Shake Your Family Tree at the Des Plaines Public Library

This week’s column was submitted by Christina Tropea of the .

The library is a great resource for discovering more about your familial roots. To get started, genealogy experts recommend that you gather together as much information about your family as you can: marriage, birth and death certificates, photos, letters and postcards, family bibles and heirlooms.

You should also interview relatives to get names of other relatives and ask them for records you might not have. Then you can start making a family tree. Family Tree Maker software, available at the library makes this easy and fun.

Then come to the library on Saturday, June 2 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for Finding Your Italian Ancestors with Dan Niemiec, the genealogy expert from Fra Noi magazine. Even if you’re not Italian, you’ll learn tips for finding your ancestors just about anywhere in the world.

Earlier:

The library has databases and other resources to help you find more records.

A brand new addition to the library’s offerings is Des Plaines Memory, an online collection of photographs, postcards, letters, telephone directories and newspapers all detailing Des Plaines' rich history. Telephone directories and newspapers are only available at the library.

Ancestry Library Edition, the library version of Ancestry.com, is a giant collection of databases that you can use to research your ancestors at the library. HeritageQuest is another large database that includes local and family histories, city directories, records from Freedman’s Bank, which was established to help freed slaves and more. Both databases contain census records that include names of family members, and often their occupations and addresses. Ancestry Library Edition is currently indexing the long awaited 1940 Census.

The library also has several options for finding obituaries, including America’s Obituaries and Death Notices, ProQuest Obituaries and the current and historical Chicago Tribune. Obituaries lead you to relatives you weren’t aware of, and give you more information about the ones you know. Des Plaines cardholders can access all of these resources from home, with the exception of Ancestry Library Edition, which is only available at the library.

Find Patch on Facebook; click like.

Stay connected: Receive an email from Des Plaines Patch with headlines in the morning for free.