Received at the Library

While we probably are all experienced in using Ancestry.com, the cover story in Internet genealogy (Feb./March 2018) shares ways to find hidden treasures.  To cite just one example, were you aware that Ancestry contains lots of databases that don't include personal names (think the Sears Roebuck catalogs, or postcards)?  Ten interesting examples of databases that aren't traditional genealogy data are listed.  In "At your service: the generous genealogist" Sue Lisk recommends ways to help others that will expand your skills and horizons, such as mentoring other family historians, transcribing or indexing records, documenting family stories or grave sites.  "Do you have lost Irish ancestors?" centers around researching emigration from Cobh, the deepwater port for Cork City, from which about half of Ireland's emigrants departed.  George Morgan (co-founder of the Genealogy Guys Podcast) is interviewed about his work with the Florida History and Genealogy Library to digitize items from their collections.  "Digital Library on American Slavery" focuses on but goes beyond North Carolina, and includes the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.  Check out the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair, an online conference featuring NARA records since 1913, just one of the internet resources mentioned in "Net Notes" in this issue.

In Your genealogy today (March/April 2018) "Hints from Houdini" offers 5 techniques to improve your research that take inspiration from the famous magician: be imaginative, confident, skeptical, resilient, and focus on the women!  Joe Grandinetti makes some great finds in Ireland tracing his mother's lineage in "Return to your sources."  In "Electricity and family history" we are reminded that something we take so much for granted today was a common feature of our ancestors' lives only with the 20th century.  Using North Carolina as a case study, Diane Richards discusses the intricacies and eccentricities of state records, and how history affects them. Another article covers researching Scots-Irish ancestors in 18th-century Virginia..