Using GALILEO for Genealogy and Historical Research



Using GALILEO for Genealogy and Historical Research

Handout

Laura W. Carter, Heritage Room Librarian, Athens-Clarke County Library

Note: The phrases in quotation marks throughout were copied and pasted from either the GALILEO description or the database itself. I could not write a shorter one that explained things as well.

Public Library Databases

AncestryPlus – and The Gale Group have combined their efforts to develop this large database and provide advice on how to do research. Most of the premium databases that charges extra for above the regular subscription price are in AncestryPlus, along with genealogical databases from Gale Group like Passenger and Immigration Lists Index through 1981???. New records and databases are added regularly (the info. in GALILEO says daily), so keep checking for new additions. There is a “Getting Started” section for those new to genealogical research.

GALILEO has a contract that insures we should have access to this database until August 2005.

ArchivesUSA (Chadwyck-Healey) -- This ProQuest database is a current directory for over 5500 U.S. manuscript repositories and indexes more than 141,000 manuscript collections. This index makes the entire collection of NUCMC (National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections) from 1959 to present electronically searchable. NUCMC covers more than 93,000 archival collections.

ArchivesUSA also includes names and detailed subject indexing of over 54,000 collections whose finding aids have been published separately in ProQuest UMI's microfiche series, National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS).

The Repository search allows you to search a particular repository for items other than those indexed in NIDS or NUCMC. In addition, this database includes collection descriptions that have been submitted to ProQuest and a growing set of links to online finding aids.

Area Studies and Ethnic Studies via SKS WebSelect – This site provides links to public internet sites. Pick the area from which the ancestor came and explore what is there on this site. Some sites are better than others for genealogical purposes.

To start with, the areas that will probably prove to be most useful are Human Relations, Reference, Global Issues.

Examples: Human Relations > Ethnic Groups > African American or

Human Relations > Ethnic Groups > Native Americans

Global Issues > History > Historic Documents > Historical Maps Online

Reference > Maps

Arts & Humanities via SKS WebSelect – This link takes you to the same database page as the one above. You would probably choose Global Issues > History as one of your choices. Others might be:

Environment > Population

Architecture and Design > Domestic Architecture

Arts and Humanities Search - This is a FirstSearch database that indexes articles in the arts and humanities. Using advanced search, it is amazing what you can find.

Books in Print + Reviews - Records of in-print, out-of-print, and forthcoming books from North American publishers some with full-text reviews. This database is updated monthly and you can create your own lists of things you find that you are considering purchasing. This may not locate many of the materials of interest to genealogists and family historians being published by individuals or small firms, but those by major publishers usually can be found. You can print or e-mail the list you create.

Dissertation Abstracts (at ProQuest) - An index to doctoral dissertations and master's theses from universities in North America and Europe. "Covers dissertations accepted at accredited U.S. institutions since 1861. Approximately 47,000 new dissertations and 12,000 new theses are added to the database each year. It selectively covers masters theses, Canadian dissertations, British, and other international dissertations. Abstracts are included for dissertations beginning July 1980 and for masters theses beginning spring 1988." … Not all dissertations from all participating institutions are available. See the detailed information by clicking on “More…” in GALILEO at this database.

You can search for FREE the most recent 2 years of the Dissertation Abstracts database, over 225,000 citations and abstracts. You can also access via their Web site the full text of over 450,000 dissertations. This is not free.

If you are looking for detailed information on a locality, a particular subject, etc. you will be amazed what you might find of interest in this database. For instance, suppose you cannot find a land grant you are looking for and something clues you in that contrary to popular belief the female ancestor may have gotten a land grant. You can search in Dissertation Abstracts for "land AND grants AND women" and retrieve 8 hits one of which is:

|Land of Their Own: Land Grants to Women in the Lower Colonial South (Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina) by Lee Ann Caldwell Swann. |

|The complete citation is provided and the following abstract can be pulled up. |

| |“Women were among the earliest settlers in the lower colonial south and many came to own and manage |

| |land through inheritance, purchase, gift, and grants. This study examines the land grants to women in |

|[|the Carolinas and Georgia throughout their colonial periods. Only in Georgia during its Trusteeship |

|p|period was the ownership of land by women denied. That, along with other prohibitions on land |

|i|alienation, resulted in protest from the colony and eventually the policy was changed. The Proprietors|

