February 29, 2012

Census Index: New York City, New York & Long Island, 1870

This database contains indexes to approximately 500,000 census records from five counties that comprised New York City in 1870. These counties are Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, and Suffolk...

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February 26, 2012

1940 U.S. Federal Census Coming April 2, 2012

On April 2, 1940, there were 132,164,569 people living in America. And today, 87 percent of Americans can find a direct family link to one – or more – of them.

When the 1940 U.S. Federal Census is opened to the public this April, you’ll have a window into every one of those 132 million lives. Their names, where they lived, who shared their house, even where they were five years earlier.  And that’s just for starters.

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East Pennsylvania, 1870 Census Index

This database contains more than 219,000 entries listing heads of household as well as every male over age 50, every female over age 70, and other surnameswithin the household...

February 25, 2012

West Pennsylvania, 1870 Census Index

This database contains indexes to approximately 312,000 census records from 26 counties in Western Pennsylvania. Contains entries listing heads of household as well as every male over 50, every female over age 70, and other surnames within the household...

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February 24, 2012

Massachusetts, 1870 Census Index

This database contains approximately 1,380,000 Massachusetts residents who were counted in the 1870 United States census. This index is quite comprehensive, covering every county in the state of Massachusetts and listing every name, as well, not just heads of household...

February 22, 2012

Scotch-Irish Settlers in America, 1500s-1800s

If you've got ancestors of Scotch-Irish descent, you'll want to explore the 13 volumes available here. Among these significant volumes, you'll find a collection of Pennsylvania genealogies from Chester county, a location historically scarce on genealogical source material.

Approximately 215,000 individuals referenced. Genealogically valuable because passenger and immigration lists can be an invaluable primary source for tracing most immigrants to the United States, particularly in the 19th century. 

Genealogical Records: Irish Source Records, 1500s-1800s

The information collected here is especially valuable since nearly all of Ireland's pre-1901 census records were lost in a 1922 fire at the Public Records Office in Dublin. This database includes extensively researched reconstructions of the 1841 and 1851 censuses as well as transcriptions of the surviving 1851 census fragments for County Cork. In addition, you'll find record of wills that were abstracted or copied before the fire...

February 20, 2012

Ontario and Nova Scotia Settlers, 1790-1860

Early settlers of Nova Scotia and Ontario included American colonists (particularly Loyalists) as well as English, Scottish, and Irish immigrants. Among the six titles reproduced here, you'll find historical essays on the settlement of Nova Scotia and Ontario, Loyalist lists, population returns, maps, and immigration records. Originally published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, these books reference approximately 131,000 individuals.

The scarcity of surviving civil records from Nova Scotia and Ontario makes those found on this database even more valuable. Among the unusual resources collected here you'll find a comprehensive collection of newspaper columns that focus entirely on New England families of English descent who settled in Nova Scotia around the time of the Revolutionary War.

February 19, 2012

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Passenger and Immigration Lists: New York, 1820-1850

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Passenger lists are important primary sources of arrival data for the vast majority of immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century. In the mid-1800s, immigrants (particularly Irish, Germans, and Italians) flocked to the port of New York. Indexed and easy to search, this database references approximately 1.6 million individuals who arrived in New York between January 7, 1820 and December 31, 1850.

The information collected for this database was taken from the National Archives Microfilm Series M237, rolls 1 through 95 (Registers of Vessels Arriving at the Port of New York from Foreign Ports, 1789-1919). While the volumes vary in dates covered and information recorded, the information you can obtain from this database can help you create a well-rounded picture of your ancestor's arrival in America.

Partly in an effort to alleviate overcrowding of passenger ships, Congress enacted legislation (3 Stat. 489) on March 2, 1819 to regulate the transport of passengers in ships arriving from foreign ports. As a provision of this act, masters of such ships were required to submit a list of all passengers to the collector of customs in the district in which the ship arrived. The legislation also provided that the collector of customs submit quarterly passenger list reports to the Secretary of State, who was, in turn, required to submit the information to Congress. The information was then published in the form of Congressional documents. These passenger lists are important primary sources of arrival data for the vast majority of immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century.

A further Congressional act passed on May 7, 1874 repealed the legislative provision requiring collectors to send copies of passenger lists to the Secretary of State. Thereafter, collectors of customs were to send only statistical reports on passenger arrivals to the Department of Treasury.

