In our digital age, many otherwise inaccessible historical sources and information are readily online, not just to read, but to search using keywords and names. You’ll find that they are often provided in formats (such as PDF files) which can be downloaded to a mobile device for use on the go.
Digital resources are an indispensable element of the genealogist’s
toolkit, and even more so when access to physical archives and libraries is
limited. Check out the following
links, and hopefully you’ll identify sources that you can use in your
research. All of these are free to access.
Books
HathiTrust hosts millions of digitised books from libraries
the world over, while
Project Gutenberg has free e-books of many classics and
out-of-copyright titles.
Newspapers
Read my previous blog posts here and here for details of some of the essential free newspaper archives online. Don't overlook these invaluable records of your ancestors' everyday lives.
Historical city & trade directories
Scottish Post Office directories list names, addresses, and trades or occupations of people in urban areas from the 18th century onwards.
For England & Wales, there are similar Trade & Local Directories from the 1700s to the 1910s.
Area histories
To learn more about the local history of specific counties or parishes, there are the Victoria County Histories covering England, and for Scotland, the 18th- and 19th-century editions of the Statistical Accounts.
Digital Collections
Such resources include many
images that can bring your family’s history to life. These are just a few suggestions.
SCRAN offers still, sound and moving images from
hundreds of museums, including the Victoria & Albert and National Galleries
of Scotland. View buildings where your
ancestors lived, worked, or went to school, objects they might have
used, and views they would have looked out on.
The British Library's digital collections include illuminated manuscripts and vintage books with photo-illustrations, which could easily side-track you en route to their wide selection of online maps, or their oral
history recordings.
Ireland
Fordham
University in New York City provides an extensive list of links to
free digital content from Irish libraries, archives and museums, including many
sources of use to family historians.
United States
The US Library of Congress’s vast range of
subject matter, from music to maps, includes local, social, and business history
collections in different formats. The America
at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915 collection is
just one highlight of a fascinating online repository.
The next class will introduce you
to some essential reference tools
for family history research.
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