Finding Your Ancestors at the Library

After you finish entering into your tree all the information you and your family already know about your ancestors, it's time to branch out to other sources. To help get you started, today’s post and several of the following will cover the more popular locations where you can look for information. This first article will begin by discussing some of the records that are available at no cost courtesy of our local library.

We are fortunate in Geneva that our library offers full access to two sites that host a considerable number of documents: Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest. Now if you’ve ever tried out Ancestry.com, you might be wondering how that can be because normally the site requires people to have a paid subscription to access most of the records. But because of our library, there is a way to get access to Ancestry.com without having to pay for a subscription on your own. This is a great option for people who either don’t want to pay the fees and don't mind limiting access to specific times, or for those who might be considering a paid subscription, but want to use the site for a while to see if it is worth it.

In order to take advantage of the library’s Ancestry.com access, just visit the library during their regular hours and use one of their computers to search all you want for free. You will want to create an Ancestry.com account for yourself and log into it while you are at the library searching so you can access your tree and attach the records you find to the people in your tree. Just make sure you log out before you leave the computer. And you might want to bring a USB drive to export your tree as a backup.

Another nice benefit of using the library’s full access is the ability to watch the Ancestry.com tutorials and be able to immediately try out their tips and hints. Here is a link to the Ancestry.com webinar page: http://www.ancestry.com/cs/us/videos. If you access this at the library, make sure to bring your headphones or call ahead to see if they have any available for your use.

While you are at the library, you can also access Heritage Quest which, according to the company website, “delivers an essential collection of genealogical and historical sources—with coverage dating back to the 1700s—that can help people find their ancestors and discover a place’s past.” The type of records you can find on Heritage Quest include the following:

U.S. Federal Census - “original images of every extant federal census in the United States, from 1790 through 1930.”

Genealogy and local history books - “more than 7 million digitized page images from over 28,000 family histories, local histories, and other books.”

Revolutionary War records - “original images from pension and bounty land warrant application files help to identify more than 80,000 American Army, Navy, and Marine officers and enlisted men from the Revolutionary War era.”

Freedman’s Bank Records - “more than 480,000 names of bank applicants, their dependents, and heirs from 1865–1874, offers valuable data that can provide important clues to tracing African American ancestors prior to and immediately after the Civil War.”

Periodical Source Index (PERSI) - an index of “2 million records covering titles published around the world since 1800.”

LexisNexis U.S. Serial Set - pages of “memorials, petitions, private relief actions made to the U.S. Congress back to 1789.”

When searching Heritage Quest, it is helpful to know the best formats to use when typing into the search window. Fortunately the company offers a helpful guide that you can use to maximize your search results:

Heritage Quest Online Search Tips

Geneva Library Heritage Quest Online Access

But as great as all that is, the Geneva Library offers family history researchers even more. And yesterday, with the help of Ellen Schmid, adult services reference coordinator at the Geneva Library, I was able to get a list of their collections related to family history. While most of these documents will be more helpful to those who have ancestors who lived in this area, there were a few books with information related to the entire state of Illinois.

Below is a list of the major family history resources you will find at our library. These are in a book or booklet format unless noted otherwise. They are also located in different areas throughout the reference section of the library:

• City Directories for the City of Geneva - 1928 to present

• Geneva High School Yearbooks - 1922 to present

• Geneva Republican Newspaper - 4/13/1878 to 4/21/1879 and July 1891 to present. This collection at this time can be accessed through microfilm at the library. However, very soon images of all the papers will be accessible to all of us online through the library website.

Ellen also mentioned you will need to turn over your driver’s license to get access to some of the records such as yearbooks. This is to monitor access to the resources since they cannot easily be replaced and in many cases might be the only copies remaining.

If you visit the library and have any questions, I would encourage you to ask for help at the reference desk. It’s been staffed every time I’ve been at the library, and the people there have always been so willing to help. If you want to check out the other information the library offers, you can visit their website at: http://gpld.org. You can also post below any comments or questions related to researching family history at the Geneva Library.