Blog - The Ancestor Hunt

Check Out the New Birth, Marriage, and Death Records Page (BMD Links)

1/31/2018

This past month I have been researching and collecting links to FREE birth, marriage, and death record databases and collections. The result is the brand new BMD Links Page on The Ancestor Hunt. Listed by state - there are over 920 links to BMD record databases from the U.S. (Canada is in process) that can be searched in order to find these important genealogical research records. There are about 1 billion records in these lists of BMD records.

The link is on the Main Toolbar above or you can click on
http://www.theancestorhunt.com/bmd-links.html to get there.

Good luck finding BMD information about your ancestors!

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FamilySearch New and Updated Collections - January 1-31, 2018

1/31/2018

Source: familysearch.org

FamilySearch continues to add or update their records collections at a fast pace for us to search.

For the period of January 1- 31, 2018, the added/updated collections are:

For a complete list of all added/updated collections, go to

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list

I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for!

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Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records from U.S. Western States

1/29/2018

Source: thempfa.org

One of the main goals for genealogists is finding birth, marriage, and death (BMD) information about their ancestors.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists (as well as the largest of them all - FamilySearch), a great number of indexes to birth, marriage, and death collections have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide specific BMD information, and often scanned images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates themselves. These free online collections have hundreds of millions of records in them in total.

There are a great number of online and offline collections that may include birth, marriage, and death information that are not included in the lists below. For example, newspapers, draft registration files, naturalization records, etc. have BMD info. To find out which types of other records may include BMD information, please see:

The lists below are specific birth, marriage, and death indexes and record collections that are available for free online:

General U.S.

Alaska

Arizona

California

Colorado

Hawaii

Idaho

Montana

Nevada

New Mexico

Oregon

Utah

Washington

Wyoming

Happy Hunting!

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Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records from U.S. Mid-West States

1/28/2018

Source: freeworldmaps.net

One of the main goals for genealogists is finding birth, marriage, and death (BMD) information about their ancestors.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists (as well as the largest of them all - FamilySearch), a great number of indexes to birth, marriage, and death collections have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide specific BMD information, and often scanned images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates themselves. These free online collections have hundreds of millions of records in them in total.

There are a great number of online and offline collections that may include birth, marriage, and death information that are not included in the lists below. For example, newspapers, draft registration files, naturalization records, etc. have BMD info. To find out which types of other records may include BMD information, please see:

The lists below are specific birth, marriage, and death indexes and record collections that are available for free online:

General U.S.

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Michigan

Minnesota

Missouri

Nebraska

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

South Dakota

Wisconsin

Happy Hunting!

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Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records from U.S. Mid-Atlantic States

1/27/2018

Source: Maps Etc (https://etc.usf.edu/maps)

One of the main goals for genealogists is finding birth, marriage, and death (BMD) information about their ancestors.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists (as well as the largest of them all - FamilySearch), a great number of indexes to birth, marriage, and death collections have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide specific BMD information, and often scanned images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates themselves. These free online collections have hundreds of millions of records in them in total.

There are a great number of online and offline collections that may include birth, marriage, and death information that are not included in the lists below. For example, newspapers, draft registration files, naturalization records, etc. have BMD info. To find out which types of other records may include BMD information, please see:

The lists below are specific birth, marriage, and death indexes and record collections that are available for free online:

General U.S.

Delaware

District of Columbia

Maryland

New Jersey

New York

Pennsylvania

Virginia

West Virginia

Happy Hunting!

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Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records from U.S. New England States

1/26/2018

One of the main goals for genealogists is finding birth, marriage, and death (BMD) information about their ancestors.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists (as well as the largest of them all - FamilySearch), a great number of indexes to birth, marriage, and death collections have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide specific BMD information, and often scanned images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates themselves. These free online collections have hundreds of millions of records in them in total.

There are a great number of online and offline collections that may include birth, marriage, and death information that are not included in the lists below. For example, newspapers, draft registration files, naturalization records, etc. have BMD info. To find out which types of other records may include BMD information, please see:

The lists below are specific birth, marriage, and death indexes and record collections that are available for free online:

General U.S.

Connecticut

Maine

Massachusetts

New Hampshire

Rhode Island

Vermont

Happy Hunting!

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Find Birth, Marriage, and Death Records from U.S. Southern States

1/25/2018

Source: thempfa.org

One of the main goals for genealogists is finding birth, marriage, and death (BMD) information about their ancestors.

Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists (as well as the largest of them all - FamilySearch), a great number of indexes to birth, marriage, and death collections have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide specific BMD information, and often scanned images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates themselves. These free online collections have hundreds of millions of records in them in total.

There are a great number of online and offline collections that may include birth, marriage, and death information that are not included in the lists below. For example, newspapers, draft registration files, naturalization records, etc. have BMD info. To find out which types of other records may include BMD information, please see:

The lists below are specific birth, marriage, and death indexes and record collections that are available for free online:

General U.S.

Alabama

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

Missouri

North Carolina

Oklahoma

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

West Virginia

Happy Hunting!

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13 Special Collections of Online Historic Newspapers

1/21/2018

Most people who search newspapers for articles about their ancestors focus in on what I will call "geographically-based collections." For example, if I have ancestors in Kentucky or Wales, I might look for online collections that house those specific newspapers published in that state or country. You might want to look at the Newspaper Research Links tab on this site to find links for those geographically oriented collections as well as others.

That is highly useful, but you should know that there are a lot of "special collections" that are based on a specific ethnic group, religion, event, or even occupation.