|c|in the Carolinas and the royal governments in all three colonies granted land to women without |

|]|restriction. The size, location, and date of the grants are analyzed to reveal patterns of ownership |

| |of land by women. Inventories of estate were studied to determine what women did with their land. |

| |Wills and deed were sampled to gain some understanding of land acquired by methods other than grant. |

| |The majority of women who received land were widows or never-married women who used their land for |

| |self-support, although some became quite successful planters and entrepreneurs. Some married women, |

| |however, received grants but their numbers were few. In the early decades of colonial development |

| |women requested land in or near established communities. Those who requested farm acreage were women |

| |with large families or with servants and slaves and thus larger headrights to claim. But as the |

| |isolation and threats to security of the early years were overcome, more women of modest means |

| |requested grants for farm acreage and the average size of farms granted to women decreased steadily in|

| |the last three decades before the Revolution. Most of these grants of small farms were in the |

| |backcountry with women receiving fewer grants in the areas characterized by larger plantations. South |

| |Carolina issued the largest number of land grants to women with hundreds given land in the 1760s and |

| |1770s. In North Carolina, where isolation and lack of community development continued throughout the |

| |colonial period, far fewer women requested land. In all three colonies women used their land as men |

| |did, cultivating farm acreage in food crops and staple crops depending on location, and operating |

| |businesses in towns. “ |

This dissertation probably does not provide a list of women who received land grants, but it certainly will tell you about the time and place in which these people lived. The sources used by this researcher will be a great place to start to look for a list and other records that might prove useful.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Georgia or

University of Georgia Electronic Theses and Dissertations is a collection of the theses and dissertations submitted electronically to the Graduate School at the University of Georgia since the summer of 1999. New material is added regularly.

“All dissertations are included, although some may not be viewable from off campus. The [bibliographical] record for an individual document is always viewable, and will indicate the availability of the document. The author of a dissertation or thesis, in conjunction with his or her major professor, makes the determination if the work will be publicly available.

The database can be searched by keywords, author, title, department, major, major professor, committee members, etc. For additional information, click the "Instructions" button on any search screen. Since an individual's name may appear in the database in various ways (especially for faculty members on the advisory committees), use the Browse Search to find all variations. Most of the documents are in the PDF format.

NOTE: The complete text of the dissertations and theses is not searchable in this database. However, for those that are publicly available, use the Adobe ‘Find’ feature (binoculars icon) to search the text of an individual thesis or dissertation.” (GALILEO)

Librarians Index to the Internet - This is a great site to bookmark on your computer for a variety of searches. You do not have to access it through GALILEO. For genealogy sites go to People then click on Genealogy under that.

The other sections that might have helpful information are Reference and Quick Facts; and under Arts and Humanities, the sections like History, Museums, and others depending on what you know about your ancestor may prove very helpful.

Native American Documents - "Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842, contains approximately 2,000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States from the collections of the University of Georgia Libraries, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Library, the Frank H. McClung Museum, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Tennessee State Museum and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The documents are comprised of letters, legal proceedings, military orders, financial papers, and archaeological images relating to Native Americans in the Southeast." (GALILEO)

The first 18 months of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper published in a Native American language, is also available through the Georgia Historic Newspapers database.

“Database provider: Digital Library of Georgia

Coverage Dates: 1730-1842

Update Frequency: Ongoing

Keywords: native | americans | indians | indian | cherokee | chickasaw | chocktaw | creek | seminole | southern | states | Georgia | Tennessee | Florida | University of Georgia, University of Tennessee, Frank H. McClung Museum, Tennessee State Library and Archives | John Ross | William McIntosh | Sequoyah | Tennessee State Museum | Museum of the Cherokee Indian | William Holland Thomas | Five Nations | removal | relocation | trail of tears

Subject Categories: Georgia, Arts and Humanities, History, Culture and History, All Databases

Format Categories: Full-Text Databases, Full-Text Books” (GALILEO)

OCLC Union List of Periodicals – another First Search database

“The Union Lists of Periodicals database shows over 7 million holdings for journals and other covered items among OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) member libraries. It can help determine if a library holds a specific journal issue.

Many searches in the OCLC Union Lists of Periodicals may result in too many records to be useful. For example, popular journal titles will result in thousands of records being retrieved. A search of only a city name may also result in thousands of records. However, searching a title and city together will narrow the results to those libraries in a specific city that own the journal. For example, type: ti:scientific american and ct:savannah.

