Online Resource Information Index




Our Own Sites:
Long Island Genealogy  
Long island Records
Long Island Surnames
Long Island Research books available online From Long Island Genealogy
Surname Specific Texts and portions of texts available for viewing on LIG


Additional sites that we use in our own research:
The German Genealogy Group
Suffolk Historic Newspapers
Historic Long Island Newspapers
The Long Island Advance - Index to Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements in The Long Island Advance
Old New York State Historical Newspaper Pages - "Old Fulton New York Postcards"
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The Italian Genealogy Group
Long Island Forum Index, 1938-2003
Find-a-Grave
Old Long Island Maps

National Census Information

The New York Federal Census Index for the years 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920 can be reached thriugh the USGenWeb Census Project.

Census Online also has 135 links containing census information for the following NY counties:

[Albany Co.] [Broome Co.] [Cattaraugus Co.] [Chautauqua Co.] [Clinton Co.] [Cortland Co.] [Delaware Co.] [Dutchess Co.] [Livingston Co.] [Onondaga Co.] [Ontario Co.] [Orange Co.] [Orleans Co.] [Otsego Co.] [Rensselaer Co.] [Saratoga Co.] [Schenectady Co.] [Suffolk Co.] [Ulster Co.] [Washington Co.] [Yates Co.]

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Reationship Chart

An excellent tool for identifying the relationship of one person to another having a common ancestor. Load the page at, Family Relationships Chart, print out a copy and keep it handy.

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Immigration Ship Lists

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
By Penny Bonnar

Researchers whose ancestors were immigrants to other lands often spend hours searching ships' lists. From the lists they hope to gain valuable information which will help further their search. They might, for example, discover from a ship's list the name of the town or village from which their ancestors emigrated. Often, they discover previously unknown family members who traveled with their ancestors or they find that whole groups of people, neighbors and family, emigrated together.
Sometimes, finding out just which ship an ancestor took to arrive in their new home is frustrating. Often, an exact date is not known, making the search difficult. The most a researcher can do is search list after list in hopes of discovering their ancestor's name among the passengers.
Patty MacFarlane Prather is one of those researchers who has spent hours searching the passenger lists of immigrant ships. Patty and a group of volunteers organized the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild to help genealogists search passenger lists on the Internet. "It all happened very quickly," recalled Patty. "Most of our volunteers were among the thousands of people who are searching for their ancestors, trying to determine which ship they arrived on, which port it came into and then to get a copy of the passenger list for our own personal use. "About mid-September of this year, someone posted an idea to the Ships List suggesting that we form a group and begin to copy passenger lists and get them on the Internet. Within days a number of people responded saying that they liked the idea and would be willing to help. After reading ten or more such letters, I posted my own which essentially said, 'Let's stop talking about it, let's just do it.'"
The project was up and running almost immediately. According to Patty, sheer enthusiasm propelled the group to tackle what others said was too huge a task. With volunteers lined up, the next step was to find a home for the data the volunteers would transcribe. "We had several leads regarding a place on the Internet to put all this data we were soon to have," said Patty, "and to our good fortune IIGS™ was thrilled with the project and generously gave us our website."
Of course, there are hundreds, if not thousands of passengers lists and some had already been transcribed. The Guild did not want to duplicate the work of others. Patty said she had been looking for her great-great grandfather's 1878 ship and passenger list and had found nothing on theInternet. So it seemed to her that 1878 was a good year to begin. Now, other years are being transcribed after a careful search to assure they are not already on the Internet or that some other organization is not involved in their transcription.
So how was this massive project organized? "Two or three afternoons a week, I copy the lists at the NARA in Denver and mail them to our volunteers about once a week," explained Patty. "I copy the passenger lists and mail them out, keeping track of all the information about the ship and who is working on it. On the other end, the volunteer receives it, studies it and begins to decipher and type it. "When it is completed, it is emailed back to me and I send it on to Paula at IIGS™ who adds it to our website. I would have to admit that it sounds easier than it is, as I am now keeping track of well over 150 ships and their passenger lists. We have recently put into place additional steps of several proof-readings, since these are historical documents and we don't want to change them in any way."
A believer in keeping things simple, Patty said there is no pressure on volunteers in terms of time. Everyone, she noted, has families, jobs and other obligations. "The no-pressure schedule allows for everyone to work at their own speed, to take all time they need to do an accurate job--and we have a 'burnout' protection plan built right in," said Patty.
Over 100 volunteers are participating in the Guild which Patty called a "grass roots effort." So many volunteers came forward that Patty admitted she had a tough time keeping up with offers. Because Patty copies the lists and mails them to transcribers, the project gives even those who don't have access to ships' lists a chance to pitch in. One volunteer is 85 years old. Another lives in Japan. They all are contributing valuable data which isn't always easily accessible to some researchers.
"When you get a letter from a young mother who elects to remain at home with her four children (children are not welcomed at many National Archives branches or at Family History Centers) and another from someone who is house-bound, their only access being the Internet, and yet another from someone who has made the trip to search through the microfilms only to find that they didn't any longer have the physical strength to hand-crank those old machines," said Patty, "you know you are
doing something worthwhile." What had seemed impossible isn't at all, according to Patty. "When people come together who are like-minded and dedicated," she said, "there isn't much which is truly impossible."

 Read more about the Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild.

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1895 U.S. Atlas

An award winning site. To get to the state of your choice, just click on the name. When you get to that state's front page of data, click on the letter of the town you are looking for, or the phrase "1895 State Map" to reach the map associated with that state. REMEMBER, these are huge jpg files and may take a very long time even with the fastest modem and also need a system that has a healthy dose of available ram. The home page is located at 1895 U.S. Atlas.

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Bureau of Land Management General land Office Eastern States

The official Land Patents record site. If your ancestors were in the Eastern Federal Land States: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and/or Wisconsin after 1820, you can search here for federal land patents, view and print scans of the original patent document.

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Native American research

A starting point with links to many good Native American research and help. Post a query on your Native American ancestors here.A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical interest in Indian Territory. Links, General Resources and Archives.

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A Note concerning Electronic Research

Over the past few years with the expansion of the WWW and the increasing availability of online resources more and more inexperienced researchers have begun expanding their family files. While it is true that our goal is just that, it is also true that nothing will ever replace actual "in Person" research. It is with that in mind that these files are offered, not as the final word but hopefully as leads in the right direction. Hopefully these files will not add to the barrage of bad information being exchanged. Please do not consider the information you download as law unless it is documented and proven. It is up to you what you do with the information once it is on your computer. I have done the best I can to make it as accurate as possible and encourage you to notify me concerning any errors you can prove through your individual research. In that way I can correct the files quickly and avoid further miss-information from being dispersed.

*Making of America - a new and good source of Electronic Research

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