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Outstanding Free Map and Ancestor Search Tools for Genealogists

11/27/2019

4 Comments

 
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I asked my fellow ancestor hunter Randy Majors to summarize all of his tools for genealogists. If you haven't visited the RandyMajors.com website packed full of map and search tools that genealogists love, this post is a run-down of what you should check out!

Randy tells me that years ago, he started creating these tools for his own genealogy research and love of maps.  He decided to give back to the genealogy community by making them available so all of us can benefit as well.  He says it's a labor of love, and he's continuously creating new tools and adding new functionality, while focusing on keeping the tools as simple as possible to use and to help users find answers quickly. I can't wait to see what he builds next!

Let's see the tools!

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1. AncestorSearch on Google Search is a free search tool that uses Google Search enhancements so that you are much more likely to find mentions of the ancestors (or living people) you're looking for that are otherwise buried in thousands of Google search results.  Basically, it uses Google advanced search operators behind the scenes so you don't have to spend time typing a bunch of awkward characters.  Read more Detail and usage tips Here.  Note that AncestorSearch's coverage is ALL of what Google Search covers, not just a sub-set of websites.  Many people have left comments about how they uncovered new information about ancestors or even broken through brick walls...and in a matter of minutes in many cases. 

Personally, I just started using this tool a couple of days ago, and I can report that it is outstanding.  It was able to dig up an Oral History mp3 of my Great Aunt and her reflections of living through the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. It is priceless. Thanks, Randy.
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2. Historical U.S. Counties on Google Maps is a free tool that overlays any historical dates' county boundaries on Google Maps.  (As genealogists, we know just how important it is to be sure you're looking in the right place for the time frame of the records you're researching, and sometimes not doing so can be a cause for not finding what you're looking for; Here is a reminder of why this is so important.)  The Historical U.S. Counties on Google Maps tool uses the complete set of data from the Newberry Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, but in a much more detailed, quicker and more familiar interface that uses Google Maps.  Just type any present-day address or place in the "Search places" box above the map, then type any historical date or year in the "As of" box above the map.  You will see what county and state (or colony, if you're going back far enough) that spot was part of as of that historical date, along with details of the statute that triggered the boundary change.  You can also choose to Overlay the present-day county boundaries on the same map to get the complete picture of what has changed. 

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3. Section Township Range on Google Maps is a free tool that overlays the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) data from the BLM on Google Maps.  If you have a property description, for example, from an ancestor's farm or the BLM's Land Patent Search website, you might have seen something like "The southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 36, Township 14 North, Range 67 West of the 6th P.M."  Yes, its a mouthful, and you can Find out more about townships here.  And this tool let's you see where that location is using the "Find parcel" boxes at the bottom of the map.  Or if you have a present day place, latitude/longitude, address etc., you can type it in the "Search places" box above the map, and the tool will let you know what the Section Township Range is for that location.  Here are Lots of usage tips.
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​TIP:  Be sure and read the quick usage tips and other details below the map on each tool's page.

4. Create your own custom link to a historical county lines map for any date and state and include it on your own blog or website!  Here's an example link that shows shows Oregon counties in 1865, along with county name labels on the map:  https://www.randymajors.com/p/maps.html?state=OR&year=1865&labels=show    Full instructions Here for historical counties and Here for present-day counties and ZIP Codes.
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5. There are lots of other present-day map tools that fill in niches that you can't show on standard Google Maps.  Shown in order of popularity:
  • County Lines on Google Maps (includes coverage for the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and Switzerland)
  • ZIP Codes on Google Maps (U.S. coverage)
  • Custom Maps on Google Maps (U.S. coverage)
  • City Limits on Google Maps (U.S. coverage)
  • Time Zones on Google Maps (WORLDWIDE coverage)
  • Elevation on Google Maps (WORLDWIDE coverage)
  • Area Codes on Google Maps (North American coverage)

6. There are also a couple of cool all-in-one map tools that pack in lots of little maps about any U.S. location:
  • Location Explorer on Google Maps (shows City Limits, County Lines, State, ZIP Code, Area Code, Congressional District, Latitude/Longitude, Township/Range, Watershed, National Parks/Forests, Elevation, Slope and Aspect.  U.S. coverage) 
  • Climate Info on Google Maps (shows average high temperatures, low temperatures and precipitation for summer and winter, as well as how much the average temperature and precipitation has changed from historical norms.  U.S. coverage)

