Blog - The Ancestor Hunt

425 Birth, Marriage, and Death Record Collection Links from U.S. Western States

4/28/2018

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 from the Western states of the U.S. Also included is the total number of BMD record collection links and the added collections from the previous update.

Alaska Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (18 total, 6 new)
Arizona Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (28 total, 12 new)
California Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (45 total, 20 new)
Colorado Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (31 total, 11 new)
Hawaii Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (19 total, 2 new)
Idaho Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (40 total, 10 new)
Montana Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (42 total, 11 new)
Nevada Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (25 total, 5 new)
New Mexico Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (28 total, 8 new)
Oregon Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (45 total, 10 new)
Utah Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (52 total, 6 new)
Washington Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (35 total, 9 new)
Wyoming Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (20 total, 6 new)

Happy Hunting!

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560 Birth, Marriage, and Death Record Collection Links from U.S. Mid-West States

4/24/2018

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 from the Mid-West states of the U.S. Also included is the total number of BMD record collection links and the added collections from the previous update.

Illinois Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (51 total, 20 new)
Indiana Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (85 total, 58 new)
Iowa Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (35 total, 15 new)
Kansas Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (44 total, 22 new)
Michigan Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (63 total, 33 new)
Minnesota Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (36 total, 10 new)
Missouri Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (46 total, 14 new)
Nebraska Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links 24 total, 8 new)
North Dakota Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (20 total, 5 new)
Ohio Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (62 total, 30 new)
Oklahoma Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (23 total, 10 new)
South Dakota Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (23 total, 11 new)
Wisconsin Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (50 total, 28 new)

Happy Hunting!

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200 Birth, Marriage, and Death Record Collection Links from U.S. New England States

4/22/2018

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 from the New England states of the U.S. Also included is the total number of BMD record collection links and the added collections from the previous update.

Connecticut Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (38 total, 8 new)
Maine Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (35 total, 15 new)
Massachusetts Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (42 total, 22 new)
New Hampshire Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (34 total, 11 new)
Rhode Island Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (22 total, 5 new)
Vermont Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (30 total, 12 new)

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Connecticut to Add 25 Historic Newspapers to Chronicling America

4/21/2018

Source: Connecticut State Library

The Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project (CDNP) Advisory Board has just announced the selection of the following 25 titles for the third NEH grant and that they should all be online by the fall of 2019:

Daily

New Britain Herald, 1920-1930

Weeklies

Connecticut Western News, 1871-1922
Tolland County Press (Stafford Springs), 1883
The Press (Stafford Springs), 1883-1922

Italian Language

La Tribuna del Connecticut (Bridgeport, Conn.), 1906-1908
L’Indipendente (New Haven, Conn.), 1907-1936
La Sentinella (Bridgeport, Conn.), 1920-1930

African American

Hartford-Springfield Chronicle, 1940
Hartford Chronicle, 1946-1947
Connecticut Chronicle (Hartford, Conn.), 1948
New England Bulletin (Hartford, Conn.), 1949

Labor

Mechanics’, Operatives’, and Laborers’ Advocate (Norwich, Conn.), 1836-1837
American Mechanic and Home Journal (Norwich, Conn.), 1849
The Liberty Bell and Workingmen’s Advocate (Norwich, Conn.), 1867
The Examiner (Hartford, Conn.), 1881-1888
The Weekly Examiner (Hartford, Conn.), 1890-1901
Workmen’s Advocate (New Haven, Conn.), 1883-1891
Connecticut Citizen (Ridgefield, Conn.), 1892
Hartford Labor, 1894
Connecticut Workman (Bridgeport, Conn.), 1901
The Stamford American, 1906
The Labor Standard (Hartford, Conn.), 1910-1922
The Connecticut Labor Press (New Haven, Conn.), 1918-1921
The Connecticut Labor News (New Haven, Conn.), 1921-1925
The Connecticut Craftsman (Hartford, Conn.), 1932

From the Hartford Courant:

"The Connecticut State Library is pleased to announce that with a third grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 25 newspaper titles have been selected to be digitized for the Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project (CDNP), and made freely available online.

Gregg Mangan, Manager of Digital Humanities at CT Humanities noted that "this collection is a windfall for researchers interested in exploring the diverse stories that make up our history." For the full list of specific newspapers and dates, history blogs and other resources, please go to the CDNP website at http://ctdigitalnewspaperproject.org/.

All titles are expected to be completed and freely available online through the Library of Congress' Chronicling America site https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ by Fall 2019, adding to our other CT newspapers from Bridgeport, New Haven, Newtown, Norwich, and Waterbury http://ctdigitalnewspaperproject.org/ . In addition, the State Library's Newspapers of Connecticut digital collection is also available online and is in the process of being added to the Connecticut Digital Archive."

For the complete article, please click on Connecticut State Library Announces 25 Historic Newspaper Titles to be Digitized

Terrific News from the State of Connecticut!

For access to other historic newspapers from the state that are currently available for free online, please check out Connecticut Online Historical Newspapers Summary

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305 Birth, Marriage, and Death Record Collection Links from U.S. Mid-Atlantic States

4/21/2018

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 from the Mid-Atlantic states of the U.S. Also included is the total number of BMD record collection links and the added collections from the previous update.