The Library keyword (li:) index includes both library names and OCLC symbols for libraries and locations within libraries. The Library exact-phrase (li=) index includes only the library names. You can use WordList to verify a library name before searching. Several words in library names are abbreviated: col for college, univ for university, pub for public, and libr for library.”

You should be able to get information from periodicals through ILL. The code for the Georgia group, Georgia Online Database, is: gl$d. It may be used in a search such as: ti:scientific american and gr:gl$d.

Database provider: An OCLC FirstSearch database

Coverage Dates: Current file

Update Frequency: Semiannually

Subject Categories: All Databases, Directories and Almanacs, News/Facts and Reference” (GALILEO)

SKS WebSelect –

You have already been to this screen to access some other information but you can search by entering terms such as genealogy or even more specific terms and be referred to useful Websites.

“SKS WebSelect is an online database of Internet resources providing access to quality Web sites on almost any subject. WebSelect is continually updated to include new sites and dynamically changing data. Summaries provide a concise overview of site content and authority. Keyword, Subject Heading, and Topic Browse searches can be performed. Topics are assigned based on site content and mission. WebSelect is dynamically updated and offers Internet resources from around the globe, including those of leading universities, government agencies and respected organizations.

Database provider: ProQuest Information and Learning

Coverage Dates: Current file

Update Frequency: Ongoing

Audience: General, student

Keywords: Internet sites | websites | web sites | SIRS | Web Select

Subject Categories: Arts and Humanities, All Databases, Art and Architecture, Business and Economics, Biology, Consumer Information, Economics, Education, Geography, Gender and Multicultural Studies, Kids' Stuff, K-12, Medicine, Medicine and Health Sciences, General and Multi-Subject, News, News/Facts and Reference, Political Science and Public Administration, Sociology, Social Sciences, Science and Technology, Teachers

Format Categories: Reference Sources” (GALILEO)

WorldCat - this is the first place one should check after looking in one's own library catalog or PINES (if you are in a PINES library) to locate materials in libraries. WorldCat is an online catalog for libraries worldwide and has a multitude of search features. Another FirstSearch database, you can search for materials in a variety of formats. This is a great place to locate materials that may have been out of print for years. Patrons can print out the complete citation and ask their local library to try to get for on interlibrary loan.

Georgia Specific databases

Annual Reports of the Mayor of Savannah, Georgia, 1855-1917 (Majority of the reports are from 1881-1917) – “The annual reports of the Mayor of the city of Savannah Georgia for the years 1855-1917 include information on city activities and finances, commercial statistics, health, death, and illness statistics, and information on trade, public schools, weather, charitable institutions and city ordinances. The documents also include reports of the City Attorney, the Police Department (including crime statistics), the City Engineer, the Fire Department (including statistics on fires and property losses), and the Board of Trade, among others. …

The images presented here were scanned from microfilm. This site currently contains only the holdings available on microfilm, but additional dates may be added in the future.” (GALILEO)

Georgia Historic Books - digitized and fully searchable full text books about Georgia or Georgians. Currently there are 80 titles in this database. At the completion of the project there will be 300.

To see a list of the titles currently in this database, click on Browse by Title, Author or Date. If you want an alphabetical list, look by Title. When looking alphabetically, be aware that they did not eliminate initial articles in these titles. You can access the list of the books to be included by clicking on “Titles to be Included” on the left side of the screen. The ones in blue are already completed. You can click on the blue hypertext link in this list and you will be taken to the digital version of the title.

Georgia Historic Newspapers - "is an outgrowth of the Georgia Newspaper Project managed by the University of Georgia Libraries. Since the early 1950s the UGA Libraries have made a systematic effort to identify and obtain copies of every newspaper ever published in Georgia and to preserve these valuable historical resources on microfilm. To date over 15 million pages of newsprint have been microfilmed, including at least one newspaper from every county in Georgia that published a newspaper. The Georgia Newspaper Project is part of the U.S. Newspaper Project and has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. …

The goal of the Georgia Historic Newspaper Database is to convert every Georgia newspaper to digital format and to make this resource available free of charge as a searchable text database in GALILEO." (GALILEO)

At present there are only three newspapers in this. They will continue to add to it, so be aware of this database.

