internet resources

I think Ayrshire is my Scots neck of the ancestral woods? I shall need to explore, thank you Lynne.

I've just been looking into this source:

http://www.histparl.ac.uk/about.html

About the History of Parliament

The History of Parliament is a research project creating a comprehensive account of the parliamentary politics in England, then Britain, from their origins in the thirteenth century. Unparalleled in the comprehensiveness of its treatment, the History is generally regarded as one of the most ambitious, authoritative and well-researched projects in British history.

Erica, all roads lead to Ayrshire when it comes to researching historical Scots. Interestingly, Ayrshire also turned out a lot of very clever people, i.e. inventors et al. I guess that they had to do something creative to while away those long, dark, cold Scottish winters?!! :)) I shall have to check out the History of Parliament site, Erica....sounds good!! And you have jogged my memory here....another useful resource is "British History Online". :))

I've been meaning to share this source of photos, mystery and otherwise, for a long time:

http://www.deadfred.com/

searchable database containing thousands of identified and mystery photos for genealogy enthusiasts looking for long-lost family.

Here are some of my favorite regional websites:

For Shelby County TN (Memphis), it has actual documents online for free
register.shelby.tn.us

For Erie PA, an index for all obituaries in the Erie newspapers since the mid-1800s is online, For $1 each, you can get copies. I got over 30 family obits of my grandparents' families and a wealth of information from these.
www.ecls.lib.pa.us/obits/obits.htm.

Check local libraries online for information as well as Cemetery webpages. Many now have lists online with names and dates.

For Quebec, www.yourfolks.com. Free search of Quebec families and cents for copies of records.
Also, the Drouin collection on Ancestry has about 14 million online church records in French.

For Ireland. www.rootsireland.ie. Free search for church and other records. Charge of 5 Euros for complete record.

Pennsylvania Historical Society www.hsp.org

Berks County PA Historical Society (excellent) www.berkshistory.org
Early Pennsylvania Dutch settlers

Thank you very much Mary, many of those sites are new to me.

The best Revolutionary War search can be found at the Daughters of the American Revolution website, www.dar.org/library/online_research.cfm
If you have a lineage to the Mayflower or other early New England family, there were probably some of the family that went to fight. I was proud of my one veteran from PA, then I started tracing my grandkids paternal Mayflower roots. I found at least 50 Revolutionary War veterans so far in their Howland-Tilley extended family tree, and I've only just begun. It looks like nobody stayed on the farm in Massachusetts. I found whole families of father and sons who went off to fight for the cause.

For Civil War service records, the National Park Service has the searchable Soldiers and Sailors webpage www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/

Oops! Looks like you already had my DAR and Soldiers and Sailors listed, Erica. I missed those at first glance. I have some War of 1812 references somewhere, They may be just from Pennsylvania Archives where my relatives lived when they fought. I'll find them.

A great resource for the War of 1812, Battle of Lake Erie. A cousin who works at the Maritime Museum in Erie sent this to me. He gets to sail the "Niagara". They have a library at the Museum:

flagshipniagara.org/Default.aspx?SiteSearchID=-1&ID=/search.htm

http://flagshipniagara.org/Deafult.aspx?SiteSearchID=-1&ID=/sea...

Scans of many 19th centruy newspapers, mostly PA. Links to other college libraries with databases. Some require passwords from that college, others open. Pennsylvania Digital Archives

www.juniata.edu/services/library/newspapers.html

Pennsylvania State Archives
Pennsylvania has wonderful archives information from the 18th and 19th century. However, their access to vital records is very restricted. There is a grassroots effort to contact legislatures and change the laws to get open access to records at least 75 years old.
www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/

Referring to the grassroots effort in PA, someone compiled this list of the death certificates available online in many states. Handy resource with lots of links:

http://users.rcn.com/timarg/PaHR-Access-states.htm

New York City resources:

New York documents can be very difficult to locate. I found this Italian Genealogy website for New York City that includes birth, marriage, and death information for NYC residents, not just Italian-descent. It gives the Certificate number of vital records to retrieve elsewhere. I have located quite a few dates for my husband's Bronx family just from the website.
Lots of duplicate names, though.
www.italiangen.org/Default.htm

The best genealogy document I ever found was my husband's great-grandmother's "Petition for Naturalization" in New York City. It includes not only her birthdate and place in Germany, but her husband's birthdate and place, their marriage date and place, and the birthdates of all her children in NY, as well as dates of immigration of both husband and wife on different ships. I found it on Ancestry.If only all research was that easy!

Mary,

Keep the New York resources coming! I have a pending project for early New York / New Amsterdam families and would love to get a little prepared.