Delaware Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (26 total, 6 new)
District of Columbia Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (21 total, 6 new)
Maryland Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (29 total, 11 new)
New Jersey Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (36 total, 15 new)
New York Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (70 total, 38 new)
Pennsylvania Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (55 total, 35 new)
Virginia Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (45 total, 27 new)
West Virginia Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (24 total, 7 new)

Happy Hunting!

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575 Birth, Marriage, and Death Record Collection Links from U.S. Southern States

4/20/2018

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 from the Southern states of the U.S. Also included is the total number of BMD record collection links and the added collections from the previous update

Alabama Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (30 total, 13 new)
Arkansas Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (28 total, 8 new)
Florida Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (48 total, 23 new)
Georgia Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (58 total, 28 new)
Kentucky Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (33 total, 17 new)
Louisiana Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (28 total, 9 new)
Mississippi Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (31 total, 12 new)
Missouri Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (46 total, 14 new)
North Carolina Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (35 total, 14 new)
Oklahoma Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (23 total, 10 new)
South Carolina Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (27 total, 10 new)
Tennessee Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (52 total, 24 new)
Texas Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (64 total, 29 new)
Virginia Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (45 total, 27 new)
West Virginia Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links (24 total, 7 new)

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Use These 12 Special Keywords to Improve Your Newspaper Research Results

4/20/2018

When entering our search criteria in the search box on an online historical newspaper site, we often focus primarily on the name of the target ancestor or family. We might also search for a location or an address. or combine these with a name.

My guess is that well over 90% of online newspaper searches employ the above techniques.

I offer you some additional ways to hone in on target ancestor articles, and this is to use keywords in your search criteria. Here are some examples, that if used will get you more and better results:

If you are searching for obituaries,

Add the keyword "Beloved" or
"Beloved wife" or,
"Beloved husband" etc. The word "beloved" is used frequently in obituaries. So entering these keywords plus the surname may focus in on obituaries.
Similar to "beloved" try the word "dear", as in "dear husband" or "dear sister." This will also focus in on obituaries.
A third keyword used in obituaries is "loving". For example, "loving daughter" or "loving husband".

If you are searching for a birth announcement,

Add in the keywords "born to the wife of" or,
"Born to" along with the name and that will focus in on articles about births.

Was your ancestor a business owner?

Add the word "president" or "proprietor" to the name.

Did your ancestor belong to a lodge or club? Try "president" or "chairman" or "secretary" for example.

Was your ancestor a union member?

Try using "Union rep", or
"Shop steward"

Try using the occupation in your search criteria, such as

"Doctor" or "electrician" or "plumber" in conjunction with the name.

Were they in the military?

Try "Corporal" or "Sergeant" or Captain", etc.

There are all kinds of ways to narrow in on your ancestors in old newspapers. Using these keywords will definitely help. In fact, I guarantee it.

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22,100 Total FREE U.S. Historical Newspaper Links - First 2018 Update

4/19/2018

Source: military.com

On this website, the first set of free online links to U.S. historical newspapers was published in February, 2014. Updates were added in June, 2015, December, 2015, June, 2016, February 2017, July, 2017, and December, 2017.

This first update of 2018 adds another 2,480 titles.

The grand total is over 22,100 FREE links to historical American newspapers!

More and more newspapers are being digitized and are being made available for all of us to research. Some are full-text searchable and others are browsable.

I will continue to follow the digitization activities across the country and hope to publish the next update in mid-2018. Look for the monthly articles that I publish about new digitization efforts around the country.

You need to know where these links to new and updated collections can be found, so that you can discover articles about your ancestors. Hopefully these 51 articles full of free links will assist you in your discovery and research.

To search the new (and old) and updated links, choose your state link below and see all the newspapers that are available for you to research.

(Please note - there may be more that I have not yet discovered, and if you are aware of some that I have not included, please let me know in the comments)

Happy Hunting!

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The 7 MUST USE Abbreviations for Searching Genealogy Records and Newspapers

4/14/2018

In old newspapers, abbreviations were used to save space. Abbreviations were used to shorten many words - the most notable being given names as well as addresses.

Remember that your search criteria is just a series of letters that are matched against a search index that was created from the scan and OCR process applied to the subject newspaper page.

Your search index database is not smart enough, for example, to interpret "ave." for the word "avenue." So if you are entering "335 14th Avenue" - if the search index includes "Ave" the search will not be successful. Therefore you must search both "335 14th Avenue" and "335 14th Ave" to get all possible results.

So when developing your search criteria for both genealogy and newspaper searches, you need to include abbreviations in your repertoire.

