Seven Highlights of Historical Societies that Boost Genealogy

Thank you so much for the recent correction and update to this post:

Patricia Meagher: 

Thank you for including The Georgia Historical Society in your list of genealogical repositories. One correction to your post is that GHS is an independent, non-profit institution (we are not affiliated with the University of Georgia). Founded in 1839, we are headquartered in Savannah and our collections encompass all of Georgia’s rich statewide history. We have three freely available online catalogs where you can begin exploring our collections including our digital image catalog with thousands of digitized photographs and artifacts from our collection, (http://georgiahistory.com/research-the-collection/search-our-collection/) and genealogy guides to get you started (http://georgiahistory.com/research-the-collection/search-our-collection/additional-resources-and-links/). We hope your readers will contact us by phone or email if we can help them to navigate our resources, and that they will visit the GHS Research Center in Savannah to view and do research in the collection. We welcome the opportunity to assist your readers in finding their Georgia ancestry.

The Virginia Historical Society 2011 Civil War exhibit

Do you need a little boost in your genealogy research? Every state has a historical society, and if you are lucky you may find one in the county or parish where you are researching. It may be difficult at first to understand how to glean the information you need, so this article will help you learn a lot about useful resources available through historical societies by reviewing their websites.

Finding aids

The South Carolina Historical Society has created a list of finding aids which can be found under the “Research” tab on the home page. The finding aids describe the contents of collections and how they are arranged.

Find out if finding aids have been published by the historical society that you will be contacting. You may discover finding aids to collections about families, organizations, military, or immigration in a particular area.

Digitized materials

It is always nice to find digital collections because most of the time they are made available for viewing right on the website. The Washington State Historical Society has made past issues of COLUMBIA Archives available online. Clicking on “Research” then collections will take you to online collections.

Historical societies often make manuscript collections and photographs of people and local places available through online collections. For example, Virginia History Explorer: Civil War, is one collection made available online by the Virginia Historical Society. This collection contains letterhead, photos, a diaries, and more.

Research guides and resources

It is helpful when historical society websites include a section listing resources for conducting genealogy research. The genealogy resources listed on the Oregon Historical Society website would be great places to check if you had ancestors from Oregon.

Research guides are usually based on topics such as African American, newspaper, or military history. They help you identify the resources within a collection as well as how to access and use in your research. Guides can also be found as .pdf downloads or as printed resources. Scroll to the bottom of the New York Historical Society Research page to see the following research guides:

• American Revolution Guide
• Architecture Guide
• Newspaper Guide
• Military History Guide
• Recommended Websites Guide
• Slavery and the Underground Railroad Guide

Manuscripts

Manuscript collections can consist of rare books, loose papers, journals, personal papers, photographs, maps, etc. These collections can lead you to more clues about your family history.

Historical societies may have manuscripts as a part of their collections. In this case, the Georgia Historical Society linked to the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library,  "GHS is an independent, non-profit institution." See comments below.

Search the catalog

You should search the card catalog on the historical society website if one exists, but do not assume all resources are listed online. Search for family surnames, local history, churches, or other organizations that your ancestors patronized. Sometimes people who lived in the same area and time period as your ancestor may have mentioned your family members, so widen your search to include other friends or relatives.

See the results of a search for the Smith surname in the Kentucky Historical Society Catalog (click here) to get a feel for the type of resources that exist (journals, compiled genealogies, election documents, family papers, etc.).

Collections

Reviewing the collections available on the historical society website can give you a broader understanding of the types of resources that exist in an area that may be helpful to your genealogy research. For example, review the collections listed by the State Historical Society of Iowa. You will notice that they have partnered with FamilySearch to make the 1885 and 1895 Iowa State Censuses available online. This gives you a clue to always check to see if resources you discover have been made accessible online.

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Part Two: More Ways to Find Your Ancestor's Parent

In Part One, you learned four avenues to take to identify your ancestor’s parent. Here are three more:

Church

Church records can be helpful if vital records (birth, marriage death) do not exist. The first thing that you need to know is the denomination of your ancestor. Next, find out how to research your ancestor’s denomination. For example, this resource will help those whose ancestors were United Methodist: Historical Society of the United Methodist Church Genealogy Section. If your ancestor was Baptist, you may find more success researching state resources. See Baptist Historical Collections.

Membership records and records documenting marriages, baptisms, confirmations or burials can help you reconstruct your ancestor’s family. You may even discover ancestors among the records of the clergy, donors or history of the church.

Some repositories provide online finding aids and research guides. This is a great research guide for church records: University of Delaware Library: Church Records. Look for information about church records in the following places in the state or region where your ancestor lived:

• university archives
• historical or genealogical societies
• church archives
• Family History Library Catalog

Do not assume that if you come from a long line of Baptists, that your family was always Baptist. If your ancestor migrated to a new area, there may not have been a place to worship. The family may have attended the same church as others in the area even though they may have held different beliefs.

