How to Find More Obscure Collections of Genealogy Records

How to Find Some of the More Obscure Collections of Genealogy Records

Dick Eastman · March 22, 2019 · Genealogy Basics, Online Sites · 2 Comments

Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, and other search engines are great for finding online databases that are useful to genealogists. However, smaller collections and even obscure ones are not prominently listed in the big search engines. Yet there are a few online listings that can point the way to finding what you seek.
The Genealogy Roots Blog at https://genrootsblog.blogspot.com contains pointers to many online genealogy databases, records and resources. The focus is on vital records (birth, marriage and death records), obituaries, census records, naturalization records, military records and ship passenger lists. Although the blog is based in the USA, online European, Canadian, and other records sources are sometimes included. You may also occasionally see a fun post or genealogy news. Joe Beine does a great job of adding more and more links as time goes by.
Another huge resource is Cyndi’s List, available at: https://www.cyndislist.com. The site contains roughly 336,000 links to genealogy-related web pages in more than 200 categories. The various categories include many sources online records as well as pointers to newsletters, religious groups, historical information, geography, and much, much more.

Cyndi’s List is free for everyone to use and is meant to be your starting point when researching online for information in the United States and also in many other countries. Indeed, Cyndi Ingle has labored many thousands of hours since 1996 to produce this huge online resource at https://www.cyndislist.com.
I would suggest you check out both the Genealogy Roots Blog and Cyndi’s List to see if they contain information that may help you in your family history searches.

Loyola University to Create Database of Loyalist Americans’ Claims

Loyola University to Create a Database of Loyalist Americans’ Claims

Dick Eastman · March 18, 2019 · Announcements · 4 Comments

Loyalists, the women and men who chose to stay loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution, have been the subject of a resurgence of scholarly interest over the past decade. Many of the Loyalists moved to Canada as the U.S. Revolutionary War came to a close and a few others moved to England.

Previously dismissed as the losers in the conflict, scholars have turned their attention to those who separated themselves from their friends and neighbors and gave up their land and possessions when they chose to leave the new United States at the end of the American Revolution. The story of that difficult decision recorded in the Loyalist Claims Commission is one that has been largely overlooked since the end of the war.


The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at the College of William & Mary has awarded Benjamin Bankhurst, assistant professor of history at Shepherd University, and Kyle Roberts, associate professor of public history and new media and director of the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities at Loyola University Chicago, with a $5,000 Lapidus Digital Collections Fellowship for “The Maryland Loyalist Project.” The project is a collaboration between Bankhurst and Roberts, aiming to make the letters and petitions of British loyalists who fled the American Revolution housed in the British National Archives available in a digital archive.

You can read the full story in an article in the (Martinsburg, WV) Journal at: bit.ly/2XZSkB4.

Teaching Kids About Family History.... Helps Increase Resilience

Teaching Kids About Family History Reportedly Helps Increase Resilience

Dick Eastman · March 13, 2019 · Genealogy Basics · One Comment

I wish I had read this article when my children were young and I was just beginning to research my family tree! According to an article in the (Utah) Daily Herald:

“Resilience, or the ability to overcome challenges in life, is a trait many parents hope their children will develop. Resilient children are more likely to have good emotional and mental health.

“Research has shown that children who know more about their families and family history are more resilient and tend to do better when facing challenges in life. This may be because seeing patterns of overcoming failures and surviving hard times can help children recognize that people can recover and triumph, despite hardships. One of the best things families can do is develop a strong family narrative.”

You can find this interesting article at: http://bit.ly/2T2Yv3F.

Where to Find Personal Papers in Genealogy Searches

Dick Eastman · March 13, 2019 · Genealogy Basics · No Comments

Sometimes, the documents we seek as genealogists go beyond government-generated paperwork like vital records, federal and state censuses and military records. Sometimes, we need private documents — letters, business records and diaries or journals — to confirm dates or relationships. Those aren’t the kinds of things you usually find at the National Archives or your state’s archives.
Daniel Klein has published an interesting article in The Jersey Journal that offers suggestions for finding these personal documents, wherever they may be stored. The article may be found at: http://bit.ly/2Ja1FTy.

State-By-State Look at Your Public Records Laws

MuckRock Provides a State-By-State Look at Your Public Records Laws

Dick Eastman · March 13, 2019 · Legal Affairs, Online Sites · 3 Comments

These are laws that strongly affect genealogists. Many states are locking up public domain birth, marriage, and death records under the bogus claim of “preventing identity theft.” What’s the odds that an identity thief wants to use the personal information of my grandmother who died more than 60 years ago? Does anyone believe a thief can obtain a loan or a credit card in her name?
In any case, MuckRock tracks the laws of 50 states plus Washington D.C., all with different statutes, exemptions, and limitations that dictate what you can get from your state and local agencies. With the rules of access differing across the board, MuckRock provides an easy way to keep track of them all through our interactive database showcasing the best, the worst, and the confusing parts of state records law.
MuckRock is available at: https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2019/mar/08/sw-state-guide.