Georgia Legislative Documents - This database has the text of the Acts of the General Assembly of Georgia from 1799 to 1999, with a few gaps. This is the actual text of the laws and resolutions as they were voted on and it is different from the text found in the Georgia Code.

In the future, two additional sets of records will be added: Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia (1781-1995) and Journal of the Senate of the State of Georgia (1789-1995). The Journals outline the passage of bills and resolutions through each chamber of the General Assembly.” (GALILEO)

Historic Architecture and Landscapes of Georgia: The Hubert Bond Owens and John Linley Collections at the Owens Library - This collection contains approximately 1500 images taken between 1940 and the 1980s by Dr. Owens and John Linley. The majority of the images in this collection are from middle Georgia and Athens. In addition to the images, there is also a Suggested Readings list, and links to Related Materials, Teacher’s Resources, and Related Links.

Vanishing Georgia “comprises nearly 18,000 photographs. Ranging from daguerreotypes to Kodachrome prints, the images span over 100 years of Georgia history. The broad subject matter of these photographs, shot by both amateurs and professionals, includes, but is not limited to, family and business life, street scenes and architecture, agriculture, school and civic activities, important individuals and events in Georgia history, and landscapes. The wide variety of the collected visual images results from efforts by archivists from the Georgia Division of Archives and History who sought, between 1975 and 1996, to preserve Georgia's endangered historical photographs. Designed primarily for preservation, the project located, selected, and copied historically significant photographs held by individuals who wanted to share their pieces of the past with future generations.The Georgia Archives joins with the Digital Library of Georgia to present the Vanishing Georgia images as a digital resource. Support for the project is provided by a Library Services and Technology Act grant administered through Georgia HomePLACE.” (GALILEO)

Robert E. Williams Photographic Collection: African-Americans in the Augusta, Ga. Vicinity (Richmond Co.) - "consists of 86 Glass plate negatives and positive prints of African-Americans in the Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia area. Robert E. Williams, an African-American photographer, operated a studio, R. Williams and Son, in Augusta, Georgia, from 1888 until around 1908. The photographs depict dwellings and domestic chores, rituals of baptism, harvesting and transporting cotton, vehicles and transportation, and children and family life." (GALILEO)

University System databases

These are databases that can be accessed in the UGA Main Library Reference area through GALILEO. Using remote access, you can also find them from Research Central on the UGA Libraries Home page, but they may say “password required”. In those instances, you will need to go to a University System library to use.

The databases noted with an asterisk (*) are funded by the University of Georgia Libraries, and may not be available in all University System Libraries.

African American Biographical Database (AABD) - Fully digitized and searchable, this draws its initial contents from Chadwyck-Healey's Black Biographical Dictionaries 1790-1950 and has added biographical sketches (including illustrations and photographs) from numerous other biographical dictionaries and sources. Materials from sources such as obituary files, slave narrative collections, internet sites and other published reference sources will be added as the database expands.

"The collection contains extended narratives of African Amercian activist, business people, former slaves, performing artists, educators, lawyers, physicians, writers, church leaders, homemakers, religious workers, government workers, athletes, farmers, scientists, factory workers, and more -- both the famous and the everyday person."

(GALILEO)

*African American Newspapers: the Nineteenth Century - This full-text database "contains a wealth of information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s, and is rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion. They also contain large numbers of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience."

“ Part I: Freedom's Journal, New York, 1827-Mar. 1829; Colored American, New York, 1837-Mar. 1840; The North Star, Rochester, NY, 1847-July 1849; National Era,  Washington, DC, 1847-Dec. 1848.

Part II: Colored American, 1840-41; The North Star, July 1849-1851; Frederick Douglass Papers (continuation of The North Star), 1851-May 1852; National Era, 1847-Dec. 1850; Provincial Freeman, Toronto, ON, 1854-Dec. 18, 1855.

Part III: Frederick Douglass Papers, May 1852-Dec. 1852; National Era, Dec. 1850-Dec. 1853; Provincial Freeman, Dec. 1855-57; The Christian Recorder, Toronto, ON, 1861-April 1862.

Part IV: The Christian Recorder, May 1862-Dec. 1864; National Era, Jan. 1854-Dec. 1855; Frederick Douglass Papers, Jan. 1853-Dec. 1854.

Part V: The Christian Recorder, Jan. 1865-June 1868; National Era, Jan. 1856-Dec. 1857; Frederick Douglass Papers, Jan. 1855-Dec. 1856.

