Lesson 9 -- History and Genealogy Resources—Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest and Sanborn Maps

Basic Discovery Exercise:
1. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be dead to be listed in AncestryLibrary and can frequently find useful information in the U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002. You may even find your marriage license. Search for your own name in AncestryLibrary and report the results.

I searched by my maiden name and located 110,199 records.  In the search filters you can click and drag each search element from broad to exact search information.  When I move my first and maiden names to exact and click update, six records are located from the public records and phone and address directories.  These records are of previous residences.

When I did a similar search for my married name, I found 336,891 records.  The exact search also resulted in six finds.  However, none of these finds were information about me.  Rather 5 results of people with the same name as me and the sixth an anomaly.  I would guestimate that since I have been married for nearly four years, my marriage in young enough to not be included in these records.

2. In AncestryLibrary, search for a grandparent or great-grandparent and see if you can locate them in the census. Report your findings.

I did a search for my dad’s mother.  Interestingly enough, the first census record I located was for my dad’s grandmother, and I was unable to locate my grandmother in the census records.  I was, however, able to locate her social security death record in a general search.  In suggested records, I also found the two census records for the two decades before she married my grandfather.  In the latter of those records included information such as my grandmother’s birthplace, occupation, and income.  In 1939, my grandmother was twenty-seven years old.  She was a school teacher, and was one of four people who lived in a home owned by the school.  She worked at the school for 36 weeks that year, and had an income of $540.    

3. In AncestryLibrary, type "South Dakota" in the location box and click Search. On the left side of the next screen is a link for Pictures. Click Pictures, see what's there, and look at one or more. Report your findings.

I can view the varied picture categories from the list on the left-hand side of the screen as well as the Categories tab at the top of the results window.  Having both of these views could be helpful for locating relevant information.

Most of the images from this search come from yearbooks.  The next group is from the Library of Congress.  But most interesting, the third largest group of pictures is from Sears, Roebuck.  From the looks of it, most of these are from maps of South Dakota that could be purchased in the Sears catalogues.  This reminds me of when I was a child and spent the night at a classmate’s house.  We slept in the attic of her house, and found a pile of old Sears, Roebuck catalogues that were her grandmother’s.

Fifth on the categories list was headstone photos.  This really doesn’t surprise me, but reminds me of a trip I took with an aunt and uncle who do family genealogy.  We took several detours on that trip to visit cemeteries to make rubbings of headstones of deceased family members.  It was a great time.  Just what every child wants to do on their summer vacation.  Out of curiosity, I filtered for exact matches to see if any familiar names were present.  None of the headstones matched an exact search for South Dakota.

4. In HeritageQuest, there are over 28,000 family and local histories in their online historical books. Search for a place or browse the publications. Report back on something that interested you.

In the books section I searched for information on a family ancestor who had been tried and convicted of witchcraft during the colonial times around the Salem Witch Trials.  I did a search for her name, the state of Connecticut, and the keyword witch.  I received several matches for this search, and they were in order by relevance.  The first few received the highest rating with all relevance bars shaded.  I was skeptical as I started looking at one of these publications; the first hit contained her name, but I was unsure about the dates.  The next hit referred to witchcraft, but it was referring to another woman who had been accused and hung.  Then, on the third hit (page 251), there was a note that I most definitely know is my ancestor, explaining that she has been indicted, convicted and executed for witchcraft.  How these documents have been digitized to the extent of making searches like this possible is such a wonderful resource.  If I have been searching a paper copy of this book, I most likely would have given up much sooner than three hits.

5. In Sanborn Maps, select South Dakota. Then select your town or a town with which you are familiar. Choose a date. Look at the first page containing the Index. Then navigate around the pages and see what you discover. Try to find a building on the map that is still in use today. Report your findings.

I was sad that the first 5 towns I was interested in selecting were not available, but that is what you get in rural South Dakota.  I selected Brookings in August of 1884 (three years after SDSU was established in 1881).  Although many of the buildings in this image do not appear to be the same as those present today, I can recognize (or maybe guestimate is more appropriate) where the information on the map would be present today.  Main Street is still Main Street, and the angle of the path on the southern portion of the map is most likely were the railroad angles across the south side of town which used to be the outer limits.  The details contained in the map are interesting.  The map key includes details such as which buildings were stables, windows and shutters, and materials used to construct the buildings (brick, stone, frame).  I was unable to locate where any of the SDSU campus was located.  However, the Campus on the Hill most likely was not directly connected to town at that time.