Genealogy Special Research Help & Information Collection For Adults
Most Thursdays, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Please call ahead.
Skidompha Library | 2nd Floor Genealogy Section
Ongoing Genealogy Offerings:
- Browse through past postings on our genealogy facebook page: Skidompha Library Genealogy. We don’t have anyone managing this page at this time. Still, we hope you will have fun looking at our previous posts!
- Check out our Online Resource page for links to helpful sites you can use from home!
- Subscribe to Skidompha’s weekly newsletter, which usually includes a genealogy section with suggestions for books, websites, blogs, etc.
- Enjoy these Two Lists of Online Resources:
Free Online Research Sites
You set up an account, but it is free. It has some, but not all, of the same records as Ancestry, and also has some unique records. Highly recommended for researching documents. Trees placed on this site are not private and may contain unsourced information. Search > Records
The Ancestor Hunt – this site contains newspaper links to many free digital newspaper sites in every US State and Canadian Province, plus a small amount of information on Australia, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Ancestry Library Edition and My Heritage via Digital Maine – NOW AVAILABLE FROM HOME!
The Digital Maine Library provides every resident of Maine with access to online resources that include a collection of full-text articles and abstracts from magazines, newspapers, journals, and reference. It also allows students, business people, public library patrons, and higher education students and educators to use online learning tools. This is also your portal for accessing NOW FROM YOUR OWN HOME Ancestry Library edition and My Heritage, genealogical databases, free for those in Maine/ Search > Genealogy Choose Ancestry Library or My Heritage and enjoy your family history research! Other wonderful links of note from this site: Maine Memory Network and Digital Maine Repository.
Online Learning – These sites have some free and some fee-based webinars.
Six-week free introductory course from the University of Strathclyde’s continuing education program is available now!
This site has nearly 100,000 articles to guide you to websites, research strategies, records & resources! You set up a free account at www.familysearch.org and then can use the above Wiki site directly with this link or from the main page: Search > Research Wiki. Keyword search by location, record type, etc.
This extensive list guides you to other sites with records & resources. Over 20 years, genealogist Cyndi Ingle has created a “card catalog” for the vast amount of online genealogical resources. It is categorized and cross-referenced for easier use.
A Genealogist’s Guide to Tracing People from Our Past
This new suggestion comes from a family who found our Skidompha “other online resources” page and got busy researching their own family history online and via phone interviews. They’ve recommended this site as a good addition to our resources list, saying, “it’s loaded with information from beginners tips, a wide variety of documentation tips, and preservation tips.”
New York City History: Ellis Island
We are grateful for this new addition to our list, which came as a suggestion from someone who has used this pandemic time to begin their family history journey. The page includes some background history on Ellis Island and then compiles a list of wonderful links regarding Ellis Island and other topics related to immigration history. A lawyer created this page. Including this link to his New York City History: Ellis Island page and its links do not constitute a recommendation of any sort by Skidompha Library or staff, past, present, or future, about this law firm or its partners and employees. Also, be aware that not all immigrants came through Ellis Island; many came earlier than it opened and may have come through the earlier immigration and processing center, Castle Garden in New York, which operated 1 August 1855 – 31 December 1891.