Governmental records at the state, county, and city level are important resources for studying the past and the documents are usually available in a state or local archives. But when local bodies digitize public historical resources it makes the job of the researcher so much easier, increasing efficiencies for agency staff, and reducing custodial and preservation problems as paper ages and becomes fragile. Recently…
Delaware County Library Has Online Digital Copies of Chester PA Newspapers
At a rapid pace these days, old newspapers are being digitized and made openly available to researchers and as I work on projects I often found additional collections of these valuable publications. That was the case recently, as I worked on the “Flight 214 Remembrance Program” to mark the passage of fifty years since a…
A Research Resource Shows Family Name Distribution Patterns
An interesting page on Ancestry.com presents aggregated statistical surname data from an array of standard primary genealogical research materials. Drawing on sources such as census schedules, the Social Security Index, Civil War Enlistment papers, immigration records, and more, users query the searchable databases for surnames. In graphical and tabular formats, the inquiry yields information on where…
Digital Online Newspapers for Researching the War of 1812
While at the College of Southern Maryland doing a program on communications and newspapers during the War of 1812, the audience was interested in some of the digital newspapers that are now available online for researching this era. We had talked about how editors gathered and distributed news during the times when the region was on…