Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A Wealth of Genealogical Resources

I just found an entire library of genealogical resources. Thanks to a tip from Linda McCleary of the Arizona Council of Professional Genealogists, I got a lead on the Maricopa County Library online collection of genealogy resources. Up until very recently, I could access HeritageQuest.com through the County Library and that was about all that was useful. But they have opened up all of their in-house  resources to the online community. You gain access to the entire collection by signing onto the Library's website. You may find it hard to believe how many resources this includes.

Of course, the Libraries have the Ancestry.com Library Edition in their branches for use free to patrons. But these new resources are online and available 24/7. The two new additions include the Gale Genealogy Connect with hundreds of digitized books, many of which I have used for research in the past, and the ProQuest Obituaries, in addition to Heritage Quest. Did I mention that I can download some of the books to my computer?

Oh well, do I sound enthusiastic about this? Here is how the Gale Genealogy Connect is described:
Gale Genealogy Connect features a wide range of comprehensive references and is powered by authoritative information from Genealogical.com — the parent company of Genealogical Publishing and Clearfield Company, leading publishers of works on genealogy and family history. 
These unique references — available for the first time online in fully searchable format. Users can confidently connect the dots with authoritative contextual information, where the full story lives.
You might want to check your own city and county libraries to see if they have a similar program.




1 comment:

  1. Nice to know but it is still limited to your own library card holders. I am waiting for the day I can purchase an e-library card for the library in the state/city where I do research.
    As it stands now, I live on the West Coast and do research in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont. Boston Library has an e-card but one must be a Massachusetts' resident to purchase it. Lot'a good that does me!
    When I asked if I could buy a library card to use the library in Pittsfield, Mass, the librarian thought it was a great idea. However, her circulation manager said , "Absolutely Not!"
    So much for maintaining 20th Century standards in the 21st Century.

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