Grass Widow

 Click here to learn what a "grass widow" is.

1931 Census of Canada

 A free, searchable index of the 1931 census of Canada is now available through Census Search.

ChatGPT

 This article from amyjohnsoncrow.com talks about using the artificial intelligence tool chatGPT for genealogical research. The gist: its not a search engine, and shouldn't be used like Google.

Revolutionary War: Black and Native American Soldiers

 Ancestry.com has added a new database: U.S. Black and Indigenous Soldiers in the American Revolution, 1775-1783.  Details can be found in this this article. 

Ancestry is available in the library during business hours.

Reclaim The Records!

 reclaimtherecords.org  is a nonprofit organization committed to providing access to genealogical records that government entities have made off limits to the public. They employ the Freedom of Information Act and sometimes take the issue to court. A recent case pertained to birth and death indexes in Missouri.

Conference Keeper

 Stay informed about genealogy conferences and other events at conferencekeeper.org. Its free to use and includes thousands of events that will enhance your knowledge of genealogical research.

 

Family History Month with NGS

 October is Family History Month. The National Genealogical Society has posted this guide  to help you "explore, preserve and share your family's history".

Using newspapers.com To Find Your Ancestors

Newspapers.com can be accessed from the library homepage under Research Tools. It's available 24/7 on any device with Internet access. This post from the newspapers.com blog demonstrates how it can be used to track down ancestors missing from the family tree.

Georgia City Directories

214 Georgia City directories are now online, free and full-text searchable, thanks to the Georgia Public Library Service. The directories cover 17 communities across 100 years and can be accessed at the Digital Library of Georgia

Genealogy Do's and Don'ts

Advice from PBS' History Detectives.

Civil War: Soldiers and Sailors Database

 The Soldiers and Sailors Database maintained on the National Park Service website contains the records of six million men who served both sides during the Civil War. Other collections include African American Sailors, Regiments, Cemeteries, Battles, Prisoners (Fort McHenry and Andersonville  POW camps), Medals of Honor, and Monuments.  

Connecticut

 reclaimtherecords.org introduces the The Connecticut Genealogy Index, 5.5 million records of births, marriages, civil unions, and deaths spanning 3 centuries. Some background information about it can be found here.

Copyright free images

 This post by the Legal Genealogist talks about the copyright-free photos of Carol Highsmith, which you can use to enhance your blog, newsletter, or family history page: https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2023/08/17/more-than-2000-more/ 

The photos can be found at the Library of Congress website as the Carol M. Highsmith Archive. 

Ulster Settlers Database

This article from irishcentral.com talks about the database, which contains information on the English and Scottish who settled in Ulster between 1609 and 1641. It is currently comprised of about 14,500 names and is a work in progress. A link to the database can be found at the end of the article.

"10 Million Names" project

 From prnewswire.com  comes an article about the "10 Million Names Project,  a collaboration between American Ancestors, family historians, African American scholars, and cultural institutions. The project will gather names of millions of persons enslaved in what is now the US from the 1500s to 1865. The data available so far can be found at 10millionnames.org/

New UK military records

Fold3, available 24/7 on the library's website, has added 1/2 million new records from the UK's military.

Details on what's included are here.  This is a link to Fold3.

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 If any of your English ancestors found themselves on the wrong side of the law, you might be able to find records of their misdeeds at oldbaileyonline.org. The Old Bailey is London's Central Criminal Court, and the Proceedings were published from 1673-1913. They contain records of more than 197, 000 trials held there. There are videos and tutorials to help you navigate through the search process.

The Northern Ireland, Valuation Revision Books, 1864-1933

 This index of over 3 million names became available in June at Ancestry. Many census records were lost during the Irish Civil war in the early 1920's, and these land transfer records can help genealogists make family connections back to the 19th century.

Ancestry is acessible at the library only,  under "Research Tools"  on the library website.

NYC Naturalization Records

 The Queens Public Library and the Office of Court Administration have collaborated to make 400,000 or so naturalization records available online. They include records signed  between 1794 and 1952 in the Queens and the Bronx. You can read the article in the Queens Eagle.  The database is nynaturalizations.com

This is an article from Genealogy by Paula about not appropriating somebody else's work as your own. 

Texas Newspapers online

 Historical Texas newspapers from 1855-1930 have been made available thanks to a collaborative effort between the Texas State Library Archives Commission the University of North Texas Libraries. The collection includes close to 10 million pages from 4500 issues.

Web Clearing Houses for Genealogy

 Click on this link to see a video from GenealogyTV on Web Clearing Houses . Learn what they are and how to use them.

War of 1812 pension files

 Pension files for the War of 1812 are now available at Fold3 on the library's website. 83% of the 7.2 million pages have been added so far.

Yearbooks

The Internet Archive (archive.org) has a collection of  more than 92,000 yearbooks. We didn't find any from Hernando County but you might get lucky and find one helpful for your genealogy research.

Not all are school yearbooks- some are related to professional associations, such as the Yearbook of the City Managers Association 1920. 

