The document provides instructions for researching a family tree at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. It recommends gathering family documents, recording information, and obtaining a RED Card to access the library's genealogy databases from home, including Ancestry Library Edition, HeritageQuest, newspapers, and more. The library also offers in-person assistance from genealogy librarians.

1. Getting Started
on Your
Family Tree
at the Public Library
of Cincinnati
and Hamilton County

2. The Library’s Genealogy & Local History Department
can help you get started.
Do you want to research your family tree?

3. The first thing you need to do is gather
your family documents, including…

4. Birth and death certificates
Marriage and baptismal records

5. Old family Bibles if they contain
recorded birth and death dates

6. Passports and naturalization papers
Military discharge papers
Old letters and postcards

7. Old family photographs can also contain
dates and other clues like uniforms,
landmarks, studio logos, or handwritten notes.

8. Write down the information from these
records or make photocopies
to bring with you

9. Write down any additional information you
have about your family, such as different
places people lived and when.

10. Record stories handed down
in your family

11. Use a chart to keep track of
your family lines. Fill in as
much as you can
RootsWeb is a free online site connected to Ancestry.com
and has the same charts that Ancestry has on its paid site.
Mid-Continent Public Library has a large genealogy
collection and offers interactive forms that can be filled in
online.
Family Tree Magazine is published in Cincinnati and is the
foremost genealogy magazine in the country.

12. Next you’ll need a RED Card from the Public
Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

13. You can access all the Library’s
genealogy databases from your home
except one: Ancestry.com’s library edition.
Researchers can only access this site at
any of the Library’s 41 locations.

14. Ancestry Library Edition resources include
• U.S. federal census records
• Military records
• Social Security Death Index
• Slave narratives
• Native American indexes
• New York and other passenger records and
selected records from the United Kingdom
and Ireland
• American Genealogical-Biographical Index
• Daughters of the American Revolution
Lineage Books

15. All other genealogical databases can be
accessed remotely through the Library’s website:

16. Biography and Genealogy Master Index has
biographical material on subjects from all
time eras, geographical locations, and fields
of activity.

17. Fold3 History & Genealogy Archives has:
• More than 50 million pages of historical documents
• Census records from 1860 and 1930
• Documents relating to the Revolutionary War, Civil
War, WWI, WWII, and U.S. presidents
• Historical newspapers
• Naturalization documents
• Matthew Brady Civil War photos
• City directories

18. HeritageQuest is a database with access
to:
• Selected U.S. Federal Census Records
(1790–1930)
• Family and local history books
• More than 1.6 million genealogy and
local history articles

19. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers provides
access to more than 28 million newspaper
articles from the 19th century.

20. ProQuest Historical Newspapers offers articles from
19 newspapers including:
• The Christian Science Monitor
• The Los Angeles Times
• The Louisville Courier Journal
• The Nashville Tennessean
• The Toronto Star
• The Washington Post

21. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Cincinnati
Enquirer (1841-1922) has full-text articles from The
Cincinnati Enquirer, including local obituaries.
Please note: The year 1885 is incomplete due to
damaged microfilm.

22. Local obituaries also can be accessed using
Newsdex , then by contacting the Information &
Reference Department at the Main Library with the
newspaper, date and page number you need.

23. ProQuest Obituaries provides access more
than 10 million obituaries and death notices
from the historical archives of top national
newspapers, such as The New York Times.

24. For more information or to set up a one-on-one
appointment with a librarian, call 513-369-6905.