Most genealogists have heard of Google — far fewer have used Google Scholar. Those who do often assume it is “only for academics.” In reality, Google Scholar functions as a quiet discovery engine for obscure publications that frequently contain names, places, institutions, and community information relevant to genealogy. Google Scholar is not a genealogy database.It […]
Author: Kenneth R Marks
Kenneth R Marks was born and educated in the San Francisco Bay Area, receiving a BS in Mathematics in 1968. His career was in Information Technology; with the last 20 Years as a software executive with Boeing, Pearson, and NASA. His genealogy career began in 2004. He is an expert in newspaper research for genealogy, as well as additional genealogy topics. He regularly conducts webinars on the subject and has authored three genealogy books. See the About page for more details.
The Ancestor Hunt, founded in 2008, is focused on helping genealogy and family history researchers of all skill levels to achieve their goals, by providing links to free online genealogy collections, and search tips and techniques, largely via easy-to-understand Quick Reference Guides.
Are you researching newspapers and getting everything you should out of your research? Here are 33 different types of information that you may not have considered that are available in old newspapers. Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain a two-page Quicksheet PDF of the information, download it by clicking on the Download button below: For […]
The Official Federal Land Records Site—commonly called the BLM GLO Records site—is one of the most important land research tools available to genealogists. It documents the transfer of federal public land into private ownership, primarily in states created from public-domain land. If your ancestor: This site may contain the original land patent that put that […]
Most genealogists have either never heard of JSTOR or assume it is “only for professors.” In reality, JSTOR quietly hosts millions of digitized pages that can contain direct references to people, schools, churches, organizations, towns, occupations, and institutions connected to family history research. JSTOR is not a genealogy database.It is a content discovery platform — […]
The Smithsonian Digital Library is not a genealogy website in the traditional sense — but it is an exceptionally powerful context and discovery resource. Its collections include publications that document people, places, institutions, and events connected to American history at local, regional, and national levels. For genealogists, the Smithsonian Digital Library is most useful for: […]
Digital Commons Collections are among the most overlooked genealogy resources on the internet. While most genealogists associate Digital Commons with academic papers, the platform also hosts thousands of digitized primary-source collections that contain names, places, and records directly relevant to family history research. These collections often include materials that: For genealogists, Digital Commons functions as […]
Behind the Name is not a genealogy database, but it is an exceptionally useful name-analysis tool that helps researchers understand name origins, meanings, language variants, and historical usage. Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain a one-page Quicksheet PDF of the information, download it by clicking on the Download button below: For all the previously published […]
Documenting the American South is a major digital collection hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, providing free access to first-person narratives, books, letters, and historical texts focused on the Southern United States. Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain a one-page Quicksheet PDF of the information, download it by clicking on the […]
Interment.net is a long-running volunteer cemetery transcription site that preserves burial data for cemeteries often missing from major platforms. While not visually rich, it remains valuable for older, rural, and defunct cemeteries. Interment.net consists of: Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain a one-page Quicksheet PDF of the information, download it by clicking on the Download […]
Freedmen’s Bureau Online provides access to some of the most important post–Civil War records for African American research. These records document the transition from slavery to freedom and contain names, relationships, labor contracts, marriages, children, and disputes that appear nowhere else. For genealogists, this site is critical for: Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain a […]