Genealogists constantly pore over old records. Of course, the biggest provider of old records in the U.S. is the U.S. government. The government even maintains a listing of significant record collections available for genealogists. The list also mentions many state and local archives.
You can view the listing at: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/History_Family/State_Genealogy.shtml.
While the listing is online, most of the records listed are not yet online. You will normally have to visit the repository listed in order to view the record(s) in person. Some have been microfilmed and some of these records are now appearing on the various online sites: Footnote.com, WorldVitalRecords.com, Ancestry.com, etc.
Oh my! An excellent compendium of States' information. Thank you for sharing, Mr. Eastman. I'd like to see a WIKI with links that could be added as readers implement or encounter them. Perhaps YOURS? The states and even countries could be listed by name for easy access.
Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com
Posted by: Dae Powell | November 25, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Good idea! I added it to the wiki at the Encyclopedia of Genealogy at http://www.eogen.com
Posted by: Dick Eastman | November 25, 2008 at 07:00 PM
The problem with the US Gov listing is that -- at least for the states I spot checked -- the link is only to the state archives. And as we all know, there are many, many genealogical resources that are not held at state archives. This listing is actually a little too simplistic. NARA's listing at http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/links/ is a little better (esp. since it includes brief descriptions). And the LDS list is pretty good, too -- http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/websites/frameset_websites.asp (since it's organized by record type). Hope those help someone!
Posted by: Claire K. | November 30, 2008 at 07:37 PM