Here are some examples of abbreviations that you should employ in your search criteria:

For street names, try "ave" and "avenue" Also "st" and "street". There is a great number of others that you should consider for the "type" of "street such as Wy and Way, Ct and Court, Pl and Place, etc..
For cities, if there is an abbreviation - for example NYC for New York City, or Philly for Philadelphia, try the abbreviation as well as the whole city name.
How about business names - "co" and "company", "inc" and "incorporated", etc.
Given names can provide a great number of increased results by using abbreviations. Try abbreviations for names, such as "Wm" for William, or "Jno" for John, or "Jos" for Joseph, "Eliz" for Elizabeth, and "Robt" for Robert, just to name a few. Here is a terrific list from Genealogy In Time.
One often forgotten is "Mrs." Remember that married women were not always addressed with their first name in a newspaper article, but were written as Mrs. Robert Smith for example, regardless if their name was Mildred, Margaret, or Mary. So incorporate that into your search criteria.
This one is a bit unique. But if you are searching classified ads, you can always search for a phone number. We certainly don't know the phone numbers from many 20th century ancestors, but if you happen to find it in a telephone directory, you might find classified ads in newspapers by searching that phone number. When I was a kid, our number was Elgin 1-1696, so I would search for "Elgin" as well as "El" before the numbers.
For military titles, try "Capt" for Captain, Col" for "Colonel", Sgt" for Sergeant, etc.

There may be many others, so you need to search for abbreviated words as well as entire words to maximize your search results. My guess is that you can likely increase your pertinent results by 10 to 20%.

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Advantage Preservation Adds 950K Historical Newspaper Pages - March, 2018

4/13/2018

In February, 2017, I published for the first time, a list of the catalog of online historical newspapers from over 400 different collections put together by the Advantage Preservation Company, developed in conjunction with the libraries, historical societies and museums across the U.S. who preserve the historical newspapers for their communities. Every month, I have been publishing the added collections produced by Advantage Preservation. To see the entire updated list, click on 50 Million Historic U.S. Newspaper Pages Now Available from Advantage Preservation That Can Be Searched for Free!

Here are the new County and Library collections that were added In March, 2018, after the previous Advantage Preservation update, followed by the collections that have had additional newspapers added to their collections in the last month.

New County and Library Collections (listed by county; includes publication title, and number of issues or pages, and years of publication in the online collection):

Iowa
Linn County
Coe College

Coe College Courier
(2001-2017) 1,343 Pages

Massachusetts
Plymouth County
Scituate Town Library

South Shore Mirror
(1957-1974) 32,523 Pages
South Shore Weekly Mirror
(1955-1957) 1,720 Pages
Scituate Mirror
(1974-1974) 583 Pages
Scituate Mirror Summer
(1974-1974) 16 Pages

Michigan
Oceana County
Shelby Area District Library

Oceanas Herald Journal
(1988-2005) 25,351 Pages

Rhode Island
Providence County
Cranston Public Library

Cranston Herald
98,581 Pages
1936-2016
Cranston News
6,985 Pages
1922-1939
Cranston Herald Today
4,457 Pages
1975-1977
Cranston Today
3,831 Pages
1972-1975
Cranston Mirror
3,356 Pages
1969-1991
Howard Times
2,943 Pages
1885-1905
Cranston City Times
2,016 Pages
1921-1925
Herald News
1,102 Pages
1939-1940
Cranston Herald News
404 Pages
1939-1939
Cranston Leader
134 Pages
1889-1890
Neighborhood News
118 Pages
1930-1954

Updated Collections
Here is a list by state and county of the existing online collections that had pages added in the last month that are available to search for free:

Arkansas

Sebastian - Fort Smith Public Library

Connecticut

Litchfield - Thomaston Public Library

Idaho

Cassia - Burley Public Library

Illinois

Iowa

Plymouth - Akron Public Library
Linn - Cedar Rapids Public Library
Appanoose - Centerville Iowegian
Linn - Coe College
Carroll - Coon Rapids Public Library
Clayton - Garnavillo Historical Society
Jones - Jones County Genealogical Society
Sioux - Libraries of Sioux County
Linn - Marion Public Library
Washington - Washington County Library Association

Kansas

Louisiana

Bienville - Bienville Parish Public Library
Caldwell - Caldwell Parish Library
Concordia - Concordia Parish Public Library
Rapides - Rapides Parish Library
Vernon - Vernon Parish Library
Webster - Webster Parish Library

Maine

Cumberland - Bridgton Public Library
Kennebec - Gardiner Public Library
Aroostook - Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library

Maryland

Queen Anne's - Queen Anne's County Library

Massachusetts

Michigan

Newaygo - White Cloud Community Library

Mississippi

Coahoma - Carnegie Public Library

Missouri

Grundy - Grundy County Jewett Norris Library

Montana

Hill - Havre Hill County Library

Nevada

Douglas - Douglas County Public Library

New York

Ohio

Oklahoma

Bryan - Donald W Reynolds Community Center & Library

Rhode Island

Washington - Island Free Library
Washington - North Kingstown Library

Texas

West Virginia

Mineral - Potomac State College Mary Shipper Library

Wisconsin

Chippewa - Chippewa Falls Public Library

If you wish to see a complete list of links to historical newspapers that are searchable for free from companies like Advantage Preservation and many others, check out Newspaper Research Links.

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