Part VI: National Era, Jan. 1858-Mar. 1860; The Christian Recorder, July 1868-Dec. 1870.

Part VII: The Christian Recorder, Jan. 1872-Dec. 1876.”

The above information is from the Accessible Archives Web page description of this database.

America: History and Life – This bibliographic tool includes citations to 2000 English language historical journals along with citations to dissertations and book reviews from 1964 to the present. The cited historical materials cover Canada and the United States from prehistory to the present. This database includes over 490,000 bibliographic entries from periodicals dating as far back as 1954. Each year approximately 16,000 new entries are added to the database.

This is a companion database to Historical Abstracts which covers the rest of the world.

*The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective -

Covering the period from November 1, 1860 to April 15, 1865, this full-text database contains major articles about the events preceding the outbreak of war at Fort Sumter and concludes with the funeral of Lincoln. Since the papers included are The New York Herald, The Charleston Mercury, and The Richmond Enquirer, both Union and Confederate perspectives of the events are covered. In addition to military happenings, topics pulled from these papers include "travel, arts and leisure, geographical descriptions, sports and sporting, social events, etc." (Accessible Archives, Inc.)

Also "included are descriptive news articles, eye-witness accounts and official reports of battles and events, editorials, advertisements and biographies."

Current Contents (Scholarly Journals) – article citations, many with abstracts are included in this database that consists of approximately 7,000 journals in the sciences, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities. You can also search the

Table of Contents by issue.

Georgia Library Catalogs - This provides links to online catalogs for the University System, private, academic, public and other libraries in Georgia.

Historical Abstracts – Excludes the United States and Canada, but covers world history from 1450 to the present. The sources for these abstracts are 2000 scholarly journals, dissertations, and selected books published from 1954 to the present.

The United States and Canada are covered in America: History and Life.

*Historical Newspapers Online - Focus is on American and British life during the 19th and 20th centuries. Included are Palmer's Index to The Times [London] which covers the period from 1790-1905, the Official Index to The Times [London] which covers 1906 - 1980, The Historical Index to the New York Times covering 1851 - Sept. 1922. Full text (PDF) article images from January 9,1800 to 1870 are in Palmer's Full-Text Online.

J-Stor - This is a searchable, full text database for journals that are considered core to the humanities. The journals selected are deemed to be key to research in the humanities and all back issues are included to have complete runs of titles. There was concern that some of these old journals would disappear over time. The name, which stands for journal storage, would never give one a clue to the rich resources that can be found in this.

I have been able to use this database without a password in the Reference room in the Main Library at UGA. Just playing around, I found a great article on road blocks constructed by Pennsylvania farmers in the 1780’s. The farmers were protesting the low prices and hard economic times. Wonder if that is one of the reasons many of them came South?

Some of the journals in J-Stor were published in the 1800’s, but J-Stor also includes modern journals. New issues are usually not added for five years after publication date.

You can browse by discipline within J-Stor or find a complete list of all the journals. Within J-Stor, the journals are organized into collections: Arts and Sciences Collections I and II, the General Sciences Collection, The Ecology and Botany Collection, and the Business Collection.

*Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728 - 1800 - The Pennsylvania Gazette is considered the New York Times of the 18th century. Covering the periods of colonial America, the Revolution and the New Republic there are thousands of articles, letters, editorials, news items, and advertisements covering the Western Hemisphere.

Folio I - (1728 - 1750) "Benjamin Franklin's Newspaper"

Folio II - (1751 - 1765) "The French and Indian War"

Folio III - (1766 - 1783) "The American Revolution"

Folio IV - (1784 - 1800) "The New Republic"

*Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue - "A full-text listing of marriages, deaths and obituaries from the Village Record published in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In addition, however, readers can learn about emigration patterns, customs and traditions, important events, and medical history." Covers 1819-1870.

*Poole's Plus (also known as 19th Century Masterfile) - This serves as an index to 19th century periodical literature. Included in this database are:

Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 1802 - 1907

Stead's Index to Periodicals, 1890 - 1902

Jones & Chipman's Index to Legal Periodical Literature (1786 - 1922)

Richardson's Index to Periodical Articles in Religion (1890 - 1899)

Cumulative Index to a Selected List of Periodicals (1896-1899)

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download