Finding Dead People: Genealogy and Local History Resources for the ILL Pracitioner

Finding Dead
People
Genealogy and Local
History Resources for the
ILL Practitioner
©2014 Amber Case & Cherie' Weible

● The rising popularity of genealogy
● Why are genealogy ILL request so difficult?
● Indexes to Print Genealogies
● Online Resources
● Genealogy Repositories
● Difficult Requests (and how we solved them…)
● Top Tips For Filling Your Genealogy Requests
● Q & A
Outline

“Genealogy is hot. The same hobby that once was
the preferred pastime of shutins, spinsters and
confirmed bachelors has become widely
popular...There's a broad, mainstream interest in
family history” – ABC News
“Visitors to online genealogy sites are mostly white
women, 55 and older, who browse the Internet
from home...It’s a demographic projected to
grow 36 percent by 2020, three times as fast as
any other group.” – Bloomberg Businessweek
Rising Popularity

Genealogy in Popular Media
Popular TV Shows

Why are genealogy
requests so difficult?
Unshelved. December 2, 2002

● Material not widely published or
collected
○ May only be held by small
historical/genealogical societies
● Non-circulating due to age or rarity
● Difficult citations
○ Obituaries (top tips later!)
○ Newspaper articles
○ Biographical sketches in books
Why so difficult?

Indexes to Print
Genealogies

MEYERINK, K. L. (1998). Printed sources: a guide to published genealogical records. Salt Lake
City, Ancestry.
Print Indexes

American Genealogical
Biographical Index
• Every name index to 800
printed genealogies and
other compiled sources
housed at the Godfrey
Memorial Library
• Over 5.5 million entries
• Found in print (200+
volumes) and
electronically on HathiTrust
(select volumes), Ancestry
Library Edition, and
WorldVitalRecords
Print Indexes

Genealogical Index of the
Newberry Library
• Surname index to
3,000 volumes
including
genealogies, local
histories, and
periodicals published
prior to 1917
• Digital version
available on
HathiTrust
Print Indexes

Periodical Source Index
PERSI
● Created by Allen County Public Library
● 2.3 million records from genealogy and local
history periodicals published in U.S. and
Canada back to 1800
● Available in Allen County Public Library OR
through HeritageQuest.
● Coming Soon? - FindMyPast.com working with
ACPL to link index to full text of article.
FindMyPast is a subscription site but does have
a Pay-Per-View model.
Print Indexes

Print Indexes

National Union Catalog of
Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
● Operated by the Library of Congress
● Mission: “catalog describing archival and
manuscript collections held by eligible
repositories located throughout the United
States and its territories”
● Project began in 1959
● ‘Over 114,000 collections in nearly 1,800
repositories cataloged over the course of
the program.’
Print Indexes

● Records from 1959-1985
available in print volumes;
1986-present available on
OCLC WorldCat
● Index to Personal Names
in the National Union
Catalog of Manuscript
Collections, 1959-1984
● Index to Subjects and
Corporate Names in the
National Union Catalog of
Manuscript Collections,
1959-1984
Print Indexes

Online Sources

● 30+ million volumes
● Full View, Limited Preview, Snippet, No View
● Great for county histories, legal proceedings,
state and federal government publications, and
out of copyright periodicals.
● ILLiad Add-On
Online Sources

Internet Archive
•Over 6 million public domain ebooks, 1.6 million
videos, 2 million audio recordings, and 129,000
concerts.
•Genealogy collections features texts from Allen
County Public Library, University of Illinois Urbana-
Champaign, Brigham Young, National Library of
Scotland, and Boston Public Libraries
•Encourages libraries, content holders and the
reading community at large, to have their printed
materials non-destructively digitized and put online
for the benefit of all at one of their 33 global
scanning centers.

Digital Public Library of America
(DPLA)
● Launched in April 2013
● Mission: “to establish a national network out of
the over forty state/regional digital libraries and
myriad large digital libraries in the US...into a
single access point for users”
Online Sources

Family History Books
● 80,000 genealogy and family history publications
Online Sources

HeritageQuest
• Paid Subscription through Proquest
• 7 million digitized page images from over
28,000 family histories, local histories, and
other books
• University of California – San Diego loaded
22,176 records into OCLC from items
found in HeritageQuest.
• OCLC symbol – HQSTO
Online Sources

Chronicling America –
Newspaper Directory
● Includes ‘library catalog
records created by state
institutions during the
NEH-sponsored United
States Newspaper
Program’
● Covers 1690-present
● 140,000 bibliographic
title entries and 900,000
separate library holdings
records. Records are
updated annually.
Online Sources

Chronicling America - Digital Newspapers
Online Sources

Basic SearchAdvanced SearchBrowse for Titles
Online Sources

Other Newspaper Databases
Online Sources

Online Resource
Wikipedia: List of Digital Newspaper
Online Sources

Genealogy
Repositories

● Allen County Public Library
● Mid-Continent Public Library
● National Genealogical Society’s
Collection
● Family History Library
● Local collections
○ Use the geographic location of the
request to identify local libraries, archives,
and genealogical societies
○ Champaign County Historical Archives is
housed within the Urbana Free Library
Genealogy Repositories

