Compiled Sources & Where to Find Them

A CHECKLIST OF COMPILED SOURCES & WHERE TO FIND THEM©

By Phillip Dunn, A.G.®

Introduction

Regardless of your experience as a family history researcher in using primary and original records, and no matter how many years of experience in researching family trees, this important checklist of Compiled Sources will help you more comprehensively search for already compiled data on your family lines. Family history seekers are guaranteed a pleasant surprise as they strike ‘gold’ by discovering already completed research on at least one or some in-common ancestral family lineages. This list helps you to more meticulously search in secondary or what genealogists call compiled sources. It’s to help you identify, then search as many of today’s offerings for completed family genealogical (research) work which in today’s world has become a quantumly more complex and unwieldy task than ever, from library and archival catalogs and published inventories of collections, to online databases, family websites and surname-specialty sources! So, how does one keep up on all the new websites, and places to find critical sources?

This ‘list’ of compiled sources is a good start. Collectively, it literally represents family history 'silos' containing billions of ancestral names with already compiled data about them! The searches in these sources should be performed before you begin actual genealogical researching in original record sources

The Preliminary Search Standard

Your search in "compiled sources" should include four fundamental steps:

• Preliminary search in home sources

• Preliminary search for compiled genealogies, biography, local history

• Search in indexes (and in the original record) sources in the host country of settlement

• Search in indexes (and in the original record) sources in the country of origin (works as a first-step IF surname is not too common)

Step 1. Thoroughly scour all home sources (including family history papers, copies of records, pictures, old letters (i.e. with an old address), family Bibles, journals/dairies, copies of vital record certificates and church records, memorabilia , interviews with extended family and close relatives’, even searching their home records, as well as interviewing old neighbors may prove very helpful! If we do not seek these and scan all to ascertain important details about our immigrant ancestors, we cannot honestly say that our (preliminary) search is completed.

Step 2. The preliminary search continues by requiring you to initiate the next vital step—the standard procedure—of seeking for and searching compiled sources. Such compiled sources to search for includes published or manuscript sources on families found in libraries and archives; pedigrees, biographies, autobiographies, town and local histories, and online family genealogies. To some, this is the ‘ugly duckling’ aspect of the research process but nevertheless, a vital phase of doing standard (proper) due diligence.

Like a research scientist before seeking an advanced degree or a government-sponsored grant to fund forensic or frontier research or a campaign of discovery, preliminary search-protocol requires diligent and broad-spectrum searches for and in compiled sources to determine ‘what’s already researched and thus far discovered in the chosen area of scientific research. Every researcher—beginners or scientific—must do the same, diligently! It pinpoints on a ‘map’ more precisely where you’ve ‘arrived’, in your research, by learning what’s already “known” or a given, about your family. How will you know where you want to go if you don’t know the current point to where you’ve progressed in your family’s historical research? If your preliminary searches stops after completing ‘closet or attic or basement searches’ on shelves and in boxes for family and home sources, you ignore outside sources, that is far too limited in scope for what should be a comprehensive and more thorough search for other compiled sources available and waiting to be discovered outside the home! To smugly fold the arms, cock the head back and think, ‘That’s all I need to know; now let’s start researching in original and primary record sources’—is naïve at least and, at worst, it short-circuits the comprehensive research process!

This ‘Second step’ is a worthy strategy in the research process which everyone ought to employ—but regrettably, it is also the most overlooked part of the research process, or is routinely discarded or not always considered standard procedure. Millions worldwide currently seek their ancestry; most of them have made some of their findings accessible in some form or manner. Why then would we tend to ignore these “findings”?

Why would any true genealogist or passionate family history buff discard the standard of seeking and searching in compiled sources outside the home, by narrowly considering that no one else is “qualified” to research? For every thousand family history compilers who may generate fuzzy genealogical ‘data’, there are many very competent researchers and writers who have credibly researched and written professional-level family history compilations. It is especially for these latter "credible" compilations of competent researchers for which we all should seek and review.

Here’s the ‘Second step’ every resaercher should employ in the research process—but it is also the most overlooked part of the research process and not always considered standard procedure.

Find and Search “Compiled Sources”: A  List

Here’s a good a list of places for where to find online, published and manuscript (compiled) sources on family surnames and lineages:

1. Online family genealogy sites, pedigrees, family history, etc. sites:

 World catalog at http://worldcat.org/. In the 'Subject field enter the surname and “family” like this, Prescott Family. This searches the catalogs and displays the results from thousands of especially U.S. libraries at once.

 Periodical Source Index (PERSI) at http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/persi/search/people People Search] allows searches for a family name in over a million article titles in genealogical periodicals. If the Article “Results List” is too long, redo the search but in the Keyword field add the two-letter postal abbreviation for the state where they lived.

 Google books at http://books.google.com - type in the surname and another key word such as the locality, i.e. town, or county or state/province

 Internet Archive at http://www.internetarchives.org  

 FamilySearch at www.familysearch.org (follow prompt to the Family History Library Catalog; do a “Surname” search. This searches the world’s largest genealogical library for i.e. published works for any family surname as a main subject).

