More Chicago Genealogy

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.
• Anyone researching Chicago ancestors should make a trip to the Wilmette Family History Center. They have an extensive collection of Chicago-related resources. Take a look at their "Research Tools" on the bottom right of their webpage.
• Many of you with Chicago ancestors also have Polish backgrounds. You will find the website of the Polish Genealogical Society of America (located in Chicago) to be a wealth of information.

Happy Researching!
~Sonia

Newspaper basics

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 databases
• Some newspapers have been digitized and are available free on Internet websites
• Some newspapers are not digitized but have been microfilmed and are available at libraries across the country.

Cook Library subscribes to the following newspaper databases: Access Newspaper Archives (in library use only), Chicago Tribune Historical Databases, and New York Times Historical Databases (both available from home with a Cook Library card).

Here are a few of the free sites to keep in your toolbox.

• Google News Archive (Google has dropped their newspaper digitization project but they have kept what they already digitized.)
• Chronicling America (hosted by the Library of Congress)
• Elephind (a portal that leads to sites with digitized newspapers. Use the browse feature to find a specific paper or search to cast a wide net).
• Old Fulton New York Post Cards (Not just New York papers! Use the Excel spreadsheet for an easier view of what is available)

Please realize that there is no one-stop shop for newspaper articles. Every site, whether fee or free, has different newspapers and different time frames. And new items are being added to every site every day. Both of the images on this post were found in newspapers, the first from 1932 and the second from 1961. I'll post more later. Try out the sites and let me know if you find anything!
~Sonia

Free, Free, Free!

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

Social Security Applications Forms

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 Social Security Application form from one of our group members:

You can request an application by mail or online. Prices can differ, but you can save a few dollars if you know your ancestor's Social Security number. This can be found on a death certificate.

 

When you think about Social Security numbers and what they were used for, you will know when it is appropriate to order an ancestor's application. Social Security Administration came into being during the Depression, so if your ancestor died before then he will not have an application form on file. Also, women who did not work outside the home rarely had Social Security numbers in the early days of the SSA, so don't look for an application for them, either.

 

Two addition blog posts that may be helpful and entertaining are the Legal Genealogist's post on Ordering the SS-5 and Dick Eastman's humorous post on Social Security Cards Issued by Woolworth's.

 

Remember what we learned about Social Security numbers issued by the railroad? See my earlier post for more details.

 

Happy hunting!

~Sonia





Passenger Lists

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 can always use more tools in our toolbox, right? In our discussion we mentioned the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild website. The name pretty much says it all: the website is made up of transcribed passenger lists from immigrant ships. There is a search box or you can look by year through "volumes" for your immigrant's name.

I'm sure we will have additional posts regarding immigration. If you have any good immigration research sites you have used, let us know. And by all means, if you find someone on the passenger list, share your good news in the comment section. We'd love to hear about it!

~Sonia

Post cards

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 check out:
- The Grayslake Antiques Market appears monthly at the Lake County Fairgrounds and has a large post card selection.
- The Greater Chicago Post Card and Paper Show is this weekend (November 7 and 8) in Countryside, IL. If you can't make it on such short notice, they will come back on April 17 and 18, 2015 and in the fall on November 6 and 7, 2015. Click here for more details on this and other shows across the country.
- Antique stores of any kind will often have a section or a few boxes of post cards for sale. Take a minute to browse, you never know when you'll find a treasure.

If you'd rather not travel or buy post cards, here are some other sources of images you might use:
- Ancestry.com and Ancestry Library Edition have several sections with images: Pictures; Schools, Directories & Church Histories; and pictures on Public Member Trees.
- Search on eBay, post cards come up for sale all the time
- The Curt Teich Postcard Collection of the Lake County Archives has many post cards with images from around the state and the country. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the links to different regions.
- Illinois Digital Archives houses the digital collections of institutions across the state including public libraries, colleges and universities, and state government.
- see the CyndisList category on postcards
- Contact the local historical society or public library to see if they have images that you can use or download. You may have to pay for the use of them. Use Linkpendium or USGenWeb to find societies and libraries.

Have you found a good source for images to use in your family history writing? Let us know, and we'll all be the wiser!
~Sonia

City Directories

 

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. This is a real plus for the late 1800s and early 1900s when many households did not have telephones.

But where do you find these directories? More and more are being digitized and made accessible through the Internet. Online sources include:
- Ancestry.com and Ancestry Library Edition (available in the library or from home through TryIt! Illinois until November 30).
-Fold3 (available from home with a Cook Library card through the library's website)
- The Online Historical Directories Website claims to list all online city directories in one place.
- Search Google Books
- Try HathiTrust or Internet Archives

And if you can't find city directories for your ancestor's hometown online, see if a bricks-and-mortar library has a collection of their city's directories. The Newberry Library has many city directories in their collection. It may be worth a visit!

Have you found another source for city directories? Let us know!

~Sonia