Advanced Research Techniques
for the Southern States
by Barbara Renick 'Copyright 2007
PART I. BACKGROUND PHASE
A. History:
1. dig deeper
example: Friedman, Lawrence M. History of American Law. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
example: Norton, Herman A. Religion in Tennessee: 1777-1945. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 1981.
example: 'An Introduction to the History of Tennessee's Confusing Land Laws' by Billie R. McNamara posted on the Tennessee Genealogy & History Web Ring (NOTE: http://web.utk.edu/~kizzer/genehist/research/landlaws.htm is currently not found on the Web. Go to www.archive.org and enter this URL in the WayBack Machine box to see this site. Go back to December 2003.)
2. search longer & wider
example: http://www.rrhistorical.com/rrdata/
B. Geography:
dotdash.com Search engine searches for historical map or historical gazetteer
AnyplaceAmerica.com Topographic maps and photos of over 1.25 million water, land and man-made landmarks in the United States.
RefDesk.com Subject Categories' Geography/History
1. rivers
example: Schweitzer, George K. Tennessee Genealogical Research. Knoxville, TN : G.K. Schweitzer, c1981.
example: TopoZone Maps http://www.topozone.com/
2. mountains
3. circular searches
example: Everton, George B. The Handy Book for Genealogists : United States of America. Logan, Utah: Everton Publishers, 1999.
4. migratory patterns
example: http://www.repeatperformance.com (another company may be taking over the retail sales of these tapes. Check at Willowbend Books.)
example: Pulaski County Migration Page http://www.rootsweb.com/~kypulask/migrate.html
C. Time Period:
1. gaps in records
example: Genealogical 'Fact Sheets' of Each Tennessee County from the TN State Library & Archives. Enter genealogical fact sheets in the search field. http://www.sos.tn.gov
2. boundary changes
example: AniMap software at http://www.goldbug.com
example: Montgomery
County, Kentucky Boundary Changes
http://www.rootsweb.com/~vamontgo/mont-org.htm
3. judicial changes
example: "Tennessee Court System
Prior to 1870" by Charles A. Sherrill in Tennessee
State GenWeb Project Research Helps
http://www.tngenweb.org/law/courtsys.htm
4. changing governments
5. life span
PART II. SURVEY PHASE
A. Family Traditions
1. fact & fiction
2. supporting evidence
example: Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.
B. Family Sources
1. immediate family
2. extended family
3. repetitive requests
4. interview techniques
C. Extended Family Branches
1. how they can find you
example: Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File at http://www.familysearch.org
example: http://rsl.rootsweb.com Roots(Web) Surname List
2. how you can find them
example: from their queries placed in local genealogical or historical society publications for the places where your ancestors resided
example: message boards at Ancestry.com
example: almost every search engine online has a link to white pages or an initially free people finder search tool
example: http://www.zroots.org/locating.html "Locating Living People"
D. Published Biographies
1. biographical indices
example: databases at Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest Online
example: Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File at FamilySearch.org
example: Godfrey Memorial Library at http://www.godfrey.org/
2. local histories
example: Heritage Quest Online
example: BYU Family History Archives
3. manuscript sources
example: http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmc.html
example: http://archives.chadwyck.com/
E. Genealogical & Historical Societies
1. local
2. regional
3. state
4. ethnic
5. religious
F. Genealogy Publications
1. general
2. surname specific
3. electronic
example: Research Guidance and Research Helps section at FamilySearch.org
PERSI at Ancestry.com or Heritage Quest Online
PART III. RESEARCH PHASE
A. Government Sources
1. federal
example: Carroll, Roy and Raymond H. Pulley. Historic Structures Report Little Cataloochee, North Carolina: Jim Hannah Cabin, Will Messer Barn, Dan Cook Cabin and Apple House, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Gatlinburg, Tennessee: Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, 1976.
2. state
example: http://www.usgenweb.org
Each state page has links to that state's library and archives' Web pages. There you can find many useful files, finding aids, and references.
3. county
a. on location research in the county courthouse
example: lookup offers listed on many County GenWeb Project Web pages or at the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness Web site at http://www.raogk.org/
b. seeking out other levels of record sources
B. Church Sources
1. church records
example: Church of the Brethren Network--History & Genealogy http://www.cob-net.org/genhis.htm
2. biographies
example: Biography of John Hanna of Barton, Tioga Co., NY http://www.onlinebiographies.info/ny/tioga/hannah-j-jr.htm
3. newspapers
4. publications
C. Family Sources
1. repetitive requests
2. you gotta give to get
3. family psychology
D. Miscellaneous Sources
PART IV. TYPES OF LIBRARY SITES
A. Small City Libraries
example: Carlsbad [CA] City Library
http://www.ci.carlsbad.ca.us/library/index.html
B. Large City Libraries
example: Los Angeles Public Library http://www.lapl.org/
C. Regional Resources
example: McClung Collection for East Tennessee
http://cmdc.knoxlib.org//
D. State Libraries & Archives
example: Library of Virginia http://www.lva.lib.va.us/
E. National Libraries & Archives
example: Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/homepage/lchp.html
F. Supraregional Library Resources
example: California Digital Library (access all the UC library catalogs via the Melvyl system) http://www.cdlib.org/
G. Genealogical Society Libraries
example: The Orange County CA Genealogical Society's Collection is housed at the Huntington Beach Public Library http://www.hbpl.org/http://www.hbpl.org/
example: The National Genealogical Society's collection was moved from their Glebe House to St. Louis (http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/libprecat.htm)
H. Historical Society Libraries
example: Wisconsin Historical Society http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/library/
example: Filson Historical Society http://www.filsonhistorical.org/library.html
I. University Libraries (many campuses have more than one library)
example: UCBerkeley has the Bancroft and Doe Libraries on campus
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/
J. Patriotic and Lineage Society Libraries
example: DAR Library in Washington, D.C. http://www.dar.org/library/onlinlib.cfm
K. Libraries of Religious Organizations
example: The Family History Library in Salt Lake City http://www.familysearch.org
example: Partee Center for Baptist Historical Studies
http://campus.jewell.edu/academics/curry/library/partee/partee.html
See the definition of "library" at the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia to expand the types of libraries and resources.
PART V. LIBRARY LOCATORS
A. Using Google.com to find the hours for the Pulaski County, KY Historical Society's Collection at the Pulaski Co. Public Library in Somerset, KY.
B. Specialty search engines like Yahoo! or About.com
C. Using www.searchengines.com and choose 'World Search Engines' to find search engines for specific countries or languages
D. LIBDEX (18,000 links to libraries) (http://www.libdex.com/)
E. LIBWEB (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/)
F. LibrarySpot (http://www.libraryspot.com/)
G. State Libraries List (http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dltcl/pld/statelib.html)
PART VI. ADDITIONAL SOUTHERN RESEARCH LINKS
[To be completed later.]