Online Research: Basics and Beyond

The internet is like a large online library. Like a library it has good and bad information available. Most Web sites fall in the gray area between good and bad - some good information and some bad or information with no sources.

This lecture covers how to evaluate sites and what can be found on some basic genealogy sites, vital statistics, cemeteries, land records, maps, and electronic books. Also covered are some browser and search engine usage tips.

Select List of Basic Sites for Resources

CyndisList.com - links to other genealogical sites
WorldGenWeb
USGenWeb
ARGenWeb
TXGenWeb
http://stevemorse.org/ - Steve Morse's One-Step Portal for On-Line Genealogy
http://archives.com/ - Archives - official 1940 census partner with NARA and many other records
https://www.familysearch.org/ - FamilySearch

Not just the Family History Library catalog - many databases of indexes, many record images scanned from microfilm and now online
https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Main_Page - Family Search Wiki
http://AmericanAncestors.org/ - New England Historic Genealogical Society
http://www.ancestry.com/ - Ancestry - paid subscriptions

free library edition at many libraries and Family History Centers, institutional version with additional information at NARA
http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/ and http://fold3.com/ - now owned by Ancestry

Free access to The Source:
Luebking, Sandra, Loretto Dennis Szucs, and Arlene H. Eakle. "Court Records." The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy. Ancestry.com Wiki http://www.ancestry.com/wiki/index.php?title=Overview_of_Court_Records : 2011.
http://WorldVitalRecords.com - subscription site
http://www.geneabloggers.com/ - GeneaBloggers - can find a blog on any topic desired

Select List of Special Sites for Resources

http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/ - University of Arkansas Digital Collection
http://www.mocavo.com/ - Genealogy specific searches, paid version saves information and e-mails you when new findings are available
PERSI - Periodical Source Index by Allen County Public Library (through Heritage Quest from your local library or Ancestry)

Order copies of the articles from Allen County Public Library or locate a closer copy
http://EllisIsland.org/ - Ellis Island (more options through Steve Morse One Step search pages)
http://CastleGarden.org/ - Castle Garden (more options through Steve Morse One Step pages)
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ - U.S. Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office - records of transfer from U.S. government and links to state land agencies
http://www.bcgcertification.org/ - Board for Certification of Genealogists - "Skillbuilding: Your Learning Center"

Select List of History Sites

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/ - Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture Central Arkansas Library System
http://www.dohistory.org/ - DoHistory Home
http://www.historybuff.com/ - History Buff
http://eh.net/hmit/ - EH.Net - How Much is That?
http://www.nationalroadpa.org/historical_timeline.html - Historical Transportation Timeline
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/ - Virginia Center for Digital History
http://docsouth.unc.edu/ - Documenting the American South
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ - The Digital History - Collaboration Site
http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ - Digital Library of Georgia
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/ - Library of Virginia

Select List of Law Sites

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ - The Avalon Project, Yale Law School
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsl.html - Library of Congress, American Memory Project, Statutes at Large
http://www.law.cornell.edu/statutes.html - Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute links to Constitutions, Statutes and Codes
http://www.findlaw.com/ - Findlaw -1893-present archive of Supreme Court cases
http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/rare/index.html - Tarlton Law Library Rare Books and Special Collections - Excellent guide to online legal history sources on the Internet and archival collections.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/19conf/menu.html - Statutes of the Confederate State of America
http://www.arkansas.gov/fdemb/statutes.html - Arkansas Statutes (Modern)

Select List of Military Sites

http://digital.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/waro.html - Official Records of the Civil War
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/ - Civil War Soldiers and Sailors
http://www.history.army.mil/ / - U.S. Army Center for Military History
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/ahec/ - U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/ - National Military Personnel Records Center, St. Louis

Select List of Map Sites

http://www.historicmapworks.com/ - Historic Map Works
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Maps - Library of Congress Maps
http://www.davidrumsey.com/ - David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
http://www.genealogyinc.com/maps/ - Genealogy Inc. Historical Maps
http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod/maps.html - U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Maps, Imagery, and Publications - purchase printed maps, make you own interactive maps
http://nationalatlas.gov/ - National Atlas, USGS

Select List of Newspaper Sites

http://GenealogyBank.com/ - GenealogyBank
http://newspaperarchive.com/ - NewspaperArchive
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ - Library of Congress, Chronicling of America
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/cc/lnp.html - Louisiana Newspaper Collection, Louisiana State University
also on Ancestry.com, other commercial sites, and many USGenWeb sites

Select List of e-Books / Journals

http://worldcat.org/ - WorldCat / OCLC - not only checks catalogs of thousands of libraries, but links to electronic editions
Heritage Quest Books (through your local library)
http://www.gutenberg.org/ - Project Gutenberg
http://archive.org/ - Internet Archive

Links to Google Books, Project Gutenberg and other sites, has Kindle, ePUB, and other formats including PDF and plain text
http://books.google.com/ - Google Books
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/ - Making of America (MoA), University of Michigan
http://books.familysearch.org/ - Links to Allen County Public Library, Brigham Young University, Church History Library, Houston's Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, Mid-Continent Public Library Online Collections - (FHL at FamilySearch links to electronic edition if a book in their collection has been scanned)
http://www.tshaonline.org/ - Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online
http://history.hanover.edu/etexts.html - Electronic Text Collections
http://muse.jhu.edu/ - ($$ access ) Project Muse, electronic journal collection of digital humanities and social sciences content
http://www.elifesciences.org/ - eLife open journal site, backed by Wellcom Trust, UK

Additional Resources

Lynch, Daniel M. Google Your Family Tree. Provo: FamilyLink.com, 2008.

CG and Certified Genealogist are service marks of the Board for Certification of GenealogistsŽ, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluation.