Searching Digital Books, Part 1

Imagine having access to books from academic libraries across the country: no library card needed, and as close as your computer keyboard. Several websites offer exactly this. Read on to find out what they offer and how to access them.

Internet Archive is the largest digital library out there to date. Their ambitious and lofty goal is "universal access to all knowledge." While they may not have reached that goal yet, their site has lots of books and documents available, not to mention audio and video content. One section of Internet Archive is called "The Wayback Machine" and it preserves websites as they were years ago.

Here's what Internet Archive's home page looks like:

For best results in finding books, use the Search box in the upper left corner area, then choose "Texts" instead of "All Media Types" from the drop down menu. Good terms to search on are

• geographic areas such as towns, states, or geographic regions. A search on my hometown of Muncie, Indiana brought up an 1893 city directory, a souvenir history of the city with pictures, a 1915 Normal College yearbook, and a book called The Family Register of Gerret Van Sweringen and descendants.
• occupations. Searching on "harness makers," my great-grandfather's occupation, yields manuals and guides for the practitioner.
• events. The search term "Chicago fire" results in many first-hand accounts of the Great Conflagration.

Audio offers a different way to explore the lives of our ancestors. Try searching on

• a musician's name. I heard a lovely cello concerto performed by Pablo Casals. Internet Archive also has a huge collection of Grateful Dead concerts, in case there are any fans out there.
• an old-time radio program. You can listen to "Little Orphan Annie" along with your ancestors, complete with pops and crackles.
• a politician. I heard Joseph McCarthy responding to the Edward R. Murrow.

And check out the video component. You can see footage of John F. Kennedy, the Hindenburg, or a short movie called "The Preparation of Teachers" which shows how teachers were educated in (you guessed it) Muncie, Indiana.

I'll give you time to explore this fantastic resource before I tell you about other digital book sites. Have fun with Internet Archives and tell me what YOU find.
~Sonia

Delicious-ly Saving Your Bookmarks

I have mentioned this web site several times at our Networking Group meetings and I think it's worth a post here. Delicious.com is a very useful and helpful website that will let you keep track of your important web pages and give you access to them wherever you are.

It works like this: Go to www.delicious.com and register for a free account: provide your name, email, make up a username and password, and you are ready to go.

• Whenever you come across a website that you want to come back to, save the link in Delicious.
• Add "tags" that describe the website so you can find it again.
• You can make comments that will remind you why you liked this site in the first place or that will help you use the site.
• You can make a site public or private. Public bookmarks can be seen by other Delicious users. I use the private feature when I bookmark a site that has a password, and I put the password in the comments section.

So how can this help with genealogy?

• When you bookmark a website with Delicious, you will be able to access it from any computer, whether you're at home, at the library, or at any computer anywhere.
• Many digitized books (such as are found on the HathiTrust website) do not allow printing, but you can save the link. I add notes in the comments of my bookmarks to remind me which pages are relevant or why the book is important to my research.
• Public bookmarks are searchable so you can search other people's bookmarks and find sites that were helpful to them.

Give Delicious a try today and report back on how you use it. Happy bookmarking!
-Sonia

Railroad Records

This past week the ever-popular Craig Pfannkuche came to our Aspen Drive Library and spoke to us about how to find and use railroad records in our family history research. Here are a few takeaways from his entertaining program:

• The railroad industry was a HUGE employer, especially of immigrants who might have had no special skill but were willing and able to work hard.
• If your ancestor had a Social Security number that started with a 700 number, that ancestor was probably employed by the railroad. You can write to the Railroad Retirement Board, give them the Social Security number, and ask politely for information on your ancestor. Railroad Retirement Board, 844 Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60611.
• Many railroad lines have historical societies and archives. Craig is the Archivist for the Chicago & North Western Historical Society. He described the wealth of information available in their archives and encouraged everyone to seek out archives and historical societies for their ancestors' rail lines.
• The Newberry Library in Chicago has a good collection of railroad archives as well.

My great-grandfather Erik Falk worked as a machinist in the Aurora, Ilinois shop of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy rail road. I located the Burlington Route Historical Society, the historical society for the CBQ (thank you, Google!) and plan to follow up on some of the information I saw there. I found pictures of machinists at work in shops of the CBQ in the Newberry's online photograph collection. None of these men is my great-grandfather, but the pictures give me an idea of what his work was like.

What rail lines did your ancestors work for? What can you find out about them, or the railroad? Share your research finds with us!
-Sonia

Of Female Ancestors

At our Genealogy Networking Group meeting on September 4, we discussed how to research our female ancestors. Here are some tips, gathered from the book A Genealogist's Guide to Researching Your Female Ancestors by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack.*

Find records created BY your female ancestor:

• letters
• diaries
• home sources and artifacts
• oral history gathered by you or someone else

Use the website Hathitrust to find diaries in academic libraries. If your female ancestor didn't keep a diary, look for one by a woman in a similar geographical area or by someone who shared an experience similar to your ancestor's.

Find records created ABOUT your female ancestor:

• marriage certificate
• birth certificate and/or baptismal record of children 
• death certificate
• husband's death certificate
• marriage or death certificate of children
• obituary
• wills of parents

Look for indirect clues:

• repetition of names in family or unusual names of sons might point to the female ancestor's father's name
• surnames used as middle names could be the elusive maiden name
• look for older members of the household in the census who could be related to the female ancestor, thus pointing to the previous generation

Finally, think of your female ancestor in all her different roles and search for documents that might include her. Your female ancestor may have been a:

• wife or widow
• daughter or granddaughter
• mother or grandmother
• sister
• niece
• aunt
• friend or neighbor

How else would you look for a female ancestor? Leave your comments below.
-Sonia

*Check out the book A Genealogist's Guide to Researching Your Female Ancestors by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack from Cook Memorial Public Library District.

The Beginning

Nothing fancy here. Stay in touch with the genealogy scene at Cook Memorial Public Library District. You will find links and recaps of meetings and speakers, as well as reminders of upcoming programs. Please comment and make this a dynamic, useful blog.
-Sonia