Beginning your Family Research

Jackie Oshman

Principal Librarian

New Brunswick Free Public Library

Jackie Oshman

• Librarian for 19 years
• Specialize in New Brunswick history
• Executive board member of New Brunswick Historical Society and History and Preservation Section of NJLA
• Family genealogist
• Volunteer for genealogical websites

How to Start?

• Start with your living relatives
• Interview your parents, grandparents, cousins, etc
• Where and when were they born?
• Who were their parents?
• Did they know their grandparents and where they were from?
• Do they have family bibles, albums or other genealogical resources?
• Obituaries, birth notices, marriage announcements
• Has anyone else done the research?

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How to Start?

• Plan your genealogical objective.
• What is your goal?
• DAR application, passing down history, solving a family mystery?
• Are you attempting to trace your entire family or do you only need one piece of information?
• Compile a list of blanks in your tree
• Identify sources where you may find your answer
• May be in person or online

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• Contact local resources first and then expand
• Check the websites or call to see what resources they have
• Libraries, vital records offices, county court documents
• Expanded resources will be discussed later
• Do as much internet searching as you can!!
• Explore specific websites (ethnic, other family genealogists, other states)
• Discover your local family history center

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Finding Deceased Relatives

• Do you have their death date?

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• Do you have their obituary?

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• Do you know where they are buried?

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• Do you know where they lived, worked?

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• Family Bible

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• Obituary

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• Death Certificate

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• Headstone

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• Military Records

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• Other sources:

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Social Security Death Index

• http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ($)
• https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535 (Free)
• Search by Last Name, First Name, or SSN
• Provides last place of benefit, date of death, state issued
• Will not show people who died before Social Security numbers were issued.
• May be able to apply for original S.S. application which provides birth record and parents names

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Wisconsin Historical Society

• Do you have their death date?

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• Do you have their obituary?

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• Do you know where they are buried?

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• Do you know where they lived, worked?

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• After obtaining a date of death, search for an obituary using microfilm or digitized newspapers.

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• New Brunswick Library:
• Proquest subscription for cardholders

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• Digitized New Brunswick Daily Times 1871-1916 and Daily Home News 1887, 1889, 1903-1918
• http://newbrunswick.archivalweb.com/reelSelector.php
• FREE and open to the public

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• Library of Congress
• Google news Archive
• NJ Digital Newspaper Project
• Old Fulton Postcards
• Linkpendium
• Cyndi’s List
• Chronicling America
• Subscription: Newspapers.com, Genealogy Bank, America’s Historical newspapers, Ancestry, MyHeritage, Find My Past, Fold3

• Do you have their death date?

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• Do you have their obituary?

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• Do you know where they are buried?

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• Do you know where they lived, worked?

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• Burial information available online and locally
• RU Special Collections Grave Index
• Cemetery records online
• Example: http://www.rosedale-rosehill.com/index2.cfm
• Example: http://www.willowgrove.nbfpl.org/
• www.interment.net
• Not complete – browse by cemetery
• www.findagrave.com
• Not complete – browse by cemetery or name. Volunteers add memorial pages and photos of headstone. Linked to Ancestry.com!

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• New Jersey graveyard and gravestone inscriptions locators : Middlesex County / Raser, Edward John. 2018

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• Do you have their death date?

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• Do you have their obituary?

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• Do you know where they are buried?

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• Do you know where they lived, worked?

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• Obituary
• Newspaper articles
• Census Records
• City Directories

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Daily Home News Front Cover February 4, 1903

Little Privacy in 1919

Sunday Times July 20, 1919 pg. 3 Social Announcements

Wife’s name, Executives in bold, occupation, address (HP= Highland Park)

Guide to New Jersey City Directories by Michael Brown

Online Resources

Ancestry.com vs AncestryLibrary

• Pay for membership on different scales
• Create and save a family tree
• “Hints” provide records that possibly match
• Connect your tree to others searching the same family

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• Free access to United States records
• Only available in the library
• Cannot save your information
• Cannot see other people researching your family

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Ancestry Academy�https://www.ancestryacademy.com/browse

Ancestry DNA

$99 Get personalized details about your ethnic origins. Discover more about your story with advanced DNA science from the experts in family history. – WATCH FOR SALES!

HeritageQuest

• May be available at the library or at home using your valid library card number
• All information checked multiple times by humans for accuracy (as opposed to Ancestry)
• Unique databases – Freedman’s Bank records, Revolutionary War records, census and book searching

• FamilySearch.org
• Records maintained by Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and added by volunteers
• Free to search and create an account
• Family History Centers available to view microfilm or view subscription databases
• East Brunswick New Jersey Family History Center

303 Dunhams Corner Rd, East Brunswick, NJ 08816

(check website for hours)

• FamilySearch.Org

Ancestry.com

• Start with yourself and add any additional information you have.

• I added that his wife’s name is Jill and the “Hint” appeared.

• 7 hints – but are they all him?

Tools for downloading, printing, zooming, and sharing are located on the right

• Helpful documents appeared when I went back to the home window to use the search tool.

If you want to see what exists for your area, filter by location, collection, date

FamilySearch.org offers the same search features

But Familysearch.org goes to city level in the Catalog!

Don’t be afraid to google search specific questions such as:

Where can I find Jewish genealogy resources?

Where can I find marriage records for California?

Was my grandmother an Indian Princess?

• Maryland Ethnic Research website

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More…

• Genealogical Society of New Jersey

www.gsnj.org

“Given name index to The Genealogical magazine of New Jersey”

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Article Titles and Authors by Volume, Issue, Date and Page up to Volume 97 (1925-2023)

Archive.org

Digitized Books, audio, movies, websites, yearbooks and more!

Print Resources

Books

• Various sources depending on skill level
• Have bibliographies of online and print sources
• Information changes all the time – get the most updated edition

Local Collections

• Special Collections and University Archives

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• www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/genealogy/genealogy.shtml (see next slide)

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• Grave index (transcriptions of headstones from over 600 cemeteries)

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New Brunswick Books

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• New Brunswick City Directories 1855-1975 (Some neighboring towns included)
• Wall, John P. Chronicles of New Jersey
• Benedict, William H. New Brunswick in History
• New Jersey's First Citizens
• Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia
• Biographical Record, Theological Seminary
• Genealogical Society of NJ magazine

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THANK YOU!

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Jacquelyn Oshman

joshman@lmxac.org

nbfpl@lmxac.org

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