Free Genealogy Resources

Showing posts with label military. Show all posts

Canadian Genealogy Resource

Most of the resources I come across are for the US. Occasionally, I do come across a good site for other countries. Today's genealogy helper is Canadian Genealogy.

The site is filled with genealogical information for your research. On the left side of the page is links to information for each province in Canada. At the bottom of the list is a link to the Canadian Indians page. Even if you have Native American blood in the United States, you might want to take a look at this page. It includes the 1906 Handbook of American Indians, which documents tribes that traveled between the two countries.

On the right side of the homepage is links to other information. These include 22 of the 36 volumes of Chronicles of Canada, writings on the Jesuits in North America, Passamawquoddy Folklore and more.

One feature I really like about the site is that it includes both paid and free resources for your genealogy research. While Free Genealogy Resources is geared towards freebies, sometimes it becomes necessary to pay for the information you seek. The Canadian Genealogy website notes whether the links are for paid or free resources.

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.

Free Access to Historical Documents from the American South

While browsing at the local library, I came across a book that listed a large number of local and family histories that are available for viewing free online. The book, The Genealogist's Virtual Library: Full-Text Books Books on the World Wide Web, was an amazing find, especially since it wasn't anywhere near the history or genealogy section in the library.

One of the sites listed in the book was Documenting the American South, available through the University of North Carolina website. DocSouth in short, it is a gathering of fifteen collections. Part of the collections are specific to the state of North Carolina, while others cover the South as a whole. Collections include:

The Church in the Southern Black Community
The Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
The First Century of the First State University
First Person Narratives of the American South
Going to the Show
The James Lawrence Dusenbery Journal (1841-1842)
Library of Southern Literature
North American Slave Narratives
The North Carolina Experience
North Carolina Maps
North Carolinians and the Great War
Oral Histories of the American South
The Southern Homefront, 1861-1865
Thomas E. Watson Papers
True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students at the University of North Carolina

Visitors to DocSouth can browse by collection, author, title, subject or geographic location. You can also search using the box at the upper right of the screen. In addition to books, the collections hold letters, diaries, government papers, posters, pamphlets and more. Even if you don't find anything specific to your family, it's really worth taking a look to get a better sense of the culture and history of the South.

Free Genealogy Resource for Revolutionary War Records

Many of us can trace one, if not more, ancestor back to the Revolutionary War, which was fought from April 1775 to September 1783. Because today's free genealogy resource is a volunteer effort, they have chosen to limit their information to those that fought in the Southern Campaign or to those living in the states of Virginia, the Carolinas or Georgia.

Southern Campaigns offers both Revolutionary War pension statements and rosters. These are provided by volunteers who have taken the time to transcribe the original documents for inclusion on the site. If you would like to participate in the project, information on the process is in a box near the top of the linked page.

You can search or browse for your ancestor. Once you find the name you're looking for, clicking on it will load a PDF file that contains the transcription of the document. You will need Adobe Reader (a free download) to be able to view the files.

One thing I like about the search feature is that it doesn't just search for your ancestor's statement. It also searches for them in all the transcriptions of the site. So even if no one has transcribed your ancestor's records yet, you still get results if they are mentioned in someone else's records.

Pension statements can offer a wealth of information, not just genealogy facts. In addition to dates and locations, the statement may also include information on their activities during the war, as well as after the war. It's really quite interesting to read, even if your ancestor isn't included in the records to date.

Free Genealogy Resource for War Letters

Today's free genealogy resource is an interesting one. Most of us have ancestors that served in some military conflict in their lifetime. While historical records help us piece together their lives, nothing quite brings to life these individuals like their own words.

This morning I came across a collection at The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History called Battle Lines: Letters from America's Wars. This collection contains thousands of wartime letters from not only the soldiers that served in battle, but also their loved ones that stayed at home praying for their return. The letters span from the Revolutionary War to the more recent war in Iraq.

The collection is divided into five sections referred to as chapters. Chapter one is enlisting, chapter two comforts of home, chapter three love, chapter four combat and chapter five the end of war. Clicking on a chapter brings up the first of the letters in the chapter.

On the left side of the page, you will find the names of the writers. Below the names, you will find information on the author of the pictured letter on the right side of the page. At the bottom of the left hand column is a picture that relates to the letter in some way.

The letters are scanned in. There is a moveable bar that overlays part of the letter. Moving it down the letter shows you a transcription of what is written. This can be helpful in some of the harder to decipher letters.

Some letters have multiple pages. If you look below the letter's image, you can navigate to the other pages. Also below the image is a button that allows you to navigate to the next letter in the chapter.

One nice feature about this free genealogy resource is it doesn't just include famous names. Letters to and from ordinary soldiers are included as well. Even if you don't find your ancestor's name in this collection, it's worth reading the letters to help you better understand the challenges they and their family members faced at the time.

South Carolina Resource

While researching some of my family from South Carolina recently, I came across the Online Records Index for the South Carolina Department of Archives & History. This free genealogy resource offers a number of great tools to help you with your family tree research.

At the time of this post, there are over 300,000 items available in eight record groups. These records groups are Records of Confederate Veterans 1909-1973, Criminal Court Records, Index to Multiple Record Series ca 1675-1929, Legislative Papers 1782-1866, National Register of Historic Places, Plats for State Land Grants 1784-1868, School Insurance Photographs 1935-1952 and Will Transcripts 1782-1855. Each of these main eight record groups contains or or more series within them. For instance, the index to Multiple Record Series has a plat collection, judgment rolls, memorial books, petitions to practice law, a militia enrollment and more.

To search this free genealogy resource, just scroll down and click on Enter On-line Records Index. The search screen allows you to search by record group (can also search all at once), up to two individuals, location, topic, document type and date range. You also have the option of using Soundex for name search, which can be helpful if your ancestor's name may have been spelled more than one way.

Clicking the show advanced search functions button doesn't really offer much more search options. Instead, it adds an additional field where you can choose the series and a selection box to choose whether results are sorted sequentially or chronologically. You also have the option of selecting a second location or topic for your search.

When typing in an individual's name (surname first), you will notice that a drop down appears with names. You can either type in the individual that you are looking for or select the name from the drop down. Both the location and topic boxes will provide a drop down as well.

The results screen has four columns. The first column lists information about the record such as the series, reel, film and item. The second column provides a description of the item. the third column has the date. The final column is where the images are linked. Not all results will have online images available.

For those results that do have online images, they are free to download or print, provided they're not for commercial use and you cite the source when you use them. Results without online images can be ordered from the archives. There is a limit of ten documents per request. A price quote will be given once your request is received.