Genealogy

Biography/Genealogy Resource Expands Native American Content

| By Tara Atterberry | In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, Gale’s Biography and Genealogy Master Index has expanded coverage of Native Americans from the late 1500s through the present day in an effort to highlight groups that have been underrepresented and often marginalized in traditional reference content. Biography and Genealogy Master Index’s … Read more

Gale’s Passenger & Immigration Lists Index: Start Your Genealogy Search Here

| By Tara Atterberry | For more than 50 years, there was a chest at the end of my grandparents’ bed that contained family documents my grandmother had gathered through the decades: birth, marriage, and death records; family photos from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; baptismal certificates; handwritten family trees; newspaper clippings and … Read more

Gale’s Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Must-Have Source on Immigrant History

| By Tara Atterberry | John Harrower, a Scottish businessman, was forced to leave his home and family in December 1773 in search of a more stable means of employment. He traveled across Europe for more than six weeks but was not able to secure employment and was desperate for work. As a last resort, … Read more

Missing Ancestors? Check the Feeder States!

Genealogy Connect

Posted on October 26, 2015
By Jena Crable

Here’s a familiar genealogical conundrum: A researcher has traced his/her ancestors from present-day California back to the Dust Bowl-era in Nebraska, into Missouri just as it was achieving statehood, and finally to Indiana in the 1830s. At that point, the trail has grown cold even though legend has it that the family patriarch was a Pennsylvania patriot during the Revolution. So, how does the genealogist pick up the scent of the missing ancestor at this point?

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Unrivaled Source for Note Taking

Chapter 16 in Professional Genealogy. A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians, edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills, covers the topic of Note-Taking.  Entitled “Transcripts and Abstracts,” and written by Mary McCampbell Bell, this chapter offers rock-solid guidance on the taking of genealogical notes. It’s sorely needed by every researcher—professional or not—because everyone takes research notes. 

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Identifying Your Canadian Roots

By Jena Crable

For many U.S. genealogy wayfarers, their journey usually includes a stop in Canada. Surprisingly, this is true for persons with and without French-Canadian roots. Not surprisingly, living along the 3,000-mile border that separates the U.S. from its northern neighbor are innumerable families who share common ancestries as a result of their desire for greater economic, religious, or political freedom–in one country or the other.

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Get Started in Genealogy with the 3 W’s

GenealogyConnect

October is National Family History Month. Do you have the genealogy and family history resources that genealogists and enthusiasts in your community need? And do they know how to get started?

Help your family historians and researchers make deeper historic connections while exploring their roots. Gale Genealogy Connect – the ideal complement to fact/people-based genealogy sources – fills in the rich context and real stories surrounding chronology that pre-dates accessible public records.

Get started in genealogy with the 3 W’s:

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Retirees: Learning, Rediscovering…Living the Dream

They’ve worked hard. They’ve raised kids, saved, and made sacrifices. Now, with long-awaited free time, they want to pursue new interests and rediscover old ones. Today’s retirees are keen to make the most of their non-working years.

But the more than 13% of the US population aged 65 or older (and that percentage expected to balloon in the next five years)1 is the group least likely to have visited the library in the last year.2 Public libraries have their work cut out to serve the needs of this age group. Luckily, Gale has resources that can attract and support seniors’ thirst for discovery.

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Tracing Native American Genealogy in Federal Records of  Five Civilized Tribes  

Native American Genealogy By Rachal Mills Lennon

Excerpted from the book, Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes

The history and culture of the American South are unique, owing chiefly to the intermingling of the races and the diverse ethnic

backgrounds of countless families. Modern Southerners proudly boast traditions–real or not–of Native American ancestry. Odds are, these traditions lead directly back to the so-called Five Civilized Tribes. The Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole Indians dominated a broad swath of territory from North Carolina to Mississippi before their forced removal westward. Long hailed for their adaptability to “white” ways (hence the designation “civilized”), these nations have gained near honorific status among Southeastern genealogists.

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Virginia Genealogists Need SWEM

By Joe Garonzik

The two-volume Virginia Historical Index (aka “Swem’s Index” or “Swem”), originally published in 1934, encompasses the contents of the following seven serial publications: “The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography” (VMHB),Vols. 1-38; the “William and Mary College Quarterly” ( aka the “William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine” W&MCQ), Series I, Vols. 1-27 and Series II, Vols. 1-10; “Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine” (TQ), Vols. 1-10; the “Virginia Historical Register and Literary Advertiser,” Vols. 1-6; the “Lower Norfolk County Virginia Antiquary,” Vols. 1-5; “Hening’s Statutes at Large,” Vols. 1-13; and the “Calendar of Virginia State Papers,” Vols. 1-11.

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