October is Family History Month

October is Family History Month and there are many ways to celebrate this:

This is the best time to get together family photographs and start a scrapbook of extended family members to help tell their stories to the next generation. You may also want to chart your family tree, if you haven’t already. A form to do this is available online at Ancestry Library.
The Library also has numerous genealogy books that you can borrow. If you are new or fairly new to family history research, there are two books that can be of help:

• Family History 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Finding Your Ancestors is a great book resource to start with. Written by Marcia Melnyk, this book helps you along with the beginning steps of family research using both online and other resources
• The second “beginner’s” book is Genealogy for the First Time: Research your Family History, by Laura Best. Hers is a more illustrated book, with her own family pictures and antiques in the background. She shows Heritage scrapbooking, which is a relatively new concept, as a means to preserve and protect personal and family histories. This can be a fun and meaningful activity for the family.

Continue your search with our two genealogy databases:

• Ancestry Library: This database allows for a search by name to get birth, marriage and death records. If you can supply at least a birth date, you can narrow the results to get a more likely return. There is also census information and immigration information, such as the names of passenger ships, and a section for school yearbook photographs. This database is only available inside the Library.
• HeritageQuest: By checking all U.S. Census data, you can search from 1790 to 1930 for family histories. It also includes primary sources in full image. One can search in the section for periodicals or books to get information about family members. HeritageQuest is available both inside the Library and remotely.