Tag Archives: genealogy

Recap: Genealogy Workshop @ the Vermont Genealogy Library

Pictured: Erenst Anip, Project Librarian, introducing VTDNP and Chronicling America.
Pictured: Erenst Anip, Project Librarian, introducing VTDNP and Chronicling America.

On an almost warm, partially sunny morning this past Saturday, March 7, at 10:30 am, the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project  gave a presentation on how to use Chronicling America for genealogy research to an audience of near fifty people at the Vermont Genealogy Library in Fort Ethan Allen.

In the class, we addressed how VTDNP digitizes and selects content, how to search on Chronicling America, and offered some tips and tricks on how to effectively find information about relatives on Chronicling America.

Pictured: Karyn Norwood, Digital Support Specialist, talking about the basics of Chronicling America.
Pictured: Karyn Norwood, Digital Support Specialist, talking about the basics of Chronicling America.

We are very grateful to the Vermont Genealogy Library for the opportunity to present at their facility!

The PowerPoint, with  audio, will be posted on our website and slideshare account soon. We’ll also have a brochure posted on how to conduct genealogy research with historic newspapers on Chronicling America , as well, for free download.

Visit the Vermont Genealogy Library’s website to learn more about what they offer in regard to genealogy research.

Visit our Genealogy section to learn more about how to research ancestors using Chronicling America.

As always, happy searching!

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Save the Date: Genealogy & Chronicling America Class on March 7

Are you interested in genealogy? We’re pleased to announce we’ll be offering a class at the Vermont Genealogy Library on how to use Chronicling America for genealogy research on Saturday, March 7, 2015, from 10:30 am to 12 pm.

The cost is $5 and no registration is necessary.

Visit the Vermont Genealogy Library’s website to learn more.

In the meantime, visit our genealogy tab on our website!

Hope to see you there & happy searching!

 

Genealogy Search Tips for Chronicling America

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Often marriages are printed in varying detail in historic newspapers. This notice appeared, among others, in the Bennington Banner and Reformer, October 15, 1903.

The search for ancestors, while generally rewarding, can be difficult and time-consuming; as an amateur genealogist I can attest to this. For genealogy research, certainly, historic newspapers contain a wealth of information about relatives, for newspapers can include local news, marriages and deaths, participant lists (military recruitment lists, organizations, meetings, parties), advertisements, social and political functions, local individual updates (e.g., “Mrs. William Johnson received her parents this past Wednesday”–these may or may not be helpful!), and legal notices (deeds, court happenings, divorces, estates). This is, if you can find it amid hundreds of thousands of pages. Generally, this has often meant hours of scanning newspaper microfilm or going through actual newspapers at a historical society or library.

Thankfully, Chronicling America provides an online platform for searching historic newspapers from across the United States. Chronicling America is an accessible and free search tool that greatly eases the search of newspapers for traces of the past. Currently, thirty-eight states, including Vermont, have over 6.6 million pages from 1,105 newspapers available for search on the website from the years of 1836-1922. Continue reading Genealogy Search Tips for Chronicling America