Here is a re-post from the Family History Library blog. Go to the blog to learn about all the new features added to the online Family History Library Catalog. Those of you who use the catalog regularly will be pleased with what has been added back from the old version. Here is just one example:
This is fourth in a series of posts about digital databases for the Western States found on FamilySearch.org. Previous posts have covered California, Arizona, and Colorado.
FamilySearch has been digitizing the 3 million+ microfilms in the Family History Library. Every week new records are posted, and it seems to me they are progressing at a good pace. Eyeballing the list of collections from the United States it appears they have made vital records a priority.
This week I will be presenting a class on Family Tree photos, stories and sources at the Monterey County Genealogy Society monthly meeting. Family Tree is your very own pedigree chart and family record at www.familysearch.org. I have posted about this feature previously, and every week discover new enhancements to it.
This is third in a series of posts about digitized records available on FamilySearch.org for the Western States. I previously introduced collections for Arizona and California and today would like to show you what is available for Colorado. Some collections are more plentiful than others, and as of today there are only 5 Colorado databases available. Two of them are valuable collections of marriage records, and the 1885 state census is also a good resource. Continue reading “Wild West Digitized: Colorado Records”→
This is second in a series of posts about the digitized records available at Familysearch. I hope you’ve had a chance to explore the California records I listed, and that you made some new discoveries. So far, there are only 7 collections of Arizona records, but they include some essential ones:
Arizona digital collections at Familysearch as of 18 Jul 2013
Arizona Deaths, 1870-1951 is not as current as the database online at genealogy.az.gov because the Familysearch source is microfilm, and the genealogy.az.gov source is the government records which are added to each year (50 years back due to privacy). However, if you are looking for someone in that range, you will get an image of their death certificate in Arizona Death, 1870-1951:
Sarah Matilda Colborn (Pomeroy) death certificate, 1926
Here is the death certificate of my ancestor, Sarah Matilda Colborn who was married to Francis Martin Pomeroy. It’s nice to have a vital record for someone born in 1834. If you found a death certificate for someone who died in the 1870s you could conceivably have direct evidence of a birth date in the 1700s. (Of course it would be secondary vs. primary direct evidence, but still – not bad!) And who wouldn’t want to discover or verify an individual’s parents’ names—especially the mother’s maiden name? There’s nothing like a good death certificate to thrill a genealogist, and to get you back another couple of generations on your pedigree chart!
While this is an abstract rather than an image, it does give a film number for further reference. Also, the record collection pre-dates Arizona statehood (1912) by 3 years, which is notable.
So all you folks with Arizona roots, have at it! I know I’ve already found a bunch of records I need to connect to folks in my Family Tree.
