Free Genealogy Resources

Showing posts with label vital records. Show all posts

Freebie for Newfoundland Genealogy

Yesterday I was poking around on the internet and came across a great site for those tracing ancestors from Newfoundland. According to the Newfoundland's Grand Banks website, it offers "genealogical and historical data for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador." I'm still exploring to learn the true depth of the site, but from what I've found so far, it could be an invaluable free resource for those tracing their genealogy.

The site offers a message board for genealogists researching families from the area, a wide array of transcriptions and historical information on the area. Specific genealogical data you can expect to find includes

Cemetery Transcriptions
Census (Newfoundland, US, Canada and British
Directories
Family Bibles
Legal Documents
Newspapers
Photographs
Passenger Lists
Parish Records
Voter's Lists
Vital Statistics
Wills

On the historical side, the site offers

Colonial Office Records
House of Assembly Records
Historical information on some communities
Disasters
Military Records
Stories

If your family has a connection to Newfoundland and you haven't yet checked out this free genealogy resource, make sure to add it to your to-do list. You may be surprised what you can find.

Lots of Michigan Genealogy Resources for Free

I spent the last day going through the many posts I've written here. As I looked through them all, I realized that I have a lot of resources for some states and little to none for others. In the next few weeks, I'm going to try to remedy that. With that in mind, today's freebie focuses on the state of Michigan.

Seeking Michigan offers a wealth of genealogy information at no cost. Clicking on seek allows you to search the collections. Discover shows you the collections available. These include:

Architecture
Civil War Battle Flags
Civil War Manuscripts
Civil War Photographs
Civil War Service Records
Death Records 1897-1920
Early Documents
Early Photography
GLO Plat Maps
Governors of Michigan
Lighthouses and Life-saving Stations
Main Streets
Maps
Music of Michigan
Oral Histories
WPA Property Inventories

The look tab takes you to the site's blog which posts weekly highlighting an item from the archives' collections.

Resource for Adair County, Iowa Newspapers

Newspapers can hold a variety of information on our ancestors lives. In addition to announcements of births, marriages and deaths, they can allow you a peek into your ancestor's life at a specific time period.

Today's resource is the Adair County Anquestors Genealogy Society's Significant Life Events Index. The society has gone through microfilmed papers and created an index of birth, marriage, divorce, anniversary, obituary and reunion announcements. They are organized by topic. Just click on the links near the top of the page.

The birth announcements give the name of the parent (including some maiden names for mothers), sex of child, child's name (if available), newspaper name and date published. The final column, location is left blank when the child was born in Adair County, but will list the location if the child was born elsewhere.

The marriage announcements give the name of the bride and groom, newspaper name, publishing date and location. The divorce announcements page gives the couple's names, the name of the newspaper and the date the announcement appeared. The anniversaries page lists the couple, which anniversary they were celebrating, the newspaper and date published.

The obituaries announcement page is a little different because you need to know the year. After clicking on the year, you get an alphabetized list of the surname, first and middle name, maiden name for women, newspaper and date. Some years have a comments column which may offer additional information.

The reunion page is for announcements of family reunions. These are organized by name and give the family name, newspaper and date published.

It doesn't note on the page whether you can get copies of the actual newspaper announcement, but the society's main page does say that they accept research requests so you probably can get a copy for a fee.

Free Genealogy Resource for Gilpin County, Colorado Marriages

If you have ancestors that lived in Gilpin County, Colorado, you will definitely want to check out today's free genealogy resource. The Gilpin County Brides and Grooms Marriage Index is part of the Colorado Archives. It covers the years 1864 to 1944. Colorado didn't require recording of marriage records prior to 1881 so earlier records in the index may be sporadic.

The index is organized alphabetically by surname with two separate indexes for brides and grooms. This is a really nice find as most marriage indexes are organized by groom's surname only. Just click on the first letter of your bride or groom's surname to get the list. The index includes the bride's name, groom's name and date of marriage.

If you decide you want a copy of the record, you can mail, email or call in a request. There are fees for looking up the record and making a copy of it. I looked around the site, but wasn't able to find a list of charges so you will need to contact them to find out the cost.

Free Genealogy Resource for California

Recently I was doing some research into California records in an effort to trace my husband's great grandmother who passed away there. Along the way, I came across a transcription of Early California Wills, which was published by the DAR in 1952.

The transcription is broken up into six volumes. Volume 1 covers Los Angeles County wills from 1850 to 1885. Volume 2 picks up where the first left off and covers 1885 to 1890. Volume 3 covers wills in San Diego County from 1848-1899.