If you are looking for special U.S. collections, you can use Chronicling America to hone in on them. For specific ethnic oriented collections you can do a search on the Library of Congress Chronicling America site. Click on "All Digitized Newspapers" and then click on "Ethnicity". There you will have the option to find newspapers in that collection such as African-American, French, German, Indians of North America, Irish, Jewish, Latin-American, Mexican, Pacific Islander, and Spanish. You can also search for newspapers in 18 different languages.

Below I have summarized links to some special collections for you that I have accumulated from a variety of sources.

You can check these out here:

Many university and other libraries have access to special collections as well. There are too many to name here so I recommend checking with your library of choice and see what they have available. Most require community access registration for access online.

So check out ethnic, language and topic-based collections. You just might find some nuggets about your ancestors not available anywhere else!

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22 Ways to Find Ancestors Marriage Information

1/21/2018

Source: vitalchek.com

When researching our ancestors, one of the most important events is their marriage - in some cases there are none, or just one, and I have some who had six. Determining the date and location of marriage is important as we document major events in their lives.

Most of these should not stand alone as evidence of the date and location of an ancestor's' marriage(s) - so you might want to check many of these sources to provide corroborating evidence. Also, some of these only indicate that the person was married and may include the spouse's married name, but does not include the date or location of marriage. But at least knowing that they indeed were married (and to whom) may provide clues for further research.

And after this list please check out the 231 different free databases from FamilySearch that you can research to find Marriage information

Source Type List of 22 ways to find clues and evidence about your ancestors' marriage:

Marriage Indexes - whether online or in a book at a library/archive - these provide dates and the location of marriage. But since they are indexes that are most likely entered from marriage certificates, you always have to keep in mind that transcription and typing errors can occur.
Marriage Certificates - this is the best document for establishing date and location of the marriage. Usually they are completed and signed by the person performing the ceremony.
Marriage Licenses - these are tricky because they do not evidence that a wedding actually occurred - so further research is required to ascertain that fact. Please notice that on many licenses it indicates the number of previous marriages for the individual. On several occasions I have found that ancestors had previously been married, which was a total surprise to me.
Cemetery Records - although dates and location of marriage are not included - many times husband and wife are buried next to each other, so if you did not know a person was married - look at the person next to them - if they are the same name they might have been married to that person, so at least you can get more clues. This may seem obvious, but depending on how the naming was engraved - it may have been a son or brother. Also, interment cards and plot deeds may reference a married couple.
Draft Cards - the applicant enters a contact person and often parenthetically enters the word "wife." No marriage dates or locations but at least an indication that they were married, and the given name of his wife will be helpful for further research,
Naturalization Records - Exact marriage dates are included.
Military Records - For next of kin information, the spouse's name and contact information is included, if not the actual dates and location of marriage.
Pension Applications - military or not, evidence of marriage is required for beneficiary certification, so a copy of the marriage certificate is required.
Census Records - well you won't find anyone's marriage dates in census records. But that "M" or "S" will indicate if they are married or single. And even a "W" for widowed, or "D" for divorced will tell you if they were married. Often an "M1" or M2" will indicate whether they are on their first or second marriage. Questions such as "years married" or "age at first marriage" are helpful for tracking down marriage dates.
Immigration and Travel Records - often the "Married or Single" question is included so at least their marital status is indicated..
Death Certificates - the marital status is included as well as the name of the surviving spouse, but not the date of marriage or how many years they were married.
Church Records - just as churches maintain birth and christening records, marriage records are also often available.
Personal Bibles - many families recorded marriage date information in the family Bible.
Marriage Licenses and Other Announcements in the Newspaper - marriage license announcements, as well as weddings and engagements abound in newspapers. Tons of marriage related information can be found in newspapers, in the vitals section, society pages, women's sections as well as the local interest sections.
Passport Applications - the name of a married woman's husband is included for early 20th century passports. And sometimes, place and date of marriage is included.
Divorce Records - dates and locations of marriage are included in divorce records. Divorce indexes are usually not as detailed, as they often do not include the actual marriage date, but only the number of years married.
Wills and Probate Documents - although dates and location of marriages are not often included, at least the name of the spouse is available.
Dowry and Pre-nuptial Documents - the name of the spouse and often date and location of marriage is included. I have a dowry document from the 1800s that includes this information.
Cohabitation Registers - for marriages and children born to those in slavery.
Personal Collections - wedding invitations, wedding programs, and personal letters citing a family wedding.
Land Deeds - may identify spouse if both parties names are on the deed.
Court Records - may include spouses names, and possibly widow or widower's name.

Free FamilySearch Marriage Record Collections:

There are over 270 million marriage records available from FamilySearch from all over the world. This is a great place to start to find marriage information - and it's free!

What other documents have you researched that could be added to the list?

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Historic American Labor and Union Newspapers

1/21/2018

Union membership was about 15% in the 1930's and peaked at about 35% in the 1950's in the U.S. Currently, union membership ps about 10%, even though in the past couple of decades, public sector union membership has increased.

Unions, labor movements and workers had specialty newspapers throughout the country. Some of these have been digitized and the links by state are below. Please note that I have excluded subscription databases from the list.

(Updated January, 2018)

Alabama

Avondale Sun

California

Georgia

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Archives

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Kentucky

Louisiana

Massachusetts

Boston Worker

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Workers World

Montana

Nebraska

Farmer Labor Herald

Nevada

Basic Magnesium, Inc. Newsletters

New York

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Farmers Union News

Pennsylvania

South Dakota

The Daily Dakota Farmers' Leader Volume

Tennessee

Southern Worker

Virginia

The Labor Herald

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Labor Advocate

Wyoming

Wyoming Labor Journal

Good luck finding articles about your union ancestors!

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