Listings Include:- Name, age, and gender of immigrant
- Birthplace
- Occupation
- Country of origin
- Port of departure
- Date of arrival in the U.S.
- Destination in the U.S.
- Name of the ship on which the person traveled (often the type of ship is noted as well)
- Family identification number
- National Archives series and microfilm roll numbers 

February 18, 2012

Census Records: United Kingdom, 1851

A census is an official enumeration of the population in a particular area. In addition to counting the inhabitants of an area, the census generally collects other vital information. Since 1801, the United Kingdom has undertaken a census every ten years (except for 1941, during World War II).

Useful enumerations featuring the names of every resident of England and Wales began in 1841, and by 1851 the census schedule showed each person's full name, age, gender, occupation, address, relationship to the head of the household, marital status, and the exact town or parish of birth.

More than an index to the census, this database includes all of the information you'd find on the actual census page. Knowing the exact town or parish of a person's birth can be especially helpful in tracking a person's mobility and in locating the proper entries in civil registration records or parish registers.

Listings Include:- Name, age, and gender
- Place of birth (often, town and county)
- Relationship to the head of household
- Marital status
- Occupation
- Address at time of census
- Enumeration district and county
- Exact address or location of house
- Family number assigned by the enumerator

The Irish Flax Grower's List, 1796

In 1796, the Irish Linen Board published a list of nearly 60,000 individuals who received awards for planting between one and five acres of flax. Individuals who planted one acre were awarded four spinning-wheels, and those growing five acres were awarded a loom. The "Flax Grower's List," is an extremely useful genealogical record since virtually no Irish census of the nineteenth century has survived.

With the information listed, you may be able to compensate for the lack of genealogical records available for Ireland at this time. Land records are unique because they allow you to obtain an idea of your family's migration pattern and help you determine local resources to research for more information. If you are one of the nearly 70 million individuals worldwide with Irish heritage, the Flax Grower's List is an important resource.

Counties Covered:
Antrim - Galway - Meath - Armagh - Kerry - Monaghan - Carlow - Kildare - Offaly - Cavan - Kilkenny - Roscommon - Clare - Laois - Sligo - Cork - Leitrim - Tipperary - Derry - Limerick - Tyrone - Donegal - Longford - Waterford - Down - Louth - Westmeath - Dublin - Mayo - Wexford - Fermanagh

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February 17, 2012

Search for your 1930 relatives for FREE this weekend.

Take a glimpse into the lives of your family 82 years ago by searching the 1930 U.S. Census for FREE this weekend. Find out details, such as:
  • Household names, including brothers and sisters or children
  • Marriage details, including years and birthplaces that can lead to a birth or marriage certificate
  • Information about occupations, military service, citizenship and more
Recent enhancements to the 1930 census on Ancestry.com provide you with six new fields to help you refine your search and clearer images to make your results more accurate than ever before. Search now

February 16, 2012

Topographical Dictionaries of England, Ireland, and Scotland

Originally prepared by Samuel Lewis, the gazetteers reproduced on this database contain detailed information on English, Irish, and Scottish locales as they existed in the mid-1800s. A gazetteer is a topographical (or geographical) dictionary in which a location's political and physical features are defined. For example, for a location listed you may learn information on local industry, nearby towns, population, and primary landholders...

February 15, 2012

Immigration Records: Scottish Immigrants to North America, 1600s-1800s

This database contains immigration records for approximately 70,000 Scottish immigrants to the United States and Canada. Extracted from a great variety of sources both in North America and Scotland, the information collected here would otherwise be difficult to access. Records were compiled from private and public sources including passenger lists, newspapers, church records, land deeds, records of indenture, and oaths of allegiance.

Materials on this database originally spanned sixteen volumes authored by Scottish emigration authority David Dobson and published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. The author of more than twenty books, Mr. Dobson specializes in migration patterns and the historical background of the Scottish people's emigration. Among the sixteen comprehensive volumes you'll find The Original Scots Colonists and a series of supplements to that work. By itself, that work identifies virtually all of the Scottish settlers to America in the 1600s. The other volumes collected here are of equal quality and value.

February 14, 2012

German and Swiss Settlers in America, 1700s-1800s Immigration Records

The German and Swiss immigrants included in this resource mostly settled in the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Among the great variety of resources collected here, you'll find historical essays on German influence in the settlement of Texas, the great Palatine migration from the Rhineland in 1709, as well as German and Swiss migration patterns...

