Genealogy Research: Using Secondary Sources
We have a special presentation to share!
Ms. Lisa, one of our library associates and leader of our Back to your Roots Genealogy Club, explains how you can use secondary sources to answer tough questions in your family’s history.
By the way, your library card gives you access to several genealogy websites, including Ancestry. You can search for your family’s history through censuses, cemeteries, city directories, military and immigration records, and more public records!
You don’t need to know much to get started on our databases—a name, somewhere that person lived and it helps to know his or her approximate birth year. And, frankly, if you don’t know your great-grandfather or great-great-mother’s birth year, it usually only takes a single search to find out.
These databases search through millions of public records: census and immigration information, birth/marriage/death certificates, and more. Not only can you view these documents, but you can email them to yourself and your family members.
And each document that you discover provides more information that you can use to hone your search.
So start searching and explore that family tree!