Research Reminder

One of Dick Eastman's recent blog posts was a good reminder about our research. Someone had written him about being frustrated that he could not find enough information online. Eastman's comment: "Doesn’t he realize that 95% of the information of interest to genealogists is not yet available on the Internet?"

Here's more of that post: 

"To be sure, many of the biggest and most valuable resources are now available online, including national census records, the Social Security Death Index, military pension applications, draft cards, many passenger lists, land patent databases, and more.

As the national databases became available to all, the online providers moved on to digitize regional and statewide information. State or provincial censuses, birth records, marriage records, death records, naturalization records (which originally were recorded in many local and state courts), county histories, and much, much more are still being placed online."

He then points out that most church parish records, local tax lists, school records, land records (other than Federal land grants), and many more records are not yet available online and probably won’t be available for many years. 

Because so many of us have returned "home" for the summer or are traveling around the country, we should keep in mind that visiting the area where our ancestors lived can be an invaluable way to further our research. Don't pass up an opportunity to visit a courthouse, library, or local history museum in your ancestor's original settlement.