Another resource is Ebay. You can set a permanent search algorythm so that if something matching it comes up it will send you an alert email. This is great for putting in family names. I have seen long out of print family genealogy books and even old legal documents. Don't expect immediate results but what a surprise 6 months later when something like a family bible comes up for sale.
Warning: Tends to give false positives so don't get excited the first time you get a hit. But for every 50 false positives you get an amazing document.
Just had to tell you -- I did what you recommended and today I won the auction for a book I have been trying and failing to find anywhere outside of a few far-away libraries for months. :D :D :D
"They have tons of stuff, but not everything!" Indeed! I never thought of searching academic articles, but I have used Proquest and http://search.ndltd.org/ for theses and dissertations.
This is a great topic Savanna and great information. I find that new researcher don't really think of church records and as you say, some of them are coming online. For Australian research, other than civil registration records, my first point of call is Trove, our newspaper archive. Backing up Jane's comment.
Oooh that's good to know! I have helped some people with unknown parentage cases in Australia & would have probably been useful to know that existed at the time. Will keep that in my back pocket in case I'm ever researching there again! :-)
Bravo! In Massachusetts you can get to the Archives through Family Tree, but they aren't searchable. There is some good stuff in there that can be linked up with something a professional historian identified. For me, that is that a line I'm following -- Jacques Vigneault -- is anglicized as James or Jacob Morris for the years these Acadian refugees were in this state. Morris because his dad was Maurice, so he was Jacques a Maurice.
Belonging to the American Canadian Genealogical Society gives me access to the Lafrance/Drouin collections, which are searchable and from which I can get copies of baptism, marriage, and death records.
And the Wikitree Acadian project...that's a boon for anyone following Acadian lines and is well sourced and managed.
I love JSTOR as a resource for social history. I also find county historical societies to be goldmines. In fact, one of my favorite tips to fellow genealogists is to check the historical societies! One of my favorites is in Scott County (Minnesota) and they have a helpful staff and A LOT of resources, such as books written by those who first settled there, naming others that were early settlers.
A couple of my favs. RandyMajors.org. - Range Township overlay for google maps. Also David Rumsey Maps. - Maps, need I say more? But use the Georeferencer tool and toggle the overlay to find the current name of location to an old name. And of course Find A Grave is accumulating more resources as time goes by. I often find valuable links by checking cousins and siblings.
For anyone researching in New Zealand, Papers Past - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ is a terrific resource for newspapers, letters and diaries, magazines and journals, parliamentary papers, electronic books etc. Amongst other useful gems it includes Police Gazettes. It is also very searchable. Similarly, for Australian based research there is Trove - https://trove.nla.gov.au/
Another resource is Ebay. You can set a permanent search algorythm so that if something matching it comes up it will send you an alert email. This is great for putting in family names. I have seen long out of print family genealogy books and even old legal documents. Don't expect immediate results but what a surprise 6 months later when something like a family bible comes up for sale.
I can think of several out of print books right now that I need to set this up for, going to do it immediately haha
Warning: Tends to give false positives so don't get excited the first time you get a hit. But for every 50 false positives you get an amazing document.
Just had to tell you -- I did what you recommended and today I won the auction for a book I have been trying and failing to find anywhere outside of a few far-away libraries for months. :D :D :D
That was quick! Only a three week turnaround. I am so happy it worked out for you.
I definitely didn't expect it to yield results that fast but I'm glad it did, thanks again for the recommendation!
That’s a great idea!!
"They have tons of stuff, but not everything!" Indeed! I never thought of searching academic articles, but I have used Proquest and http://search.ndltd.org/ for theses and dissertations.
Thanks for that idea. I tried it but it seems to be more science oriented. Perhaps I will play with it a bit.
This is a great topic Savanna and great information. I find that new researcher don't really think of church records and as you say, some of them are coming online. For Australian research, other than civil registration records, my first point of call is Trove, our newspaper archive. Backing up Jane's comment.
Oooh that's good to know! I have helped some people with unknown parentage cases in Australia & would have probably been useful to know that existed at the time. Will keep that in my back pocket in case I'm ever researching there again! :-)
Bravo! In Massachusetts you can get to the Archives through Family Tree, but they aren't searchable. There is some good stuff in there that can be linked up with something a professional historian identified. For me, that is that a line I'm following -- Jacques Vigneault -- is anglicized as James or Jacob Morris for the years these Acadian refugees were in this state. Morris because his dad was Maurice, so he was Jacques a Maurice.
Belonging to the American Canadian Genealogical Society gives me access to the Lafrance/Drouin collections, which are searchable and from which I can get copies of baptism, marriage, and death records.
And the Wikitree Acadian project...that's a boon for anyone following Acadian lines and is well sourced and managed.
Oooh that's really interesting! I had never heard of that anglicization. Thanks for the ideas!!
I love JSTOR as a resource for social history. I also find county historical societies to be goldmines. In fact, one of my favorite tips to fellow genealogists is to check the historical societies! One of my favorites is in Scott County (Minnesota) and they have a helpful staff and A LOT of resources, such as books written by those who first settled there, naming others that were early settlers.
A couple of my favs. RandyMajors.org. - Range Township overlay for google maps. Also David Rumsey Maps. - Maps, need I say more? But use the Georeferencer tool and toggle the overlay to find the current name of location to an old name. And of course Find A Grave is accumulating more resources as time goes by. I often find valuable links by checking cousins and siblings.
For anyone researching in New Zealand, Papers Past - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ is a terrific resource for newspapers, letters and diaries, magazines and journals, parliamentary papers, electronic books etc. Amongst other useful gems it includes Police Gazettes. It is also very searchable. Similarly, for Australian based research there is Trove - https://trove.nla.gov.au/