Mayflower Ancestors Tops US Genealogy Records now Online

A new Mayflower ancestors database can help connect you with your Pilgrim roots. Also, amateur US newspapers: Hill Air Force Base newspaper, Norwegian and African American Mormons, PERSI updates and collections for Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.

Featured: Mayflower ancestors database

An estimated 10 million living Americans and as many 35 million people worldwide have Pilgrim ancestors. So a new database of Mayflower passengers and their descendants at AmericanAncestors.org may prove helpful to a very large group of people! In fact, the new database was so newsworthy, USA Today even reported on it.

“The database contains authenticated information on more than 59,450 people in the fifth generation of the Mayflower passengers known to have descendants,” states the article. “That ‘fifth generation’ of descendants lived in the 1700s and 1800s, so the name you type in to search the database would have to be one of your ancestors who lived during that time.”

According to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which runs subscription site AmericanAncestors.org, “The Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880 database features more than half a million searchable names….This exclusive database offers meticulous documentation for the fifth generation of Mayflower families who arrived in 1620 and left descendants….All information in the database is derived from the original printed books published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. These volumes are often referred to as the ‘Silver Books’ for their distinctive covers.”

This “largest online database of authenticated Mayflower passenger genealogies” is only available to full members of AmericanAncestors.org. You can try a 3-month all-access membership plan for $34.95.

More US genealogy records now online

Amateur newspapers from the 1800s

A new digital archive of 19th-century amateur newspapers is now available to patrons of subscribing libraries. According to a press release, these youth newspapers are “considered the social media of the 19th century and gives students and researchers a unique inside look at how teens and young adults of the period expressed themselves and their opinions to the world.” Ask a reference librarian at your favorite library or archive if they have access to this collection. Even if you can’t access it, if you like old newspapers, it’s worth reading this blog post with lots of great discoveries from the collection.

Latter-day Saint (Mormon)

Two new databases may help you discover more about your ancestors who united with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

  • African Americans comprised a tiny minority of members of this faith before 1930. According to this article in the Salt Lake Tribune, a new database seeks to recover and compile information about them. Search it at its free website, A Century of Black Mormons.
  • AmericanAncestors.org has published a new collection, Norway: Mormon Missionaries and Emigrants to America (1886-1900). According to the site, it “provides a listing of approximately 650 Mormon emigrants, who boarded ships in Christiania from 1886 to 1897, and journeyed to the British Isles and then to America. This resource gives names, gender, ages, marital status, occupations, place of residence, destinations of specific ships, European departure dates, and arrivals at U.S. ports. The work also presents biographical sketches of approximately 160 Latter-day Saints who served as missionaries in Scandinavia and some who served as leaders aboard the ships carrying Norwegian emigrants.”

Military: Hill Air Force Base

A new addition to the free website Utah Digital Newspapers is a complete run (1943-2006) of the Hill Air Force Base’s Hilltop Times newspaper. According to this Deseret News article, “The installation, which was founded shortly before the U.S. entry into World War II, went on to serve a critical maintenance and supply role during the war. The bombers that defeated the Axis powers in World War II — the B-29, B-25, B-24 and B-17 — were repaired, modified or maintained in some way at Hill Air Force Base.” The collection includes more than 61,000 digitized newspaper pages.

Periodical Source Index updates

Genealogy Giant subscription website Findmypast.com continues to update the Periodical Source Index (PERSI). This comprehensive subject index to thousands of historical and genealogical magazines, journal articles, and periodicals is strongest for U.S. sources and can help you discover mentions of your relatives (and places or organizations associated with them) in sources you may otherwise never learn about. Findmypast is the exclusive online home of PERSI and has been adding digitized article images to the indexed entries. They’ve recently added over 13,000 more article images from:

  • “Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine / American Spirit – volumes 43 to 53, 56 to 57 – this magazine offers articles on American history and historical subjects pertaining to Colonial America, as well as sections on genealogy
  • Fitchburg Historical Society Proceedings – volumes 1 to 5 – including papers relating to the history of the town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts
  • Genealogical Advertiser – volumes 1 to 4 – a quarterly magazine of family history, which includes marriage and probate records
  • Genealogical Magazine – volumes 1 to 4 – this periodical is a journal of family history, heraldry, and pedigrees
  • Genealogical Quarterly Magazine – volumes 1 to 5 – this periodical is devoted to ‘genealogy, history, heraldry, revolutionary and colonial records’. From its pages, you can discover marriage notices, cemetery inscriptions, inhabitant lists, and church records for various places in New England.”

