Researching Chicago ancestors

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 to, including Sanborn Maps and Newspaper Archives. (Both of these must be used in the library, but they are available through the end of November through the TryIt! Illinois program. See previous post for more information.) She also mentioned Fold3 and the Chicago city directories it contains. Fold3 can be accessed from home with your Cook Library card.

Following are some "must-have" websites for researching Chicago ancestors. Make sure you read through the websites thoroughly. They are information rich.

• ChicagoAncestors. Use this for finding churches, schools, and businesses near a specific address. You'll also find good reference material on street name changes and address changes, among other details.
• Illinois Regional Archives Depository at Northeastern University has original records from Chicago and Cook County.
• Chicago History Museum
• Use the Cook County's FOIA page and fill out a request form for inquest files. (Include the name you're searching and the date of death)
• Illinois Newspaper Project for finding newspapers from suburbs and neighborhoods. Request the microfilm through Interlibrary Loan!

And don't forget Grace's book, Finding Your Chicago Ancestors. You can check it out from the library or purchase it from Amazon.

Happy researching!
~Sonia

Searching Digital Books, Part 2

There certainly is a lot of overlap in the world of digital book collections. Today's topic, the Digital Public Library of America, claims to be a site that brings different online collections together into a single platform and portal. Translation: they are a website that points to other sites containing digital collections.

How could you use the Digital Public Library of America in your genealogy research? You will find digitized books, digital images and even sound and moving pictures here. Search for places your ancestor lived, occupations, names (it's always worth a try!), or events that your ancestor lived through. 

The Digital Public Library of America has connected with digital collection sites like the Connecticut Digital Archive, Indiana Memory, and the Minnesota Digital Library, as well as institutions such as the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives. Click HERE to see a list of their partners.

I was surprised to see Internet Archive and Hathitrust listed among DPLA's partners, or "hubs." We have discussed each of these sites earlier. You can see how interconnected these digital book sites are.

So why would you want to use the Digital Public Library?

• The home page is crisp and clean and each of the components of the home page is inviting. 
• The main search box is easy to find, 
• You can limit your search results to different formats (books, images, sound, or movies), time periods, places, subjects, or language. 
• The timeline and geographic search features are fun to use. 
• I also like their digital exhibits section; the exhibition called Leaving Europe: A New Life in America looks particularly interesting for us genealogists. 
• They have a wide and varied collection of images, drawing from the New York Public Library and the National Archives among other impressive sources.

Why would you use a different site?

• I didn't find their book collection to be as complete as either the Internet Archive or Hathitrust, even though DPA has partnered with each of them.
• While their collection is growing, my feeling is that other sites are adding continuously, while DPLA adds large collections of images and books less often. I will monitor their "Announcements" section to keep up with this.

As always, there's no "one-stop-shop" site for digital books or other digital materials. Put the Digital Public Library of America in your genealogy tool box as one more place to keep an eye on, and let me know what gems you find!
~Sonia

TryIt! Illinois

www.finditillinois.org/tryit

At our last Genealogy Networking Group, we explored some of the TryIt! Illinois databases. I should say, we attempted to explore the databases. We were unable to access some databases, most notable those databases produced by ProQuest. I intended to email the State Library the next time I came in to work, but you Cook Genealogists were too quick for me! One of our intrepid members, who will remain nameless, quickly got out an email and Gwen Harrison from the State Library emailed back with hopeful news: ProQuest was indeed participating in TryIt! Illinois but hadn't yet gotten their computers configured (or something like that). By Saturday afternoon, when I tried again, the ProQuest databases were up and running. Hooray!

Here are some more important bits to know about TryIt! Illinois:

• We have been asked not to post the login and password on archived websites. If you did not get the login and password from the meeting Thursday night, you may call the Cook Library reference desk (847-362-2330 x1302) and ask for them.
• I am still having trouble accessing the MyHeritage/World Vital Records database, as well as some of the history databases. I have emailed Gwen Harrison back to let her know. Hopefully they all will become functional before too long.
• The Sanborn Maps database includes other states besides Illinois. Click on "Browse to a location," find your city, then click on "See all --- atlases" to get to the Sanborn maps.
• Important! When you click on a ProQuest database to try, you will be taken to a list of ALL the ProQuest databases. Take note: some of the databases will only be available through the month of October. Sanborn Maps is one of these.
• TryIt! Illinois will give you access to some genealogy databases that Cook Library subscribes to but can only offer in the library. Use the TryIt! Illinois trial to use Ancestry Library Edition and NewspaperArchive at home.

Enjoy these databases while you can, and be sure to let the library know if there are some we should consider subscribing to, whether they are genealogy databases or not.
~Sonia

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.