Primary Genealogy Databases
- FamilySearchFree resource. Created and maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
- Ancestry Library EditionGenealogy collection from ancestry.com that includes census data, vital records, directories, and photos.
- Ancestry Library Edition (Lexington Public Library)Access at the Lexington Public Library. Available only to customers inside LPL locations.
- USGenWeb ProjectGenealogical research resources organized by county and state, created and maintained by volunteers throughout the nation.
- Family Tree SearcherSearch family trees in nine online family tree databases.
- GeneaNetAbout two million members share more than 400 million entries for free in their family trees, archival records, indexes, and family picture and postcard collections.
Databases
The following databases have information that might be useful in your genealogical research. See also:
- American Civil War: Letters and DiariesContains over 2,000 authors and approximately 100,000 pages from over 1,000 letters, diaries and memoirs. Includes some previously unpublished manuscripts, biographies, a bibliography of the sources in the database, and material licensed from The Civil War Day-by-Day, by E. B. Long.
- Ancestry Library EditionGenealogy collection from ancestry.com that includes census data, vital records, directories, and photos.
- Archive of AmericanaCross-search Readex databases: Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800; Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819; American Broadsides and Ephemera, 1760-1900; and Early American Newspapers.
- Accessible Archives (now part of History Commons)
Includes full-text access to
Pennsylvania gazette (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Pennsylvania packet.
Godey's lady's book.
History of Woman Sufffrage.
Scenes from the life of Harriet Tubman.
Twelve years a slave. - Biography and Genealogy Master Index (BGMI)Indexes current and retrospective reference sources that cover over 13 million individuals, both living and deceased. Sources include biographical dictionaries and who's whos, subject encyclopedias, volumes of literary criticism, and indexes. BGMI does NOT index periodical articles or books of biography about a SINGLE individual, but it does refer you to Biography Index, which covers magazine and journal articles. For online access to many of the articles indexed in Biography Index and other publications, search the person of interest in Biography Reference Bank. See other biographical resources in the Biographical Information Research Guide.
- Biography Reference BankIncludes biographies from magazines and journals.
When you get a results list in BRB, select the person in whom you are interested and go to the descriptive record. Select Related Biographies: entries to see biographical full-text from selected publications.
For additional material, use the box to the left of the entry:
Select the format(s) you wish to see to get to citations and full-text material.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800Over 36,000 texts covering life in 17th- and 18th-century America. Based on the American Bibliography by Charles Evans, enhanced by Roger Bristol's Supplement and the Supplement from the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1670-1800.
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819A large collection of material covering the early 19th century. In addition to books, broadsides and pamphlets, the collection includes published reports and the works of many European authors reprinted for the American public. The Series also includes Kentucky public documents, e.g., journals of the state House and Senate, public laws, and church records.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)Most every 18th century book printed in England, over 125,000 titles, over 25 million pages. Full-text, fully searchable.
- JSTORSearchable full-text journal backfile collection. Contains various history and related journals.
- SPOKEdb: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History Collection CatalogThe searchable catalog contains the records for over 8,000 interviews and nearly 300 oral history projects. Allows users to browse the collections and projects based on subjects or names or conduct a search of the collections, projects, and interviews. Users can follow links from the catalog record to interviews or projects that are available online or request to use interviews that are not yet online by using the online form.
- WorldCat (FirstSearch)Allows you to search holdings for libraries all over the U.S., Canada, and selectively through other countries. Good place to find county and family histories. Use Interlibrary Loan to borrow material from other libraries.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective, 1890-1982Provides indexing of over three million articles from more than 550 magazines, including full coverage of the original print volumes of Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature™.
- Periodicals Archive Online (PAO)Journal backfiles / arts, humanities, social sciences / full-text from first volume to 2000.
Finding Resources in the UK Libraries
InfoKat Discovery is the primary way to find materials available in the UK Libraries.
A number of standard terms can be used to find genealogical-related material.
* Regimental histories and Registers can be applied to specific wars, geographic locations, and other primary terms:
United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Regimental histories.
New York (State) - Histor- Civil War, 1861-1865 - Registers.
Soldiers - New York (State) - Registers.
* Use a family name followed by the word 'family' as a subject phrase search, e.g., Grayson family
or search for specific people as a subject (last name first in a phrase search) to find resources about that person,
e.g., Peers, Valentine
* Look for books about specific communities and/or counties with the term 'history' to see if your ancestors are mentioned in those books, e.g.,
Maysville (Ky.) - History
Nicholas County (Ky.) - History
The Special Collections Research Center
The Special Collections Research Center is a great source of genealogical research material, especially concerning Kentucky, including city directories, county histories, biographies, and business directories and guides.