Statewide genealogy collections: From Alabama to West Virginia

Alabama. New at Genealogy Giant subscription website Ancestry.com is the collection, Alabama, Surname Files Expanded, 1702–1981. According to the site, “This database contains various records providing biographical information on individuals who lived in Alabama….Staff members at the Alabama Department of Archives and History (ADAH) started compiling these records on Alabamians in 1901. They include a variety of items and record types arranged by surname: newspaper clippings, obituaries, local and family histories, donated family research and records, extracts from censuses, research requests made to the archives, and other items. While ADAH staff began collecting and assembling these records in 1901, names of people included can predate this year.”

Georgia. We’ve reported in the past on individual updates to the Digital Library of Georgia. Now the entire website has been redesigned and relaunched. According to a press release, “The site connects users to a half a million digital objects in more than 700 collections from over 130 institutions and 100 government agencies.” Site visitors will now be more easily able to navigate the site, perform full-text searches, browse collections in different ways (including map browsing) and access virtual collections from several organizations. Click here to visit the new site.

Indiana. Most issues of The Southeastern Student, an early newspaper at Indiana University, are now available in digitized format online on the Indiana University Southeast Library Student Newspapers home page. The paper and its successors appear in a collection spanning 1947 to 2007.

Massachusetts. AmericanAncestors.org has added new browsable Catholic church record collections for the following parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston Records: Most Holy Redeemer (East Boston) (7 volumes), Sacred Heart (Malden) (3 volumes), St. James (Haverhill) (7 volumes), St. Mary (Lawrence) (12 volumes), and St. Peter (Lowell) (9 volumes).

Ohio. One of the oldest Catholic diocesan publications in the United States, The Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati, OH), is being digitized and placed online. Issues dating 1831-1885 are already online and eventually all through 1922 will be placed online. Read these issues here for free—along with several other digitized Catholic newspapers from around the United States.

Vermont. Millions of Vermont newspaper pages dating from the 1700s up to 1922 are now available online, thanks to a collaboration between the Vermont Secretary of State’s office and Newspapers.com. Access is free to Vermont residents and available to subscribers of Newspapers.com. Click here to learn more about accessing these newspapers.

Washington. New at Ancestry.com is Washington, Episcopal Diocese of Spokane Church Records, 1870-1947. According to the site, “This collection includes baptism, confirmation, marriage, and death records from the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane between the years of 1870 and 1947. Established in the mid-1860s, the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane is comprised of 38 congregations and covers all of Washington State east of the Cascade Range, as well as the northern Idaho panhandle.”

West Virginia. Another of the Genealogy Giants, subscription site MyHeritage.com, has published West Virginia Death Index & Certificates, 1853-1964 with more than 5 million records. According to the site, “West Virginia death records between 1853 and 1964 include name, gender, date of death, age of death, and often other important information such as marital status, birth date, burial date, cemetery where interred, and details about the decedent’s occupation, spouse, father, and mother. The associated images in this collection, including copies of state-issued death certificates, should be examined to discover other information not present in the index. This index and images are provided by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.”

Note: Many West Virginia vital records are free to explore here and are an incredibly rich resource, but the search interface is very limited AND it doesn’t include all data for all counties. According to the site, “Death records in West Virginia are withheld from the public for 50 years from the date of issuance but all extant state death certificates for individuals from all 55 counties dating from 1917 through 1964 are available. Additional records extending the collection from 1964 will be added as they become available.”

Even more US genealogy gems

If you’re a Genealogy Gems Premium eLearning member, you can listen to Lisa Louise Cooke’s new interview with Genealogy Giants guru Sunny Morton on an unexpected source for US newspaper content. This conversation is in Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast episode #160. Learn about millions of newspaper pages you may already have access to–and get step-by-step instructions for how to access it. Think you’d like to join our Premium eLearning community? Click here for more info.

About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

Mayflower Ancestors and More in New Genealogy Records Online

Discover your Mayflower ancestors–or more about your family history from around the world–in new and updated genealogy records online. Among them are the Welsh National Book of Remembrance for WWI and various records for Indiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and Venezuela. Also: all Missouri adoptees may now order original birth certificates.

United States: Discover Your Mayflower Ancestors

In anticipation of the 2020 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage, the New England Historic Genealogical Society (aka AmericanAncestors.org) has launched a new website, Mayflower 2020. This interactive website features the world’s first online gathering of Mayflower descendants, along with in-depth information about Mayflower passengers and their family trees, resources for finding Mayflower ancestors, and information on “Mayflower 2020” announcements and events.