February 13, 2012

Ontario, 1858-1869 Marriage Index

Search a consolidated database of previously scattered Ontario marriage records! Save yourself time and effort - hunt for your ancestors' marriages in one master index, instead of looking through microfilms of 40 county marriage registers or indexes one-by-one.

- Comprehensive coverage of Ontario marriage records between 1858 and July 1869
- Approximately 158,000 individuals referenced
- Genealogically valuable because these marriages were documented before province-wide registration of marriages began.

February 12, 2012

Irish to America Passenger and Immigration Lists Volume 2, 1846-1886

Sail across the Atlantic with your Irish ancestors using an all-new volume of Irish to America - completely new details for 550,000+ additional immigrants. Referencing arrivals in Boston between 1846 and 1851 and New York between 1866 and 1886.

You'll discover information taken from original ship manifest schedules - documents filed by all vessels entering United States. Irish to America was produced in collaboration with the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research and the John F. Kennedy Trust.

A good deal of information in this database was collected from immigrants to the United States during the Great Famine (1845-1849). Between 1847 and 1854, 1.6 million Irish immigrated to the U.S., mostly arriving in New York, marking the first voluntary mass migration to the United States.

Listings Include:
- Name of immigrant
- Name of the ship
- Ports of origin and debarkation
- Ship's arrival date
- Immigrant's age, gender, and occupation
- Immigrant's country of origin, destination, and manifest ID number
- Village or town or origin - Purpose and mode of travel


February 11, 2012

Ontario, 1869-1886 Marriage Index Volume 2

This data set contains alphabetical listings of approximately 355,000 individuals who were married in Ontario, Canada between August 1869 and 1886. With this great resource — you'll find previously uncollected marriage records together in one place.

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February 9, 2012

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Tithe Applotment Books of Ireland, 1823-1838

A unique land survey taken to determine the amount of tax payable to the Church of Ireland by landholders, the Tithe Applotment Books collectively represent a virtual census for pre-Famine Ireland. Because the results of this land survey were originally compiled in nearly 2,000 hand-written volumes, this resource is known to genealogists as the Tithe Applotment Books. This database references the counties that make up present-day Northern Ireland: Counties Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.

In the original enumeration, each landholder was recorded along with details such as townland, size of holding, land quality and types of crops. The amount of tithe payable by each landholder was based on all of these factors and calculated by a formula using the average price of wheat and oats from 1816-23.

Listings Include:- Name
- County
- Parish
- Townland
- Year of enumeration

February 8, 2012

Baltimore Passenger and Immigration Lists Volume 2, 1851-1872

This database details the arrivals of approximately 89,000 individuals who sailed to Baltimore in the nineteenth century. The information was extracted from National Archives Microfilm Series M255, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Baltimore, 1820-1891. While the entire microfilm series spans 50 rolls, this Family Archive covers rolls 1 through 8 and includes individuals who arrived between September 2, 1820 and May 28, 1852.

Most Baltimore passenger lists were collected following the 1833 enactment of a Maryland state law that required passenger lists be submitted to the mayor upon a ship's arrival. The information collected on those passenger lists and preserved on this database can help you create a well-rounded picture of your ancestor's arrival in America.

As you know, it is often the little details that help bring your family history to life. Because of this, we included more than just the basic information available about a person on the actual microfilm. For example, you'll often learn the type of ship an individual sailed on. Types of ships include:

- Bark: A ship of three to five masts with the after mast fore-and-aft rigged.
- Brig: A two-masted square-rigged sailing ship.
- Galliot: A small galley propelled by sails and oars.
- Ketch: A large fore-and-aft rigged boat with two masts.
- Schooner: A fore-and-aft rigged sailing ship.


February 7, 2012

Passenger and Immigration Lists: Baltimore, 1820-1850

This database details the arrivals of approximately 89,000 individuals who sailed to Baltimore in the nineteenth century. The information was extracted from National Archives Microfilm Series M255, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Baltimore, 1820-1891. While the entire microfilm series spans 50 rolls, this Family Archive covers rolls 1 through 8 and includes individuals who arrived between September 2, 1820 and May 28, 1852.

