unique collection of Italian genealogy records. Five specific locales in Italy have Civil Registration records online. Civil registrations include such things as births, marriages, and deaths. They can also include marriage banns and ten-year indexes. Of course, availability of records will depend on the time period and the location. In some cases, this collection goes back as far as the 15th century!
Learn more about Italian genealogy: In the video below, Lisa sits down with Mary Tedesco of Genealogy Roadshow (on PBS in the US) and talks about doing the TV show, and her tips for conducting Italian genealogy research. This is just one of the many genealogy videos on our Genealogy Gems YouTube Channel.
New England Vital Records
Millions of New England vital records became available online in May of this year, dating back as far as the 17th century. Collections are highlighted below:
Rhode Island. FamilySearch added over a half million new indexed names and 30,000 digital images to its free collection, Rhode Island – Vital records. These are described as “Certificates and registers of births, 1846-1898, 1901-1903, marriages 1901-1903 and deaths, 1901-1953 acquired from the State Archives in Providence.”
British Emigration Records at Findmypast
We often talk about immigration, with an I, but have you researched your ancestors emigration records with an E? The 1600s saw a boom in British emigration, and Findmypast has curated several fascinating collections:
Early emigration from Britain 1636-1815 is a collection from Findmypast containing over 21,000 records that allow you to learn if your ancestors left Britain for North America or the West Indies. The collection includes 10 pieces from The National Archives including colonial papers, general entry books, passenger registers, and weekly immigration returns.
Britain, early emigration to Barbados centers on your British ancestors who left for a settlement in Barbados between 1678 and 1715. With over 20,000 assorted documents, this collection includes baptisms, burials, censuses, landowner lists, and more. Britain, Royal African Company, 1694-1743 is a collection of over 55,000 records to uncover the details of those on board the Royal African Company’s ships to and from Africa as well as the names of those who lived and died at company forts. These Findmypast records came from The National Archives T 70 series,Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading with Africa and Successors.
Click here to learn more about researching and working with emigration records.
…and just for fun…
Sydney, Australia – 19th Century Complaint Letters
When I saw this collection, I was totally tickled! I would love to find an ancestor’s complaint letter, as a window into their daily life and surrounding neighbors.
Over 56,000 letters written by residents to the City of Sydney in the latter part of the 1800s have been digitized and added to the City of Sydney Archive online. A city historian quoted at the Daily Telegraph.com said people’s complaints “range from the mundane to the bizarre,” such as “foul smells, night time noise, stray farm animals and smoke billowing from homes and blacksmiths’ forges.” This same online city archive also hosts a collection of historical photographs, a full run of Sands directories, postal directories, and other resources for researching your house history. Find this collection by clicking Archives Investigator and then “Letters Received by Council, 1843-1899.”
If you want to see what other records we’ve covered, there’s any easy way to narrow down to your specific ancestors! Visit our home page at www.GenealogyGems.com, and select a category from the drop-down menu on the left:
You can choose categories like Canadian, German, Irish, African-American, Australian, and more. You’ll receive of list of every article where that topic was featured or included. This is a super easy way to find new records collections for any area you’re currently researching. You can also choose other categories like newspapers, technology, organization, etc. for helpful how-tos, research strategies, and updates. And you can always use the search bar in the top right corner of our website if you don’t see your topic listed.
There’s a treasure trove of genealogy gems on our website!
Recently recovered after decades of dusty storage, and immense 42- by 38-foot wooden replica of the city of San Francisco as it was in 1940 has been cleaned and photographed by a dedicated team of individuals as part of the SFMOMA and San Francisco Public Library project called Public Knowledge: Take Part. The model is comprised of 158 pieces at a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet.
Millions of New England vital records became available online in May of this year, dating back as far as the 17th century. Collections are highlighted below: