Google Books can be a huge bonus to your genealogical research, but is often overlooked. Never underestimate what you can find there....
A quick search with the term "Brooklyn NY", brings up pages upon pages of results. Titles such as "Our Fireman: The Official History of the Brooklyn Fire Department" could be a hidden gem for anyone who might have someone in that line of work in their family tree.
I recently heard someone in the professional genealogy field mention that in order to do a good search, you have to know the history of the time you are researching (my apologies, I can't remember who it was). Google Books is amazing for this! One example: "Report of the Department of Health of the city of Brooklyn, NY 1884-1885". Did you have family living there in this time period? Discussion of diseases, challenges of having so many people living in such tight quarters, and suggestions by medical professionals about how to handle those issues, will give you a good over view of what things were like for your family members. Exciting reading? Not usually, but every little nugget of information will give you a better understanding of where your ancestors came from.
Jumping over to information on Vermont and Massachusetts, this has actually been a boon for me, when it comes to the Blanchard branch of my tree. I had no idea that the Blanchard name, and their accomplishments go so far back in our country's history.
Google Books is a great resource for finding long lost histories of towns, churches and even companies. In a search yesterday for a project I am working on, I found old company newsletters with the particular ancestor in it. Turns out he was quite musically talented, always either playing piano, or singing in the company choir. This is something that his great granddaughter never would have know if I had searched where I did.
Not all of the information will be 100% accurate. Personal genealogies written early on in history, tend to have many errors in them. But it might give you some small nuggets of information you wouldn't have found otherwise.
A quick search with the term "Brooklyn NY", brings up pages upon pages of results. Titles such as "Our Fireman: The Official History of the Brooklyn Fire Department" could be a hidden gem for anyone who might have someone in that line of work in their family tree.
I recently heard someone in the professional genealogy field mention that in order to do a good search, you have to know the history of the time you are researching (my apologies, I can't remember who it was). Google Books is amazing for this! One example: "Report of the Department of Health of the city of Brooklyn, NY 1884-1885". Did you have family living there in this time period? Discussion of diseases, challenges of having so many people living in such tight quarters, and suggestions by medical professionals about how to handle those issues, will give you a good over view of what things were like for your family members. Exciting reading? Not usually, but every little nugget of information will give you a better understanding of where your ancestors came from.
Jumping over to information on Vermont and Massachusetts, this has actually been a boon for me, when it comes to the Blanchard branch of my tree. I had no idea that the Blanchard name, and their accomplishments go so far back in our country's history.
Google Books is a great resource for finding long lost histories of towns, churches and even companies. In a search yesterday for a project I am working on, I found old company newsletters with the particular ancestor in it. Turns out he was quite musically talented, always either playing piano, or singing in the company choir. This is something that his great granddaughter never would have know if I had searched where I did.
Not all of the information will be 100% accurate. Personal genealogies written early on in history, tend to have many errors in them. But it might give you some small nuggets of information you wouldn't have found otherwise.