The National Library of Wales has published online the Welsh National Book of Remembrance for the First World War. According to the NLW website, the book “contains the names of 35,000 servicemen and women, as well as members of Welsh Regiments, who lost their lives in the First World War. These individuals are listed according to regiment and battalion alongside the names of those who might well have died alongside them.” The original gilded volume contains about 1,100 pages of names, with about 40 names scripted in calligraphy on each page. The commemorative book was created as a “roll of honor” and companion to the Welsh National War Memorial in Cathays Park, Cardiff, which doesn’t include names of the deceased on it. Search or browse the gorgeous volume at the National Library of Wales digital archive.

U.S. state-level genealogy collections

Indiana. Over a million records appear in MyHeritage’s new collection, Indiana Newspapers, 1847-2009. According to MyHeritage, “This collection is a compendium of newspapers published in various cities and towns in the state of Indiana from the 1840s until 2009. Newspapers are an important resource for genealogy and family history research as they contain obituaries and other vital record substitutes such as birth, marriage, and death notices. Additionally, society pages and stories of local interest contain rich information on activities and events in the community and often provide details about the persons involved.”

Massachusetts. New at AmericanAncestors.org is Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers, with nearly 22,000 Suffolk County probate cases (1630-1800). According to the site, “The probate cases include wills, guardianships, administrations, and various other types of probate records. The complete Suffolk County File Papers collection will eventually cover cases 1-94,757, which includes all years through 1892. The cases are indexed chronologically, which allows us to present them in sections while digital photography occurs. Photography is expected to continue through 2020. We will add cases as they become available.”

Missouri. A new Missouri law, the Missouri Adoptee Rights Act, now gives all adoptees access to their original birth certificates. Adoptees born prior to 1941 were already eligible to request copies of their original birth certificates as of mid-2016. On January 1, 2018, this right was extended to adoptees born in or after 1941. According to a local news report, the state representative behind the new law, Don Phillips, is himself an adoptee and was among the first to receive a copy of his own certificate when the new rules went into effect recently. If you would like to order a non-certified copy of an original birth certificate from the Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, click here to fill out the online application.

Montana. Ancestry.com has published Montana Birth Records, 1897-1919. The collection includes birth certificates that typically include the following information: name, gender and race of child; date and place of birth; and parents’ names, ages and birthplaces.

Free on FamilySearch: More global genealogical records

FamilySearch is always free, so take a quick peek at the newly-indexed names added to the following collections. Maybe your ancestors’ names have finally appeared!

Ireland. Look up your Irish ancestors in Ireland Civil Registration, 1845-1913. More than 653,000 names have been added.

New Zealand. Nearly a million indexed names have been added to New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966. Search this index to official government records of births, marriages and deaths. Tip: see the collection description for important information about ordering copies of original records.

Sweden. Over 36 million indexed names have been added to a mammoth collection of digitized record images in Sweden, Household Examination Books, 1880 – 1920.  Other Sweden collections have been updated at FamilySearch, as well: Sweden, Göteborg och Bohus Church Records, 1577-1932; index 1659-1860, Sweden, Kopparberg Church Records, 1604-1900; index 1628-1860 and Sweden, Västernorrland Church Records, 1501-1940; index 1650-1860.

Venezuela. Nearly 800,000 indexed names have been added to Venezuela, Archdiocese of Mérida, Catholic Church Records, 1654-2015. These parish or diocesan records include “baptisms, confirmations, parish censuses, marriages, pre-marriage investigations, marriage dispensations, deaths, and indexes.”

Get the most out of FamilySearch.org

Of all the “Genealogy Giants” we cover in-depth here at Genealogy Gems, FamilySearch is the only one that’s totally free. It’s also an enormous site with multiple places to search for your ancestors’ names in old records and even additional resources for finding offsite or even offline records you want. So it’s worth a little investment to learn how to use FamilySearch effectively. For that, we recommend Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org by Dana McCullough. In it, you’ll find step-by-step strategies for searching their millions of historical records and family trees, and how to maximize all the site’s valuable resources.

Sunny Morton

Sunny Morton

Sunny Morton is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast. She’s especially known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her latest favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club. Sunny is also a Contributing Editor at Family Tree Magazine and the NGS-award-winning Co-Editor of Ohio Genealogy News.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

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