Columbus Library

Check out the October/November 2010 issue of Internet GENEALOGY for a list of the "Top 30 Websites for Family Research".  Included are free and commercial sites that may require a fee.  I thought I'd highlight a couple of the free websites below.

Chronicling America. If you want to see if your ancestors were written up in a newspaper or read a newspaper published at the time they lived, then Chronicling America is a source where you will find a collection of digitized and fully searchable U.S. newspapers from 1880 to 1922.  Currently this includes select newspapers from over 20 states including Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania with a plan to include significant newspapers from each state and U. S. territory between the years 1836 and 1922.  There is a searchable directory of newspapers where you'll find information about newspapers published from 1690 to the present day and where they are archived.  This is a great source and it's free, thanks to the efforts of the Library of Congress and many others.

Digital Library of American Slavery.  The Digital Library of American Slavery is a searchable database of personal information on over 150,000 people including slaves, slaveholders and free persons of color.  This data has been compiled from legislative and court records such as court proceedings, inventories, petitions, wills and more.  You can search by name or subject and you'll find a brief transcript of the record with information on what repository or archives has the original records.

Linkpendium.  Want to find out if there are any records online in the area where your ancestors lived?  Linkpendium is organized by state then county and list the records of a given area that are available online.  You'll typically find records for cemeteries, obituaries, churches, court, newspapers, schools, and much, much more.  Please keep in mind that it will refer you to sites that are free and some that are commercial subscription sites as well.

So check these out and if you're interested in the  reading the full article you'll find "Internet GENEALOGY" in the Genealogy, History & Travel division at the Main Library downtown.