Tag Archives: Genealogy

Calling All Genealogists (and Historians): Free Stuff!

Genealogists (and historians) love free stuff. I think that’s because almost everything genealogists do costs money—copies of vital records, paying for research in some far off place, gas money to travel to the cemeteries or a great library (ahem). Well, … Continue reading

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Beginning Genealogy Workshop!

Genealogy is very popular on TV this month. NBC is offering Who Do You Think You Are?, which features celebrities researching their family history and their family’s connections to historical events.   And  PBS just wrapped up its four-episode run of Faces … Continue reading

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Defective, Dependant, and Delinquent

AncestryLibrary, the library version of the popular subscription database Ancestry.com, posts new resources almost daily. On February 7, 2010 one of the special supplemental census schedules for 1880 was posted – the Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes. One of the … Continue reading

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More Tales of the Census: Special Schedules

Population was not the only information the United States government was interested in collecting during the decennial federal censuses. Non-population questions were equally important – and for we historians equally interesting! Over the years, these censuses included mortality, social statistics … Continue reading

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Tales of the Census

Soon, we will all be part of history. How, you wonder?  In April of 2010, the new decennial United States Federal Census will be arriving in our mailboxes. The government will be mailing the questionnaire, as it is still not … Continue reading

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The Annual Musical Interlude

Our staff here at the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center celebrate the winter holidays each year by mailing cards to our wonderful volunteers, exchanging small gifts, enjoying enough chocolate to put the Hershey corporation firmly in the black for the year, … Continue reading

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Magazines, Journals and Newsletters

The Special Collections Center is home to a great number of genealogical magazines, journals and newsletters. There are magazines for a variety of different groups: American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society Newsletter British Connections German Connection Heritage Review (Germans from Russia) Mayflower Descendant … Continue reading

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Those Vital, Vital Records

To a genealogist, vital records are the mainstay of his or her research, the triumvirate of documentation.  Birth, marriage, and death records pin down a life from start to finish and connect an unbroken (one hopes) line from one generation … Continue reading

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An Invitation

Find all the leaves (and maybe a couple of nuts??) on your family tree at the Richardson-Sloane Special Collection Center’s Fall Genealogy Night. Spend this special evening with other genealogists and access the best collection of genealogy records and historic … Continue reading

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Ode to Oakdale

 One of the difficulties in locating death records in Iowa is that they did not exist prior to 1880.* This means that roughly fifty years worth of ancestors passed away in our state without leaving behind that vital (if you’ll pardon … Continue reading

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