Most Baltimore passenger lists were collected following the 1833 enactment of a Maryland state law that required passenger lists be submitted to the mayor upon a ship's arrival. The information collected on those passenger lists and preserved on this database can help you create a well-rounded picture of your ancestor's arrival in America.

As you know, it is often the little details that help bring your family history to life. Because of this, we included more than just the basic information available about a person on the actual microfilm. For example, you'll often learn the type of ship an individual sailed on. 

Types of ships include:

- Bark: A ship of three to five masts with the after mast fore-and-aft rigged.
- Brig: A two-masted square-rigged sailing ship.
- Galliot: A small galley propelled by sails and oars.
- Ketch: A large fore-and-aft rigged boat with two masts.
- Schooner: A fore-and-aft rigged sailing ship. 

February 5, 2012

Naturalization Records: Philadelphia, 1789-1880

With information on more than 113,000 immigrants from nearly 100 countries, this database will be a great resource for researchers whose family settled in Pennsylvania. Information compiled in this database was originally edited by P. William Filby and produced as a book volume called Philadelphia Naturalization Records. That book volume was compiled from an eleven-volume index originally completed by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) around 1940. That index is generally considered to be one of the most important documents in the American naturalization and immigration archive.

Listings Include:
- An individual's name
- Any alternate spellings or interpretations of that name
- The individual's country of former allegiance
- Date and location the individual filed a declaration of intention and/or oath of allegiance. 

February 4, 2012

Irish Immigrants to North America, 1803-1871

Follow your ancestors as they journey from Ireland to a new life! Touching on 46,000 Irish passengers who arrived in the United States and Canada, these records focus primarily on the 19th century.

Sources for Irish Immigrants to North America, 1803-1871:
  • Emigrants from Ireland to America, 1735-1743: A Transcription of the Report of the Irish House of Commons into Enforced Emigration to America
    by Frances McDonnell
    These lists of about 2,000 felons and vagabonds forcibly transported from Ireland between 1735 and 1743 constitute one of the few known sources of Irish emigration to the New World in the 18th century.
  • Irish Passenger Lists, 1803-1806: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Ireland to America 
    by Brian Mitchell
    Altogether, some 4,500 passengers are identified in the 109 sailings recorded in this transcription of the Hardwicke Papers, a rare official register of passengers leaving Irish ports. Most individuals are cited with their all-important place of residence, departing from the ports of Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry, and Newry and destined mainly for New York and Philadelphia. The Hardwicke lists, only fragments of which have ever appeared in print, now fill a significant gap in the records, since in many cases they will prove to be the only record of an ancestor's emigration to the U.S.
  • An Alphabetical Index to Ulster Emigration to Philadelphia, 1803-1850 
    by Raymond D. Adams
    Based on U.S. Customs Passenger Lists, the manifests of the Cunard and Cooke shipping lines and other sources, this work provides you with a list of 3,200 emigrants from Londonderry to Philadelphia between 1803 and 1850. Each entry typically furnishes the name of the emigrant, his/her age, town and country of origin (where given), year of emigration, and name of ship.
  • Passengers from Ireland: Lists of Passengers Arriving at American Ports Between 1811 and 1817 (Transcribed from The Shamrock or Hibernian Chronicle) 
    by Donald M. Schlegel
    The core of this work is a reproduction of about 5,150 Irish passenger listings that date from 1811 and 1815-1816 and were compiled by J. Dominick Hackett and Charles Montague Early for the 1930 and 1931 editions of The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society. Schlegel has corrected some errors and omissions that appeared in the original compilation, and has presented the lists in their original format so that family groupings are apparent. Grouped together following the passenger lists are a number of death notices and advertisements which may reference a person's place of origin in Ireland or date of immigration. In all, the names of 7,308 immigrants are included in this volume.
  • Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839: Lists of Emigrants Extracted from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Counties Londonderry and Antrim 
    by Brian Mitchell
    These Antrim and Londonderry memoirs lists have been extracted, arranged under parish, and alphabetized. They identify the emigrant's destination and his place of origin in Ireland — key pieces of information for anyone tracing his Irish ancestry. In addition, the age, town and address, year of emigration, and religious denomination are given for the approximately 3,000 emigrants identified in this book.
  • Irish Emigration to New England Through the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1841-1849 
    by Daniel F. Johnson
    St. John's port was a magnet for Irish immigration during the decade that culminated in the Great Famine, although a majority of these Irish immigrants eventually relocated to Boston or elsewhere in New England in order to rejoin their families. Since many of them arrived in Canada in a destitute or infirm condition, however, they were required to take temporary refuge in the alms and work houses, hospitals, and asylums of St. John. Many of the records of these institutions have survived, and with their help the author has created a surrogate record for some 7,000 persons who never appeared in the official passenger lists.
  • A List of Alien Passengers, Bonded from January 1, 1847, to January 1, 1851, for the Use of the Overseers of the Poor, in the Commonwealth 
    by J.B. Munroe
    Prepared by the Superintendent for the city of Boston in 1851 and covering a four-year period, this alphabetical list includes a bonded passenger's date of arrival in Boston, name, age, and birth place, along with the name of vessel on which he sailed.
  • Emigrants from Ireland, 1847-1852: State-Aided Emigration Schemes from Crown Estates in Ireland 
    by Eilish Ellis
    This work contains a history of the emigration scheme and a list of the emigrants from each estate with the following details: name, age, occupation, family relationships, date and place of departure, date and place of arrival in the U.S., and name of ship. Most of the emigrants arrived at the port of New York, while a handful disembarked in Quebec.
  • Irish Passenger Lists, 1847-1871: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. & J. Cooke Line and the McCorkell Line 
    compiled under the direction of Brian Mitchell
    These passenger lists, which cover the period of the Great Famine and its aftermath, identify the emigrants' actual places of residence, as well as their port of departure and nationality. Essentially business records, the lists were developed from the order books of two main passenger lines operating out of Londonderry: J. & J. Cooke (1847-67) and William McCorkell & Co. (1863-71). Both sets of records provide the emigrant's name, age, and address, and the name of the ship. The Cooke lists provide the ship's destination and year of sailing, while the McCorkell lists provide the date engaged and the scheduled sailing date. Altogether 27,495 passengers are identified.
  • Irish Emigrants in North America (in three parts) 
    by David Dobson
    This work is a consolidated reprint of three pamphlets by David Dobson, and it endeavors to shed light on some 1,000 Irish men and women and their families who emigrated to North America between roughly 1775 and 1825. Each of the three groupings is arranged alphabetically by the emigrant's surname and, in the majority of cases, provides us with most of the following particulars: name, date of birth, name of ship, occupation in Ireland, reason for emigration, reason for emigration, place of disembarkation in North America, date of arrival, number of persons in the household, and the source of the information.

