Crowe’s Nest by Elizabeth Powell Crowe

One of the best resources for genealogy, online or not, may be your local library’s genealogy offerings. Even the smallest of libraries has a local history section; larger ones may even have staff members with genealogy training and/or experience. Searching for “family history”, “genealogy” and “ancestry” in the card catalog yields hundreds of hits on the circulating shelf, and more on the reference shelf of any library you can find. Also, many libraries offer online resources. Just as an example here is a sampling of what my local library offers ONLINE to patrons:Free Digitized Images of Birth, Marriage and Death Records  

E-Source Targets

America’s GenealogyBank (Library Resource)     Quickly find your ancestors in over four centuries of rare documents and records. Search thousands of historical newspapers, books, pamphlets and genealogies. Plus, selected material from the American State Papers and U.S. Serial Set, the complete Social Security Death Index and more than 29 million obituaries.

America’s Obituaries & Death Notices (Library Resource)     The largest and most comprehensive collection of newspaper obituaries and death notices. Extensive editorial review of all newspaper sections ensures thorough selection of obituaries for easy access. An easy-to-use interface allows searching by name, date range, or text such as institutional name, social affiliation(s), geographic location(s), philanthropic activities, etc.

Ancestry Library Edition (Library Resource-Available only inside the library)     Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) gives individuals something truly priceless: the chapters of their own authentic, unique family stories. The world’s largest online collection of family history records and resources, ALE is a popular research tool. It offers a wide variety of unique content to help users trace their family lineage.

HeritageQuest Online (Library Resource-Use this link inside the library)     HeritageQuest Online (HQO) combines digital, searchable images of US Federal Census records with the digitized version of the popular UMI® Genealogy & Local History book collection, and other valuable content. HQO helps put family research in its historical, social and cultural context, with 21 million page images from materials such as: US Federal Census records from 1790–1930; over 22,000 family and local history books; Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant application files with records for over 80,000 individuals; and Freedman’s Bank Records containing key African American data.

HeritageQuest Online (Library Resource-Use this link outside the library)     HeritageQuest Online (HQO) combines digital, searchable images of US Federal Census records with the digitized version of the popular UMI® Genealogy & Local History book collection, and other valuable content. HQO helps put family research in its historical, social and cultural context, with 21 million page images from materials such as: US Federal Census records from 1790–1930; over 22,000 family and local history books; Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant application files with records for over 80,000 individuals; and Freedman’s Bank Records containing key African American data.

ProQuest Obituaries (Library Resource-Use this link inside the library)     ProQuest Obituaries offers more than 10.5 million obituaries and death notices in full-image format from uninterrupted historical archives of top US newspapers. With content dating as far back as 1851, this wholly unique database provides researchers with valuable clues about their ancestors in the US, including proper full name, maiden name, spousal information, relatives’ names, occupation, religion, cause of death and more.

ProQuest Obituaries (Library Resource-Use this link outside the library)     ProQuest Obituaries offers more than 10.5 million obituaries and death notices in full-image format from uninterrupted historical archives of top US newspapers. With content dating as far back as 1851, this wholly unique database provides researchers with valuable clues about their ancestors in the US, including proper full name, maiden name, spousal information, relatives’ names, occupation, religion, cause of death and more.

Ancestry.com Learning Center     Available without a paid subscription. Look for help in the Articles Archive and Webinars. Discover more about your ancestry in just a few steps. You can begin your family tree, learn how to use records in your family search, connect with others who are seeking out their ancestors and find the answers to your tough research questions.

Castle Garden     CastleGarden.org is an educational project of The Battery Conservancy. This free site offers access to an extraordinary database of information on 11 million immigrants from 1820 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. Over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestors to this early immigration period.

Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet     Your genealogy starting point online for more than a decade!

Digital State Archives     Link to content posted by state governments who have been sifting through their historical archives and digitizing records.

Ellis Island     Search the Ellis Island Database by immigrant name alone or by name of ship that carried the immigrant to America. Also includes a Genealogy Learning Center.

FamilySearch     Free Family History, Family Tree, and Genealogy Records and Resources from Around the World

Find A Grave     Find A Grave is a resource for finding the final resting place of family, friends, and ‘famous’ individuals. With millions of names and photos, it is an invaluable tool for the genealogist and family history buff. Find A Grave memorials can contain rich content including photos, biographies and dates. Visitors can leave ‘virtual flowers’ on the memorials they visit, completing the online cemetery experience. Thousands of contributors submit new listings, updates, corrections, photographs and virtual flowers every hour.

Florida Digital Newspaper Library (UF)     The Florida Digital Newspaper Library includes historic Florida newspapers and current papers digitized instead of being microfilmed. The list of currently published newspapers being digitized is online here: http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/collections/FDNL/queue.htm

Florida Memory Project     Florida Memory presents a selection of historical records that illustrate significant moments in Florida history, educational resources for students of all ages and archival collections for historical research. The Project utilizes selected original records, photographs and other materials from the collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida.

GenDisasters: Events that Touched our Ancestors Lives     Contains information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents our ancestors endured, as well as, information about their life and death. Database and records searchable by surname. Find newspaper accounts of local disasters including Milton Fire of 1909; Milton Tornado of 1962; Gulf Breeze Tornado of 1971; and the Jay State Prison Road Camp Fire of 1967.

Genealogical Society of Santa Rosa County     Santa Rosa County GenWeb Project

Old Pictures and Maps     Compiles a wide selection of historical maps and photographs that display both the profound events of our past, as well as the events of everyday life. Search the site or browse themed or picture collections.