 Genforum www.genforum.com  – has 170 million names; quarter of million a week

 Ancestry.com – has about the largest database listings of compiled data on families

 USGenweb.org or Canadagenweb.org or BritishIslesgenweb.org–numerous aids & databases online by state & county

 Genealogy.com (FamilyFinder) - has enormous databases (300m entries) for families

 Roots Surname Lists at http://rsl.rootsweb.ancestry.com/  

 MyTrees at www.Kindredkonnections.com - a fabulous site for surnames

 www.MyHeritage.com  – has over 353 million names worldwide

 www.GenesReunited.com - the largest UK site with over 650 million UK names

 www.Onegreatfamily.com  - has over 130 million names worldwide

 BYU’s Family History Archive at http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php has scanned several thousands of free, published family histories all scanned, imaged and online

 Family History Library “Favorites” links may be viewed at www.fhlfavorites.info – see “England”; “General”; “Book search” or “England”; “General” ;”Genealogy”

 Guild of One Name Studies or www.one-name.org. – with nearly 8,000 UK surnames registered

 New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Soc http://www.newenglandancestors.org/  

 Allen Co. Indiana Public Library at http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/eresources.html  

 Google on 1) family “surname”, 2) “family history” or “genealogy” and 3) “town” or “city” name

 Ancestor Hunt at www.ancestorhunt.com has numerous databases and links to databases for those seeking compiled data on families; a great website

 Daughters of The American Revolution (DAR) has one of the most exhaustive listings for family Bibles available (online) anywhere; visit periodically for new listings; at http://www.dar.org/library/online_research.cfm  

 Roots UK at www.rootsuk.org  has census and family links

 World Vital Records at www.worldvitalrecords.com with over a billion record entries

 Distant Cousin at www.distantcousin.com  has a considerable database of linked families

 Family History Library Favorites at www.fhlfavorites.info; search name of British country, then “General” then under “Genealogy” and “Biography” etc.

 Ancestral Findings at www.ancestralfindings.com  has several offerings worth searching

 Foot Note at www.footnote.com works with government agencies and may provide considerable amounts of data on families

 Heritage Quest at http://www.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/index; great and extensive listing of online resources for genealogists

 Gen Serve at http://www.genserv.com/ is a large gateway website with 1000’s of website links to it

2.Repositories and libraries

Search those libraries and prepositoriesholding the largest collections of compiled sources with online catalogs. Many of them especially hold published or manuscript family histories, genealogies, biographies and other compiled family and local histories (and many of which may have one and often more—internal alpha-arranged listing or index or related database[s]). If an publication is found, often you can order it through the Inter-Library Loan Service.

Repositories, Archives & Libraries – A List

Here’s a list of actual repositories and libraries possessing the best collections for genealogists--including the above sources as well as town and local histories, biographies, newspaper gleanings, and more:

 Family History Library (FHL) – collections

 National Archives of Canada – large collections of original record sources

 New England Historical & Genealogical Society – magnificent collections

 Dallas TX Public Library

 Chicago’s Newberry Library - largest collection of published family histories

 The National Archives (NARA) U.S. – enormous national records collections

 The Genealogical Research Library, Toronto, Canada – significant Canadian

 The National Archives - UK

 Provincial archives (Canada)

 A2A (Archives to Arch.) at The National Archives, UK

 The British Library, London

 Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

 County records offices – have numerous family genealogies and pedigrees – Google for their websites and search online catalogs or inventories

 Local Public Libraries—often have published and/or typescript family histories

 Aim25 at: www.aim25.ac.uk  (100 archives within 25 miles of London)

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General List of Repositories, Archives, Libraries and Societies

Compiled sources manuscripts or typescripts on family histories, genealogies, biographies, and pedigrees tend to find their way into any country around the world, which have been deposited, generally may be located at:

 State, provincial archives

 County or local Archives

 National Archives, i.e. U.S. National Archives, of Canada and The National Archives, UK

 Library of Congress; and the UK equivalent--British Library, London

 Research libraries, i.e. Genealogical Research Library, Toronto, Dallas Public Library or Allen County IN – have important genealogical collections

 State or county or regional historical societies have libraries or reading rooms, i.e.www.newenglandancestors.org/ and the D.A.R.–have significant records including, biographies, family Bibles, and much more

 University and college archives - i.e. University of York; BYU Lee Library-- with extensive and significant collections

 County or township genealogical societies

 College of Arms (London), Lord Lyons (King of Arms in Scotland)

 Large to very small local public libraries often have rich local genealogical holdings

3. Searching Compiled sources or INDEXES in the host country of settlement

Top Records to search for “place of origin” (Clue: search for indexes to each record-type, first; i.e. all 50 states now have online indexes to most of the following record-types!)

 vital (esp. death & marriage certificates; sometimes birth)

 church

 obituaries

 naturalization

 tombstones

 local (county & county) histories

 passenger lists (~10%)

 interview family & neighbors

 military

 census

 deeds

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)

National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.