7. And finally, a couple of short-cut county map tools:
  • County Maps of all 50 U.S. States (a link to each state's map; U.S. coverage)
  • What County Am I In? (uses your current location to tell you what county you're in; try it on your smartphone anywhere in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico or Switzerland)

Beyond uses for genealogy, the website contains lots of other tools whose popular uses include real estate, sales, business planning, field research, sales tax determination, education, routing, travel, entertainment, permitting, grassroots efforts and determining county jurisdiction. Here's a brief run-down:

Be sure and subscribe to Randy's tool updates on his Site (the subscribe button is at the very top of the page), as he's constantly adding new functionality, and you won't want to miss out!
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Advantage Archives Adds 1 Million Historical Newspaper Pages - October, 2019

11/17/2019

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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 650 collections - over a 50% per cent growth in a little over two and a half years.

To see the latest complete list, click on
 70 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):
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Iowa
  • Adair - Casey Public Library (20,612 pages)
  • Dallas - Adel (106,794 pages)

Kentucky
  • Edmonson - Edmonson County Public Library (4,296 pages)

Massachusetts
  • Essex - Lynn Public Library (40,479 pages)
  • Middlesex - Goodnow Library (141,752 pages)

Nebraska
  • Scotts Bluff - Mitchell Public Library (59,767 pages)

New Hampshire
  • Merrimack - New Hampshire State Library (4,181 pages)

New Jersey
  • Hunterdon - Lambertville Free Library (2,755 pages)

New York
  • Nassau - Locust Valley Library (32,496 pages)

Updated Collections
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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:

Arizona
  • Pinal - Casa Grande Public Library

Connecticut
  • Litchfield - Scoville Memorial Library

Georgia
  • Colquitt - Moultrie Colquitt County Library System

Illinois
  • Clark - Marshall Public Library
  • DuPage - St. Charles Public Library
  • Lawrence - Lawrence Public Library
  • Stark - Toulon Public Library

Indiana
  • Knox - Knox County Public Library

Iowa
  • Appanoose - Centerville Iowegian
  • Kossuth - Algona Public Library
  • Linn - Cedar Rapids Public Library
  • Madison - Winterset Public Library
  • Story - Ames Public Library

Kansas
  • Geary - Dorothy Bramlage Public Library
  • Lyon - Emporia Public Library

Maine
  • Cumberland - Scarborough Public Library
  • York - Springvale Public Library and Goodall Memorial Library

Manitoba
  • ​Westman Region - Brandon Sun

Massachusetts
  • Essex - Amesbury Public Library
  • Essex - Manchester Cricket
  • Essex - Newburyport Public Library
  • Franklin - Wheeler Memorial Library
  • Norfolk - Sharon Public Library
  • Plymouth - Scituate Town Library

Michigan
  • Oceana - Shelby Area District Library

Mississippi
  • Coahoma - Carnegie Public Library

Montana
  • Yellowstone - Billings Public Library

Nebraska
  • Holt - Atkinson Library
  • Merrick - Central City Public Library
  • Saline - Doane University

Nevada
  • Douglas - Douglas County Public Library

New York
  • Chenango - Guernsey Memorial Library
  • Greene - Catskill
  • Orange - Albert Wisner Public Library
  • Rensselaer - Troy Public Library

Ohio
  • Gallia - Bossard Memorial Library
  • Greene - Xenia Archives
  • Hancock - Findlay-Hancock County Public Library

Pennsylvania
  • Chester - Spoke Newspaper

Texas
  • Andrews - Andrews County Library
  • Austin - Bellville Public Library
  • Victoria - Victoria Public Library
  • Wichita - Wichita Falls Public Library

West Virginia
  • Mineral - Potomac State College Mary Shipper Library
  • Ohio - Ohio County Public Library

Wisconsin
  • Jefferson - Irvin L Young Memorial 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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760 Western States Online Photo Archives Updated

11/9/2019

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An old proverb states that "the eyes are the windows into the soul." A genealogy corollary is that "a photo is a window into the lives of your ancestors."

I love old photos, whether they are portraits of my ancestors or historical photos for the period when they lived. And it is important to a complete research that one attempts to understand the environment that surrounds our ancestors' lives if one wants to truly appreciate what they went through. 