● 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000
microfilm/microfiche representing
● 55,000 volumes of compiled genealogies
● 48,000 city directories
● 6,200 current periodical subscriptions
● Services offered include photocopies from
sources including periodicals, family histories and
direct records sources such as the military pension
indexes:
● Does not use OCLC for genealogical requests;
the OCLC symbol is for Public Library collection

Mid-Continent Public Library
● Midwest Genealogy Center (OCLC: CMI)
● Genealogy from the Heartland collection
offers over 17,000 genealogy and local
history books available through ILL to
researchers nationwide FREE OF CHARGE

NGS Library Collection
● National Genealogical Society Book
Loan Collection (OCLC: ZAE)
● Housed at St. Louis County Library (SLCL)
● More than 20,000 circulating volumes
● All items may be checked out or
borrowed through ILL
● Policy restricts two books loaned at a time
to a patron.
● Will copy up to 30 pages from one item

Family History Library
● Does not use traditional ILL; still a
valuable resource
● ‘The collection includes over 2.4
million rolls of microfilmed
genealogical records; 727,000
microfiche; 356,000 books, serials,
and other formats; over 4,500
periodicals and 3,725 electronic
resources.’
● Microfilm loans to Family History
Centers around the world for a
nominal fee.
● Free document delivery service
for individuals

Difficult Requests
And how we solved them….

Book Title: History of King County
Washington. Volume 1.
Author: Clarence B. Bagley
Pub. Date: 1929
Notes: Most interested in information on
Robbins family including a photo of
Robbins family homestead that is
supposedly featured in this book.
Difficult Request 1

First Step
● Submitted request to several libraries to
try to borrow book
● Unfilled as non-circulating
Difficult Request 1

Next Step
● Submitted new request for
photocopy of index.
● No entries for Robbins
Difficult Request 1

Additional Formats
● Is it available in other formats?
● Print OCLC record:
Difficult Request 1

Google Books
Difficult Request 1

New Photocopy Request
● Submitted a request for title page and
pages 288, 709, and 734.
Difficult Request 1

• Richard Smith
• Death date unknown;
suspected 1900-1910
Livingston Co., IL
• Patron searched source
Find-A-Grave
• Located date 17 May
1902
• ILL staff used newspaper
Index at ALPL (Springfield,
IL)
• Located Fairbury Blade
nearest community
Difficult Request 2

• Obituary for Robinson Smith
• Died in California between 1910 and 1920
• Last known residence Tulare County in
1910
• Search engine: Tulare County Obituary
Index
• Leads to CA Genweb and Tulare County
Obituary Index
• Date of obit 17 Aug 1910 in Tulare Advance
Register
• Librarian did additional work to provide
cemetery where he was buried and also
provided spouse’s name and death date
Difficult Request 3

• Obituary for Alexander Smith
• Died in Springhill Township, Fayette Co.,
Pennsylvania between 1910 and 1920
• Patron asked to narrow down date
• Located possible cemetery listing for December 1910
• WorldCat
• Keyword search Fayette and Pennsylvania and limit to
serial
• 147 results
• Chose Daily News Standard and The Morning Herald
both published in Uniontown, PA; county seat, nearest
community
Difficult Request 4

Top Tips for Filling
Your Requests

● Be sure the date of death is known and
correct.
● Check for local obituary indexes.
● Search entire newspaper.
● Be creative with names.
● Look for variants of the name.
● Look for married woman under Mrs.
[husband’s name].
● Check newspapers for both last known
residence and home town.
● Don’t forget to check ethnic or religious
newspapers.
Tips for Obituaries

● Ask for a loan of the newspaper film if possible;
many libraries are not staffed to spend time
locating obituaries.
● Although loans usually cost the patron more it
allows the chance to find additional information
before and after the death such as:
○ notice of illness before death
○ visits from family before death
○ time to find obituary that can be printed up to a month
or more afterward in a newspaper
○ cards of thanks from family
○ notice of filing of probate or estate
Tips for Obituaries

Top Tips for Filling Requests
● Choose who you send requests to strategically
○ What type of library?
○ How does the material fit into the collection?
● Think outside OCLC.
● Genealogical Societies
● Historical Societies
● Museums
● Check for alternate format.
● Check for locally created indexes.
● If material is non-circulating
○ Check if photocopy if possibility
○ If too long to copy, ask for copy of index
● If needed, go back to the patron for more
information!
Top Tips

It’s okay to cancel!
● "Interlibrary loan is the process by which a
library requests material from, or supplies
material to, another library.” - ALA
● If user is not looking for a specific source,
evaluate if you have the staffing, time, and
other resources to do beyond this. It is OKAY to
cancel!
● Create a cancellation email template that
helps point these patrons to reference
librarians and/or other local genealogical
research help.
One More Tip

Thanks!
Questions?
Additional resources or tips?
Amber Case - ajbrock@uw.edu
Cherié Weible - cweible@illinois.edu

Finding Dead People: Genealogy and Local History Resources for the ILL Pracitioner

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