Thursday, January 7, 2010

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy: The Local Public Library

Today, in the first installment of this year-long blogging theme, we were supposed to go to our local library and jot down titles of books which might be useful in our genealogical searching.  I have four library cards, counting my University ID card.  I'm going to choose not my nearest library, but the one with the largest genealogy collection.  For one thing, I'm not from around here, though my husband is.  He has Florida connections that I lack.  So I'm more likely to find something useful in a larger collection.  That collection is at the Jacksonville (FL) Public Library.

Some possibly useful items, be they sources or finding aids:

GEN 929.3768 T297b reel 1
Births 1908-1912, index [microform]

Florida births, which may be useful in locating birth information on my husband's father's family (mainly some of pa-in-law's uncles and aunts).

929.1 ELLIOTT 2009
Finding anyone, anywhere, anywhen by Noel Montgomery Elliott

Sounds like something any genealogist could use!

GEN 929.1025 E133e 1964
East Tennessee historical and genealogical directory by the East Tennessee Historical Society

Possibly useful in tracing my mother's mother's family, who hailed from East Tennessee.  The family was there about 100 years before uprooting and going to Indiana.

GEN 929.509744 L222g 2009
A guide to Massachusetts cemeteries by David Allen Lambert

I have a lot of ancestors buried in Massachusetts!

GEN 929.1072 I72f
Finding your Canadian ancestors: a beginner's guide by Sherry Irvine and Dave Obee

Even those of us with some experience can find new information and methods from beginners' books, and I have Canadian ancestry.

GEN 929.1 D225g
The genealogist's guide to researching tax records by Carol Cooke Darrow and Susan Winchester

Tax records are an excellent resource; I can use new information on where to find them and how to use them.

AE 1.102:W 89/2 [government document]
Finding information on personal participation in World War II (National Archives and Records Administration)

My father was a Naval officer; my husband's father and mother were shipyard workers.  Can we find out more about them?

929.374 RAPAPORT
New England court records: a research guide for genealogists and historians by Diane Rapaport

Another resource that would be good for info on my New England ancestors.

That is just a scratch-the-surface list, but I don't want to make a huge blog entry!  Suffice it to say that browsing the library's collection can yield some impressive results.
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3 comments:

Amy Coffin, MLIS said...

Thanks for playing along with the challenge. And a gold star to you for including Dewey numbers with your books! :)

Evelyn Yvonne Theriault said...

These are like "amuse-gueules" - little appetizers to give us a taste of what we can find at the library.
Evelyn in Montreal

Karen Packard Rhodes said...

Amy, I'm an ex-librarian, and my own personal book collection is Dewey cataloged! It's the only way I can keep track of where my books are!

Evelyn -- and delectable appetizers they are!