Roots Television     You’ll find videos covering everything from DNA Stories, to Flat Stanley’s Family Tree, to the lectures from the latest Genealogy and Technology Conference. We’re defining “roots” broadly – really broadly – so you don’t have to be a genealogist to find something of interest here.

Rootsweb     Finding our roots together.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Company Maps of Florida     These maps were created for insurance purposes from 1860 through 1923. These maps show the size, shape and construction of buildings, dwellings (including hotels and churches), and other structures such as bridges, docks and barns. The maps include street names, property boundaries and lot lines, and house and block numbers.

 At a recent speaking engagement, I was asked a question that stumped me at first: Where do you find records of someone who fought in the Spanish American War of 1898? (Besides Teddy Roosevelt, she meant.)

Off the top of my head, my first thoughts were:

1. The National Archives military records

2. The University of Tampa, which was an upscale resort at that time, was good old T.R.’s hangout of choice while waiting to ship out. The University now has quite a little museum on the conflict.

Now a few months later, I decided to see if my spur of the moment response could have been of any help.

First I went to the National Archives site, www.archives.gov. Searching for Spanish American War got me a page from Prologue Magazine, Spring 1998, which lists some of the holdings: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/spring/spanish-american-war-3.html

That page references three other NARA pages:

• Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines of the Spanish-American War, Part 1

• Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines of the Spanish-American War, Part 2

• NARA Records Relating to Service in the Spanish-American War

All of them from the same issue. Now this is just a list of documents you can find at the archives. As far as searching online, the NARA site says:

http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/topics/spanish-american-war/#docs

• Documents relating to the Spanish-American War
  15 documents relating to the Spanish-American War and the sinking of the USS Maine were digitized. These documents are maintained in a variety of series held by the Old Military and Civil Records (Washington, DC).

  Search Hint: To retrieve the 15 digitized documents:

  1. Go to http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/.

  2. Press the Yellow search button to go to the Archival Descriptions Search screen.

  3. To search only for archival descriptions that have digital copies, click the Digital Copies search button at the top of the ARC pages.

  4. Enter USS Maine in the Keywords box.

  5. Select the limit results radio button for 100.

  6. Select the box marked Descriptions of Archival Materials linked to digital copies

  7. Press the Go button.

  8. When hits are returned for your search, view the full result of your hit by selecting the Title link.

• Carded Records, Volunteer Organizations: Spanish-American War, 1898
  Compiled military service records for 1,235 Rough Riders, including Teddy Roosevelt have been digitized. The records include individual jackets which give the name, organization, and rank of each soldier. They contain cards on which information from original records relating to the military service of the individual has been copied. Included in the main jacket are carded medical records, other documents which give personal information, and the description of the record from which the information was obtained. These materials are held by the Old Military and Civilian Records (Washington, DC).

  Search Hint: To retrieve the 1,235 digitized documents:

  1. Go to http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/.

  2. Press the Yellow search button to go to the Archival Descriptions Search screen.

  3. To search only for archival descriptions that have digital copies, click the Digital Copies search button at the top of the ARC pages.

  4. Enter Spanish American War and volunteer in the Keywords box. (To search for a specific person, add their first name and last name to the Keywords box. For example, enter Spanish American War and volunteer and Theodore Roosevelt in the Keywords box.)

  5. Select the limit results radio button for 2000.

  6. Press the Go button.

  7. When hits are returned for your search, view the full result of your hit by selecting the Title link.

So it does seem that my first guess was a good one!

My second guess was based on visiting the Henry Plant Museum on the Univeristy of Tampa campus when our son was a student there. The site, http://www.ut.edu/plantmuseum/ says:
Spanish-American War

Tampa and the Tampa Bay Hotel played an important role in the Spanish American War of 1898. Henry Plant convinced the Secretary of War to allow Tampa to be the official port of embarkation for troops going to Cuba. His railroad and steamships helped transport troops to Florida and eventually to Cuba. The Tampa Bay Hotel became the headquarters for the Army officers awaiting the order for embarkation.
The Generals planned the war campaigns from the Hotel. Officers and war correspondents stayed here in relative luxury, rocking on the veranda, sipping iced tea and planning and reporting strategies. Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders trained in the camps near the Hotel during the day. Clara Barton gathered supplies for the Red Cross and frequented the Hotel. The enlisted men camped in tents around Tampa and other Florida cities, fought off mosquitoes, endured stifling temperatures, wool uniforms and boredom while waiting for the signal to start the war
So that guess is good for context, but not so much for individual records.

I hope the audience member had some success!

I am happy to pass on to my readers the call for submissions for the next 2011 Carnival of Genealogy. This is a site which gathers links to various, and diverse, genealogy blogs all on a common topic. You can thus gather insights and commentary from many online genealogists! Creative Gene is the home of the C. of G.

The 102nd edition of the COG topic is The Annual iGene Awards! If you have never seen the iGene Awards, you can see the previous years here, here, and here.

Everyone participating will announce his or her best blog posts from the previous year (in this case, 2010) in the following 5 categories: Best Picture (that would be a photograph), Best Screen Play (story you would make into a movie including the cast), Best Documentary (investigative research), Best Biography, Best Comedy. 

 The deadline for submissions is February 1. Creative Gene will post the links, and then, those of you who read blogs instead of writing them can happily click away at the best of the best!