 Scroll down just a bit and you will see on the left side of the page a "Search this collection" box.  

1931 Census of Canada

The Canadian government will release the 1931 census on June 1st. Read about it here, at newspapers.com, the newest addition to the library's e-resources.

 

Newspapers.com

 Hernando County Public Library has added newspapers.com to its collection of e-resources. Find it under Research Tools on the library's home page.

Search for obituaries, marriage announcements, birth announcements, social pages, local sports action, advertisements, news articles, and more in the largest online newspaper archive.

Newspapers.com Library Edition offers full-page images with searchable full text for millions of pages of newspapers dating from the early 1700s into the early 2000s.

Clip, save, and share newspaper articles via social media sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

 

 

County Cork (Ireland) Cemeteries

The Skibbereen Heritage Center has compiled an online database of Cork County Council burial registers
and graveyard surveys:  West Cork Graveyard Database (skibbheritage.com)

German Genealogy tools

www.archion.de/  Archion- Protestant church registers

www.icar-us.eu/en/cooperation/online-portals/matricula/  Matricula- Catholic registers

www.meyersgaz.org/  Meyers Gazetteer- geographical dictionary of the 2nd German Empire

kartenmeister.com/preview/databaseuwe.asp  Kartenmeister- Gazetteer focusing on villages once part of the German Empire that changed hands

www.compgen.de/- Compgen- German Genealogy site

genteam.at/ - Austrian Genealogy site

Grimms' Worterbuch- mid 19th century German dictionary by the Brothers Grimm- to translate old words and phrases

legacy.stoepel.net/en- Geogen Surname mapping tool

Das Telefonbuch- current nationwide German telephone book

Mexican Genealogy

 The library's Ancestry.com resources has more than 130 sources for Mexican Genealogy. You can access Ancestry at the library only by clicking on Research Tools on our home page, then scrolling down to Ancestry.com. Another good place to start online is at mexicangenealogy.com/. 

Ask A Librarian

Get assistance with your genealogy project by using Ask A Librarian 

Ask A Librarian is administered by the Tampa Bay Library Consortium and provides Florida residents with virtual reference services through live chat and text messaging with Florida librarians from 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday (ET) and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday (ET).

Email is available to patrons 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

Links to Ask a Librarian are below under Links to Related Websites, and on the library’s homepage under
Research Tools

Maps for Genealogy

 Family Tree magazine recently listed map websites that can be useful for genealogists:

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries  https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/

Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States https://dsl.richmond.edu/historicalatlas/

Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records https://glorecords.blm.gov/

David Rumsey Map Collection https://www.davidrumsey.com/

Historic Map Works  https://historicmapworks.com/

Mapire (maps.arcanum.com) https://maps.arcanum.com/en/

US Geological Survey https://www.usgs.gov/

Polish Genealogy Websites

If you are researching your Polish ancestors, these free websites might help:

http://halgal.com/
https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/?lang=eng (click on the UK flag for English)
https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ (click on the UK flag for English)
https://agad.gov.pl/inwentarze/testy.html (click on "English")
poland genweb
https://pgsa.org/  (Polish Genealogical Society of America)
https://polishroots.com/
Polish State Archives  (click on the US flag for English)
https://poznan-project.psnc.pl/index.php?lang=en (Poznan Project)

Webinar: Is Your Genealogy Correct?

 How Do You Know If Your Genealogy is Correct?  Find out in this webinar from the BYU Family History Library YouTube channel

More Georgia Newspapers online

 The Digital Library of Georgia has added more titles to its collection.

1931 Census of Canada

 The 1931 census of Canada will be released June 1st. Look for it later this year on Ancestry, which is available at the library only.  

March is Women's History Month

The Gena's Genealogy blog is dedicated to women's history and genealogy.

Family History Guide to African American Genealogy

 This 6 part guide will help you get started.

Fee Hikes for the USCIS Genealogy program

 The USCIS is proposing increasing fees for access  to historical records of interest to genealogists.

Research Guide

 This is a link to an extensive African-American Research Guide from FAU in Boca Raton. 

Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

The AAHGS "was founded in 1977 in Washington, DC by a small group of historians and genealogists, who felt a need to share resources and methodology for pursuing historical and genealogical research". 

Black History Month

February is Black History Month. Research your family tree at Ancestry.com (in-library only), Fold3(for military records), and Heritage Quest, all found on the library website under Research Tools . In addition, here is a list of the Best African American Genealogy Websites of 2022, from Family Tree magazine.

Passenger Lists

This is a link to websites where you can search passenger lists, courtesy of Family Tree magazine.

It includes Ancestry.com, which is available for use in the library only- just click on Research Tools.

Vietnam Memorial Wall of Faces

 Volunteers organized by the nonprofit Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund have found photos for all of the 58000 Americans who lost their lives in Vietnam. Click here for an article from the Christian Science Monitor about the project.  A link to the Wall of Faces is here.

Artificial Intelligence and Geneology

Click here for speculation on what's ahead for genealogy in 2023 and beyond, including the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This article is from the Genealogy Star  blog.