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City Slickers:
Your Guide to Finding Urban Ancestors
Presentation to the GSWC 1-23-2011 |
Guide to Further Research in Cities
Start with Wikipedia -- it's quick and easy.
- first search for the city -- then search the city with the add added word neighborhoods
Maps [this website] and neighborhoods
How-to books are helpful
- Chicago.. a shining (but not representative) example
- You will have to search for similar guides
- Family History Library catalog (city--genealogy handbooks, manuals etc.)
- Find in A Library books on neighborhoods and history of a city -- use such keywords as city name, history, neighborhoods, genealogy
- Don't forget the state guides.
Family History.org: search the catalog (click the tab) by city name for record types of interest
- Indianapolis
- -- cemeteries , example Crown Hill Cemetery (also online)
- -- Obituaries -- Indexes
- Philadelphia
- -- Court records; what is the jurisdiction of each court?
- --Vital Records -- what records are under the jurisdiction of the Philadelphia Board of Health
- Richmond-- note there is a Richmond Co. and an independent city of Richmond.
- Omaha
- -- church records (note most of these are found only by city)
- -- vital records (even though records officially kept by city, there are some that are unofficial)
Municipal records, municipal archives.
Google: cityname municipal archives; some examples:
Libraries in major cities often have materials specific to local interest, if not genealogy. Some examples:
City Historical Societies might be helpful or have useful collections.