If you're curious about getting into genealogy research but don't know where to start, here's your chance. Attend our Genealogy 101 program this Saturday morning, January 10, 2015, 9:30 - 11:30 a.m., at Aspen Drive Library . We'll start at the beginning with home sources, talk about the building blocks of genealogy, make sure you…
So you've heard about this genealogy craze and how much fun it is. Or maybe you have some burning questions about your ancestors that you just HAVE to answer. The desire to find your ancestors is there, but where do you start?There are as many answers to this question as there are genealogists. Here are…
While helping a patron with her Chicago genealogy recently, I came across a few other very helpful websites that anyone doing Chicago genealogy should know about and use. The Newberry Library has a great page on Chicago Genealogy. But don't overlook their research guides page, either, which has many helpful links to researching Chicago history.…
Finding an obituary, marriage notice, or news article about your ancestor in a newspaper can be thrilling, giving details to an event that the official record doesn't convey. But where and how can you find these gems?The answer is three-fold: Some newspapers have been digitized and are available through subscription databasesSome newspapers have been digitized…
I hope some of you out there will be able to take advantage of some free databases this weekend: Find My Past, which is primarily English records, and ArkivDigial, which is Swedish records. Read Dick Eastman's blog with more details on FindMyPast and ArkivDigital.Have a happy and successful genealogy weekend!~Sonia
At our Networking Group last night the conversation turned to Social Security Application cards. You can send away for an ancestor's application for a Social Security number (Form SS-5). This application can reveal helpful facts such as the ancestor's birthdate, place of birth, and parents' names, even your ancestor's signature. Here's a copy of a…
At our last Genealogy Writing Group we also talked about passenger lists, immigration, and finding the "holy grail" of genealogy: the home town or parish in the country of origin. I don't have any magic tricks for answering this question; usually finding immigration information is the result of lots of hard, diligent work. But we…
At our Genealogy Writing Group yesterday our discussion centered around adding images, specifically post cards, to our writing. One of our group had post cards of sites of places important to her family history.If you want to look for post cards to buy, here are a couple of post card shows in the area to…
Earlier this week I noticed several genealogy patrons looking at city directories. Have you tried finding your ancestor in such a directory? Larger cities often had city directories which contained lists of businesses and residents, sort of like a phone book except that you didn't have to own a phone to be included in one.…
Grace DuMelle of the Newberry Library joined us last night for an interesting and informative presentation on Chicago genealogy. She emphasized the address changes that took place in 1909 and the wealth of newspapers available for our area--there's more than just the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.Grace mentioned several databases that Cook Library subscribes…
