Blog Archives

Free Online Divorce Record Collections for the Mid Atlantic States

9/28/2019

Divorce records from all over the U.S are sometimes difficult to find online. They are another hidden gem of information that can assist you in advancing your family history and genealogy research.

What can you find in these records? Obviously the dates and location of the divorce proceeding, the date and location of the marriage, the woman's maiden name, names of minor children, and the reason for the divorce. The reason can not only provide another part of your ancestor's story, but also may lead to more clues, especially in the case of desertion, where you may be able to find the location that the "deserting" party moved to.

WARNING: Some of the information in the Divorce Petitions may be difficult to read. There may be shocking claims, especially related to your ancestors' physical and emotional cruelty, or other behavior. Be prepared.

In most cases, I did not include the links to County Courts, where most divorce records are now processed and the documents held. But these divorce documents for most states are partially held in either state archives or county clerk records. So you may wish to avail yourself of these county clerk an court archives, especially those that can be searched online.

Note: Please be aware that if you find a desired divorce record in an index, that the holder of the actual materials (e.g., archive, county court, etc.) may charge a small fee to send you a copy of the material itself.

Note: Some of the links listed below take you to a FamilySearch Collection of digital images. Near the bottom of the page under Film/Digital Notes is the name of each sub-collection. If there is a camera icon at the right of the name (in the Format column) then the collections' images are browsable. If there is a camera with a key icon, it is only available at a Family History Center or affiliated library. If there is a film reel icon, then it is only available in microfilm format, not digital.

Below, listed by state are links to divorce records and indexes available for free online.

(Updated September, 2019; recently added links are in BOLD)

Delaware

Delaware Divorce Acts

District of Columbia

(None yet)

Maryland

New Jersey

(None yet)

New York

Pennsylvania

Virginia

West Virginia

For free online divorce records from other states, please visit the Divorce Records page.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

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Why You Should Be Visiting The Ancestor Hunt Regularly

9/25/2019

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For about 5 and a half years (since February,2014), I have been researching and making available to visitors and readers, links to free online collections from various genealogy record categories.

I started with historical newspapers, and added photo archives, BMD records, and obituary and obituary index collections a couple of years later.

In the past year, I have added school yearbooks, voter lists, and most recently coroner records; all links to free collections, and available online.

I am currently working on Probate and Wills, and Divorce Records. After completing these categories, I will be updating Newspapers and Photos, and then will tackle Naturalizations.

Below is a one minute video to remind you of all the different research categories. They can be accessed on this site by either the horizontal menu bar near the top of the page, or via the buttons in the right sidebar.

Thanks to all my frequent visitors and readers

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Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

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Free Online Divorce Record Collections for the Southern States

9/24/2019

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Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

Missouri

North Carolina

Oklahoma

South Carolina

(None yet)

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

West Virginia

For free online divorce records from other states, please visit the Divorce Records page.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

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Thank you for visiting The Ancestor Hunt!

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NY State Historical Newspapers Adds/Updates 15 Titles - September, 2019

9/19/2019

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If you follow this website at all, you know that I from time to time update the free online historical newspapers that are available for you to search. I originally posted the New York Online Historical Newspapers Summary in February, 2014, and have added many updates, the latest in July, 2019. The largest collection for the state is Old Fulton New York Postcards which has significant updates once or twice a year. I usually write an article alerting you to those updates as they are published.

The NY State Historic Newspapers site is not as well known as Old Fulton Postcards, but is adding and updating titles at a very rapid rate and has about 9.3 million pages available.

All of the counties in the state are represented. It is brought to you by the Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the Empire State Library Network. You should take advantage of this resource and check back often.

Here are the latest added and updated newspapers included in their September, 2019 update. You can search them at NY State Historic Newspapers.

New Titles

Dundee observer. - Dundee, N.Y., 1971-????
Dziennik dla wszystkich = Polish everybody's daily. - Buffalo, N.Y., 1907-1957
The Long Island kernel. - Freeport, L.I., N.Y., 195?-1966
CO-NO press. - Cortland, N.Y., 1926-1942

Updated Titles

The beacon. - Babylon, N.Y., 1972-current
The Bethpage tribune. - Bethpage, N.Y., 1966-current
The Dragon chronicle. - Cortland, N.Y., 1990-current
The East Hampton Star. - East Hampton, N.Y., 1885-current
The Granville sentinel. - Granville, N.Y., 188?-current
The Long-Islander. - Huntington [N.Y.], 1839-current
Manhasset press. - Manhasset, N.Y., 1934-current
Northport journal. - Northport, N.Y., 1885-current
Northport observer. - Northport, N.Y., 192?-1961
The observer. - Northport, Huntington TWP., N.Y., 1962-current
The Webster herald. - Webster, N.Y., 1899-current

For a complete list of all this collection's titles as well as all New York titles available online, go to New York Online Historical Newspapers Summary.

Good luck with your research!

For other states and additional newspaper research resources, check out the Newspapers page

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Advantage Archives Adds 650K Historical Newspaper Pages - August, 2019

9/5/2019

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In February, 2017, I started publishing a list of the catalog of online historical newspapers from over 400 different collections put together by the Advantage Archives Company, developed in conjunction with the libraries, historical societies and museums across the U.S. who preserve the historical newspapers for their communities. The list has grown a lot since then. Now there are over 630 collections - a 50% per cent growth in a little over two years.

To see the latest complete list, click on 60 Million Historic U.S. Newspaper Pages Now Available from Advantage Archives.

Here are the new County and Library collections that were added after the previous monthly Advantage Archives update, followed by the collections that have had newspapers added to their existing collections in the last month.

New County and Library Collections (listed by county; includes name and link to collection, and number of issues or pages):

Alabama

Baldwin - Fairhope Public Library (35,868 pages)

Colorado

San Juan County - San Juan County (13,307 pages)

Connecticut

Fairfield - Weston Library (1,874 pages)

Iowa

Ringgold - Mount Ayr Preservation (34,716 pages)
Woodbury - Correctionville (45,984 pages)

Massachusetts

Bristol - Mansfield Public Library (19,767 pages)
Essex - Manchester Cricket (64,685 pages)

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:

Iowa

Kansas

Pottawatomie - Wamego Public Library

Kentucky

Johnson - Johnson County Library

Louisiana

Rapides - Rapides Parish Library

Maine

Manitoba

Westman Region - Brandon Sun

Massachusetts

Michigan

Kent - Grand Rapids Public Library
Oceana - Shelby Area District Library

Mississippi

Coahoma - Carnegie Public Library

Montana

Yellowstone - Billings Public Library

Nebraska

Otoe - Otoe County Archives
Saline - Doane University

New Hampshire

Carroll - Conway Public Library
Strafford - Dover Public Library

New York

Broome - Mary L. Wilcox Memorial Library
Greene - Catskill
Nassau - Hewlett Woodmere Public Library
Rensselaer - Troy Public Library
Ulster - Saugerties Public Library
Westchester - Chappaqua Public Library

Ohio

Gallia - Bossard Memorial Library

Rhode Island

Washington - Island Free Library

Texas

West Virginia

Mineral - Potomac State College Mary Shipper Library
Ohio - Ohio County Public Library

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

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