A Website and a Book

I am going to introduce a new website that I found on genealogy. I may have used this one before, but it is still great. The National Archives has a website for Genealogists and Family Historians. http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/ This website is wonderful. Great links, and information about searching for your relatives. I always like to point out government websites because they are so trustful.

The second topic for today came from a question that I received recently. The City of Scranton has a great history, but many of the books about the city's history are adult books. I investigated along with my other colleagues for books made for children and young adults on Scranton's history, and have found one that is great. The book called The History and Geography of Scranton and its Vicinity by Elizabeth H. Williams fits this need. This book is easy to read with big lettering, but contains all the pertinent details of Scranton's history. It is only available in the Reference Department, and cannot be checked out.

New Titles in the Local History Collection

Many of you may not know, but we have a nice collection of resources on the Polish National Catholic Church. These are local and non local resources about the origins and other information about the Polish National Catholic Church. If you are unfamiliar with this church here is a link that explains the history. http://www.pncc.org/who_history.htm

As I said we have two new books both on the Polish National Catholic Church. The first book is

Journeying Together in Christ: The Report of the Polish National Catholic-Roman Catholic Dialogue

Journeying Together in Christ: The Journey Continues.

These are available in the Local History Collection at the Scranton Public Library. You are unable to check out these resources, but you may look at them in the library.

Genealogy Websites

This week I am bringing forward a genealogy website that I found by chance. I like using http://www.USA.gov as a reference tool. If you have never used this website, take a look at it. You will be surprised about how much information and lists are on this website. It is packed full of great information. Anyway I found a list of websites about genealogy in this source. Some of these will be familiar to you, but some may be new. For example I never thought to use inmate searches for genealogy. This source may give you some good information.

http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/History_Family.shtml

New microfilm at the Library

We have two reels of microfilm that are titled Inventory of Church Archives of Pennsylvania. This microfilm consists of questionnaires that were sent to Lackawanna County churches from 1937-1942. This project which was sponsored by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and gives information about churches in Lackawanna County, and their histories. These are NOT church records. You will have to find them someplace else.

This information has become very important as some churches have closed down. There is no index for these records, so you have to scroll through the information. You may find yourself quite fascinated by the information that can be found on these questionnaires.

A Fabulous Website

I recently learned about this wonderful website from the National Archives called the Digital Vault. Now if you have heard of this already, then I applaud you. I found the site to be so great. It is interactive and has superior graphics (in my opinion)! You will need high speed interent access otherwise it will take to long to load up all the graphics, but it is well worth the wait. If you love history as much as I do, you will love this website.

http://www.digitalvaults.org

Humor and Practical Information

This week I want to add a few tidbits of information about searching for genealogy. One important reminder when searching for ancestors in Europe is the country they lived in. Most of the time while the family states they are one ethnicity, the ruling country is different. For example lets say your relatives are Polish, but you find a record stating that they lived in Russia. The key to remember is that many times while they are Polish, Russia may have occupied the area where they were living. Remember the time period and find out who was ruling the county in that year. It will save some steps and confusion.

Here is a little anecdote found on the Rootsweb website. I hope you enjoy this funny webpage!

http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~families/halsey/humor.html

Volunteer!!

This week I want to let everyone know about a new volunteering website created by the Federal Government. This website called Serve.gov has opportunities for individuals to volunteer in their community. This service which was set up by President Obama allows you to search local areas for volunteering jobs you may be interested in. Take the opportunity to look at this website and read about this interesting project.

http://serve.gov/