So where can they be found?  Obviously the best resource is our own photo albums and those that our relatives possess. But what about other resources? Many archives, historical societies, libraries and genealogical societies have collections of old photos. And in the past few years there has been a massive movement towards making these historical photo collections available online. Some have search capabilities where you can actually put in a surname or a location, name of a building or historical event and find what is available.

Please be aware that there may be very strict rules regarding downloading or other use of the images that you may find. Copyright and other legal protections may be in force. Make sure that you read the limitations of use for any image that you find in these collections and wish to download and/or copy. It is your responsibility to adhere to the rules for all of these collections.

Please note that links to these sites may change in the future. The author (me) will not be constantly checking and updating these links, so if you find a broken link, please use your favorite search engine to locate the new link.
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  • Alaska Online Historical Photos Research
  • Arizona Online Historical Photos Research
  • California Online Historical Photos Research
  • Colorado Online Historical Photos Research
  • Hawaii Online Historical Photos Research
  • Idaho Online Historical Photos Research
  • Montana Online Historical Photos Research
  • Nevada Online Historical Photos Research
  • New Mexico Online Historical Photos Research
  • Oregon Online Historical Photos Research
  • Utah Online Historical Photos Research
  • Washington Online Historical Photos Research
  • Wyoming Online Historical Photos Research

​For historical photos from other states as well as articles about photo research, please visit the Photos page.

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!​
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NY State Historical Newspapers Adds/Updates 34 Titles - November, 2019

11/7/2019

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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 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 9.5 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 November, 2019 update.  You can search them at NY State Historic Newspapers.
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New Titles
  • Bloomville mirror. - Bloomville, N.Y., 1851-1871
  • Chenango Republican, or, Oxford gazette and people's advocate. - Oxford, N.Y., 1826-1831
  • Cohoes advertiser. - Cohoes, N.Y., 1847-1849 - 
  • Cooperstown Federalist. - Cooperstown [N.Y.], 1809-1817
  • Dundee record. - Dundee, Yates Co., N.Y., 1844-1???
  • Elmira advertiser. - [Elmira, N.Y.], 1854-1858
  • Elmira daily advertiser. - Elmira, Chemung Co., N.Y., 18??-1897
  • The Elmira Republican. - Elmira, N.Y., 1843-185?
  • The Elmira tidings. - Elmira, N.Y., 1885-1???
  • Elmira weekly advertiser. - Elmira, N.Y., 186?-189?
  • Elmira weekly advertiser and Chemung County Republican. - Elmira, N.Y., 1858-186?
  • Elmira weekly gazette. - Elmira, N.Y., 185?-1881
  • The evening news. - Oneonta, N.Y., 1891-1???
  • Franklin visitor. - Franklin, N.Y., 1857-1863
  • Hartwick review and visitor. - Hartwick, Otsego Co., N.Y., 1902-19??
  • Hobart independent. - Hobart, N.Y., 1885-19??
  • The impartial observer. - Cooperstown, N.Y., 1808-1809
  • The New York farmer. - Cooperstown, N.Y., 1893-19??
  • The Otsego Democrat. - Cooperstown, N.Y., 1847-1855
  • Oxford gazette. - Oxford, Chenango County, N.Y., 1813-1826
  • Saturday evening review - Elmira, N.Y., 1869-1871
  • The Sea-side times. - Southampton, N.Y., 1881-1920
  • Southampton press. - Southampton, N.Y., 1897-current
  • The Southern-tier leader. - Elmira, N.Y., 1874-1876
  • Stamford and Bloomville mirror. - Stamford, N.Y., 1871-1874
  • The Star of Delaware. - Delhi, N.Y., 1858-186?
  • Sunday morning telegram. - Elmira, N.Y., 1879-1884
  • Sunday morning tidings. - Elmira, N.Y., 1881-1885
  • Watertown daily times. - Watertown, N.Y., 1870-1889
  • Watertown times. - Watertown, N.Y., 1890-1894
  • Watertown daily times. - Watertown, N.Y., 1894-current

Updated Titles
  • The Cohoes Republican. - Cohoes, N.Y., 1892-1920
  • The Elmira gazette. - Elmira, Tioga County, N.Y., 1828-185?
  • The Cohoes Republican. - Cohoes, N.Y., 1892-1920

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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