Volumes 4 and 5 offers bonuses. Volume 4 offers wills from Placer, Shasta and Yuba Counties. It also has Shasta County births, marriages, deaths and divorces from 1927 and Placer County marriage licenses from 1852 to 1856. Volume 5 has Kern County wills 1876-1899 and marriage licenses 1850-1900.

Volume 6 has wills from Santa Clara and Solano Counties. It doesn't say what years are covered.

Clicking on the volume will take you further down the page where there is information on the volume, transcribers, and an overview of the book. It appears that each page is transcribed separately. Clicking on the page takes you to the information on that page.

This is a great free genealogy resource for those researching California ancestors. Information varies between entries, but from scrolling through, it looks like some have the names of parents, spouses, children and even in-laws. I'm not sure if this is common, but I did notice one entry that had a note about the spouse's later marriage as well. Makes sure to check who the executor and witnesses are as well. These may be family members or close acquaintances.

Free Genealogy Resources for Hawaii

Today I visited the website of the Hawaii State Archives. Even those I have no ancestors from the state (at least that I know of at this point), I was curious about what they have to offer. Those who do have Hawaiian ancestors will be pleased to hear that they have several digital collections.

The page is broken up into four sections-search, indexes, records and other resources. The search will look through all the digital collections that are indexed by name with the exception of the genealogy index, Mahele book, map and library catalog, and photographs.

The Indexes section has a Genealogy Index, Government Office Holders 1843-1959, Chinese Passenger Manifests Index, Japanese Passenger Manifests Index, Portuguese Passenger Manifests Index, two Land Indexes by name 1838-1918 (A, E, U only in one and R-Z only in the second), and a Name Index 1790-1950 (A-Bishop Only).

The Genealogy Index can be searched or browsed. The results will give you the specific location of the document, the name(s) and a link to an extract and actual image of the document. This particular index is a wealth of free genealogy resources with marriage records, divorce records, probates and wills, and naturalization, denization and passports.

The Government Office Holders Index can be searched or browsed. If browsing, you have the option to browse by name or office. The index is incomplete and doesn't offer a lot of data.

You can search or browse all of the passenger manifests indexes. Once you find the name you are seeking, click on the PDF icon for more information. This may include the person's full name, age at time, marital status, date of arrival, ship name and place they emigrated from.

The Land Indexes are incomplete. They are broken into two separate indexes, one for surnames beginning with A, E or U and one for surnames beginning with the letters R-Z. Again, this can be searched or browsed. Click on the PDF icon for more information such as date, land patent number, lot and location.

As with some of the other indexes, the Name Index is a work in progress. At this time, only A through Bishop is available. The PDF icon will show you a card which has various miscellaneous information about the individual. Available information varies by card.

The records are broken up into Judiciary Records, the Mahele Book, Photograph Collection, Tax Ledgers 1847-1900 (Hamakua and Hilo), Vital Statistics 1826-1929 (Molokai, Niihau, Kauai and some of Maui) and World War I Service Records.

The Judiciary Records collection is very limited. At the time of this post, it only has two probate case files. The description of the collection notes that more will be added as they are requested.

The Mahele Book is a PDF file. For those not familiar with the mahele, it was the division of lands between Kamehameha III, the chiefs, and the konohiki. This division occurred between January 28, 1848 and March 7, 1848. For a fuller description of the transactions documented in this book, I would suggest checking out the Hawaiian Kingdom Government's page on the history of land titles. Keep in mind that the book is a handwritten record and locations are given by their traditional names, not necessarily by what they are called now.

The Photograph Collections has 290 items. You can browse through the photographs 9 to a page or search by keyword. It includes pictures of various landmarks around the state and people. If your ancestors owned a plantation in Hawaii, you may get lucky and find a picture of it since there are several plantations in the collection.

You can search or browse by name the WWI Service Records. Information in this database was compiled from enlistment records. This free genealogy resource can offer information on the ancestors date and place of birth, service related injuries, residence and more.

The Tax Ledgers are organized by date or location. They open as a PDF file. They contain the individual's name, age, residence, type of property, property value and exemptions. The majority of the ledgers are in Hawaiian, but some offer English as well.

The Vital Statistics Collections spans the years 1826 through 1929. Currently, there are birth, marriage and death records for Kauai, Niihau and Molokai. There are birth and death records for Maui with a few marriages as well. You can search or browse by name or location. If you don't find your ancestor's name when browsing, it's recommended that you search the name as well as it may be indexed incorrectly.

Last but not least, the Other Resources section links you to the library catalog.