While assisting someone recently who believed her ancestor was Baptist and did not check the records of different denominations, the ancestor was found on the original church records of a different denomination. There was no other place to meet, and there was no other authorized clergy member in the area.

Local manuscripts

Universities, libraries, and museums collect manuscripts. It is a definite long shot, but these manuscripts may either mention a family name, or they may help you learn more about your family or the institutions and organizations they were involved with.

Begin by searching the online catalog of the university library in the area where your ancestor lived. See the example of the manuscript collection at the University of Virginia Library: Virginia Genealogy. Record types that you may discover include but are not limited to:

• journals
• biographies
• churches
• genealogies
• photographs
• personal papers
• business papers
• organizations
• schools

Courthouse records

The answer to your genealogical problems could be literally hidden away among the courthouse records in the area where your ancestor lived. It might be time to take a break from online research to discover what you have been missing. When you make a trip to the courthouse, you do not want to do it blindly.

1. You will want to find out as much as you can about what records are available and how they are organized: Visit the online website of the county or parish to see if it provides instructions for researchers or types of records available. Contact them to learn more.
2. Search the Family History Library Catalog to see what courthouse records are available on microfilm. For example, one courthouse record available for Johnson County, Arkansas is: Johnson County, Arkansas Circuit & Chancery Court Records 1841-1965

Courthouse records provide another alternative to the unavailability of vital records. Some records that can help to identify parental relationships are:

• Naturalization
• Civil and criminal
• Wills and probate

Other records that may provide clues are:

• Land and property
• Guardianship
• Tax

Hopefully, you are now armed with a few more ways you have not already tried in search of your ancestor’s parent. If any of the suggestions from this article or Part One, open the door to discovering them, please share on the Saving Stories Facebook page. Even if you do not find success from these suggestions, please feel free to share the things you have already tried in your quest.

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Researching Your Baptist Ancestor in South Carolina

Following his vision of religious freedom in 1696, "William Screven of Kittery, Maine uprooted a small congregation and moved them to South Carolina's Low Country. From that move came the First Baptist Church of Charleston, the mother of Baptist churches in the South." Later, Richard Furman and Oliver Hart broke away from the Anglican Church, and Furman's vision led Baptist churches statewide to work together to establish missions and to educate. See South Carolina Baptist History. A wealth of resources await the researchers with Baptist ancestors. Learn about the types of resources that exist and how to access them.

African American Baptist Resources

If your ancestor was of African descent, begin researching the most recent records for African American Baptist churches. The guide "African American Baptist Reference Materials" is a great starting point for researching your Baptist South Carolina ancestor.

After you reach 1865 and your ancestor was formerly enslaved, research the church records that coincide with the denomination of the family who enslaved your ancestor. If the family was Baptist, use the resources below.

Church records

One of the ways you might find information on your ancestor is by looking through church records. Furman University has church records on microfilm that you can search by church name, county, or date organized. The Ashley River congregation was organized in 1736 in Charleston. According to the catalog, records go up to 1769. Two important things to remember would be:

1. Be sure you know the correct boundary where your ancestor lived so that you do not choose to research churches in the wrong area. Use available map collections among the Baptist resources at Furman to locate the church or other sites.
2. If you do not know the name of the church your ancestor attended, research the churches in the area.

Other record types

After researching church records, you may want to turn to records that mention Baptist ancestors. These resources may be found in their original form or preserved on microfilm. Some of what you need may be digitized and available in online collections. Furman University has these resources in each of the mentioned formats. See SC Baptist Resources. Other resources besides church records that may mention your ancestor are:

• newspapers and periodicals
• books from the time period
• manuscripts
• biographies

Microfilm at Furman University

You can borrow microfilmed newspapers through your local university or public library. Learn about the Furman's Baptist newspaper collection. Copies of books from the 18th and 19th centuries on microfilm in Special Collections and Archives are also available for you to borrow. Among the early manuscripts which you can review on site is "Furman, Richard, Correspondence, 1777-1825." You can see a complete list of manuscripts here.

Online resources

The Richard Furman and James C. Furman Collection was given to Furman's Special Collections by Alester G. Furman, Jr. (1895-1980), great-great grandson of Richard Furman, “on indefinite loan” on April 1, 1960. You can browse the collection by following the link above. This is the index for the Richard Furman Collection.

Once you find a digital collection, be sure to widen your search past the scope of Baptist records. For example, a search for an early Baptist pioneer in South Carolina, Oliver Hart, brought up these manuscripts:

1. Oliver Hart Collection - Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston 1750-1780; founded Charleston Baptist Assoc in 1751.
2. James C. Furman Collection - This collection includes professional correspondence during the time Furman lived in Charleston.
3. William G. Whilden Collection
4. James and Nellie Hoyt Family Scrapbook

Be sure to check university and public libraries in the area where your ancestor lived. Do not assume one collection has complete resources. Being a good sleuth means you leave no stone unturned.

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