February 3, 2012

Passenger and Immigration Lists: Boston, 1821-1850

Passenger lists are important primary sources of arrival data for the vast majority of immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century. With the single exception of federal census records, passenger lists are the largest, most continuous, and the most uniform body of population records for the entire country. While researching original passenger lists can often be tedious and difficult, this Family Archive makes finding your immigrant ancestors easier than ever. It contains alphabetical listings of approximately 161,000 individuals who arrived at the port of Boston, Massachusetts from foreign ports between 1821 and 1850...

February 1, 2012

Land Records: AL, AR, FL, LA, MI, MN, OH, WI, 1790-1907

This database contains approximately 1,645,000 records from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The records are often the only available source offering the identification of legal land descriptions and transfer of property ownership from the U.S. Government to private land owners. They show who obtained what land from the Federal Government, and when it was obtained. Source documents include homesteads, cash sales, warrants, private land claims, swamp lists, state selections, and railroad lists.

Listings Include:
- Patentee's name and Soundex code.
- State.
- Accession number (directly relates a document image to the original hard copy document).
- Document number (used to order a copy of the original record from the BLM).
- Date the deed was signed Land office that handled the transaction.
- Aliquot part reference Section Number, Block, Township, Range, and Meridian/Survey Area.
- Number of acres.
- Act/Treaty authorizing sale. 

Marriage Index: Michigan and Wisconsin, 1830-1900

This database contains information on approximately 52,800 individuals married Wisconsin and 108,500 individuals married in Michigan. It brings together previously uncollected marriage records and gives you easy access to information that you would otherwise have to obtain at from local sources. Data included in this database was collected through the efforts of Jordan Dodd at Liahona Research.

Listings Include:- Name of each spouse.
- Marriage date
- County where the marriage was recorded.
- Where to find copies of your ancestor's original marriage record so that you can obtain even more detailed family history information. 

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