Searching Public Land Records

 
The General Land Office (GLO) of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) website provides access to initial Federal land records for the Public Land States.  Information includes transfer dates, the names of individuals to whom specific land was first transferred, where the property is located, and adjacent property purchasers.  In many cases, images of documents pertaining to that transfer are available.   NOT ALL Federal title records are included. 

Search the GLO site at:
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/

Locating an Archives

In your genealogical research, you will want to contact and/or visit any archival repositories in the area where your ancestor lived.  You will be interested, primarily, in archives that collect historical information. And, of course, you will want to visit the state archives for the state in which they lived.

To locate such archives, visit a directory of over 5,000 archival repositories throughout the world, which was put up on the web by the University of Idaho.  The web address is:
www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/special-collections/other.repositories.html

Once there, chose the area of the world you want, then country, then state.

When you finally get to the web page for the archives in question, be sure to explore it.  See if they have mounted any online resources that you could search.  Also see if they have an online catalog or a list of finding aids.  You'll also want information on their hours, in case you can arrange a visit.

A Few Genealogical Websites of Interest

Websites for Family History and Genealogical Research

General and Multi-Purpose

www.ancestry.com

 Ancestry.com, a commercial searchable database, is available for FREE through GALILEO at Georgia public and academic libraries. Even though GALILEO is available remotely to University System of Georgia students and Georgia public library card holders, ANCESTRY.COM IS NOT AVAILABLE REMOTELY THROUGH GALILEO (for free). To access Ancestry.com from home, you will need to subscribe for a fee ( annual fee $159 forU. S Deluxe; $299 for World Deluxe)

www.familysearch.org

The Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – or LDS) genealogy website. This site allows you to search a number of important databases, including the IGI and the Social Security Death Index.

genforum.genealogy.com

Genforum is a monitored genealogical posting service that allows persons researching the same surname to communicate with one another and share information online.

usgenweb.org

USGENWEB is a collaborative venture that utilizes volunteer county coordinators within each state. The coordinators mount records (some extracted; some contributed) pertaining to the county, post queries, maintain the query file (with responses) and refer researchers to other relevant websites.

www.rootsweb.ancestry.com

Rootsweb is a free site that offers a variety of genealogical databases, including one that allows others to see who is researching certain surnames.

www.cyndislist.com

 A comprehensive subject index to hundreds of thousands of genealogical websites.

Vital Records

www.cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/w2welcom.htm

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) page for information on ordering vital records (birth, death and marriage records) from state government agencies.

Newspaper Research

www.genealogybank.com

This is a fee-based index to newspapers across the U.S.  Coverage is mainly nineteenth century up to 1923.  Even without a subscription, you can search the index and pull up snipets.

www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) U.S. Newspaper Program. Use this source to identify and locate newspapers published in a specific U.S. locale. Especially good for obituary research. In nineteenth

century newspapers, obituaries were short and not always easy to find. In the twentieth century, they expanded.  Not everyone will have an obituary. Not all the information in an obituary is accurate. Once at this website, look under the name for state website.

Welcome

Welcome to C.A.L.L.'s "Getting Started with Genealogy" blog.  C.A.L.L. stands for Columbus Academy for Lifelong Learning.  This is a peer-led organization in which members facilitate and teach classes in their fields of expertise. 

C.A.L.L. is associated with Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia; classes are held at the university's Elizabeth Bradley Turner Center, a facility of the university's Continuing Education Department.

The C.A.L.L. website is located at columbuscall.org.

"Getting Started with Genealogy," a six-week course offered in the fall of 2011, is taught by retired Columbus State University librarians, Callie McGinnis and Sandra Stratford.

This course blog will offer genealogical research tips on many of the topics covered in this class.