New York Reference:

There was a family story that my husband's great-great grandparents had a farm in Manhattan on the East River near where the UN now stands.
I didn't know where to find land records in NYC, so I emailed the New York Public library to ask. Surprisingly, they emailed me back not with just the name of an office or department, but the actual information on the deed transaction, and the reference at LDS where to find the document.

The email address for the genealogy reference section is histref@nypl.org
It's the Minstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy at the NY Public Library at 5th and 42nd.

They also told me to check with The City Register's Office for more information on deeds, mortgages and maps from 1654 to the present. Their email is www.nyc.gov/html/dof

His grandfather bought the farm from Alexander Lockwood on April 1, 1852. I bet this Irish immigrant paid a lot less for it than the UN land is worth today. Since John D. Rockefeller donated the land for the UN building, he probably had purchased it and many other parcels when Grandpa died in the 1860s. Another transaction to find.

http://www.maryandjohn1630.com/passengerlist.html

Our Analysis of Possible Passengers of 1630

A passenger list for the Mary and John 1630 has never been discovered. Passenger lists for 17th century ships sailing from England to New England can sometimes be difficult to locate. Some passenger lists are never found. If your looking for a passenger list of your English ancestors who came from England to New England between 1620-1643, you may find your English passenger list on this web site, especially if the passenger list you are looking for includes passengers who sailed from the West Country of England to New England.

Mary,

You just gave me a brainstorm! The NYPL has extensive genealogical resources, I just don't really know how to access them on line (I go there in person LOL).

Maybe you can figure out some of the depts and collections. They have a big on line presence and a wonderful team of developers working away at making some of their resources public and on line: so maybe you can help catalog their relevant catalogs for our use, so to speak.

For instance, I found the schematics for the apartment building I grew up in from 1905! It was really cool to see how little it changed.

But dang if I remember what URL or department at the NYPL I found that in.

I'll check out the NYPL. I'm researching my husband's NYC family from our home in Texas ,so you are a Lucky Duck being able to go there!
When we were at Ellis island last fall, I think I remember hearing that the National Archives had a branch in Manhattan.

Indeed they do: it's on Varick Street. I've thought of volunteering for them. The site is here:

http://www.archives.gov/northeast/nyc/

New York Public Library links:

Main REFERENCE COLLECTION webpage:
www.nypl.org/locations/tid/36/node/7456

MAP DIVISION
www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/map-division

ART & ARCHITECTURE DIVISION
www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/art-architecture-collection

MILSTEIN DIVISION OF US HISTORY, LOCAL HISTORY & GENEALOGY
www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/milstein-division-local-history-g...

That last URL is too long to copy. It should say "-genealogy" at the end.

Thank you so much Mary. Did you enjoy the site? What did you think?

I need to take a trip back to NY soon. Though very nice, our little local library in the Texas Hill Country just doesn't compare. If you need Texas history info, I can find a lot about The Alamo.

We need to do that as a Project sometime ... Don't forget and bring it up in a couple of weeks maybe.

Oh, that's very cool. What American Indian tribes do they cover? We have projects going for Cherokee, Sioux and Lakota so far ....

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bmuwgw/seaventure.htm
The Sea Venture was one of the early ship taking settlers to Virgina. This page has a list of all known passengers.

yeah, EH, I know -- Project!

That's a series! Oh my goodness, so important: the emigration event.

And I just realized that we don't have it recorded in the Geni ID's as an "event" on their timeline. Is a field available for that?

(answering own question)

Yes, an emigration event *is* available in the source tab, and then it fills in on the timeline.

So yes, we have to do a series of ship passenger Projects for those early ships.

And then we'll build up to Ellis Island. :)

I looked at the Texas State Library database called "Bibliography of Native American Indians". Not having a specific topic to search, I checked what they had on Quanah Parker, a famous Comanche Indian chief in Texas whose mother was a white woman ,Cynthia Ann Parker, captured by the Comanches when she was 9 years old. It had some great full text articles and references for his biography. Some of my cousin's say their grandmother told them she was related to Quanah, and I've been trying to find a link for them. She grew up in Quanah, Texas. My uncle's wife had beautiful high cheekbones and dark hair.

If you have specific questions on Indian tribes, let me know what you are looking for and I'll check it out.

Note for Texas history: If you ever read the book "True Women" or saw the mini-series with Dana Delaney and Annabeth Gish, a good friend of mine is a direct descendent of Dr. Woods and his wife Georgia. Her cousin wrote the book. I can probably get a lot of good information from them. Dr. Woods and Georgia are buried in San Marcos TX, a few miles from me. It's an insightful look into the hard life of the Texas women pioneers in the mid-1800s.