Okay, why in the world am I spotlighting the Family Search Research Wiki as a new Genea-Gem when it’s been around forever and is a well-known resource?

Because, believe it or not, I still meet many new genea-friends and when we talk about finding documents and records, the conversation always turns to the topics of “Oh, that place doesn’t have early birth records” or “The courthouse there burned in XXXX year and all the probate records are lost,” and the list goes on.

Or, that genea-friend tells me they’ve heard of the wiki, but they “haven’t ever really used it.”

When, together, we take a look at the research wiki, the response is always, “Wow! This is fabulous!”

That is why this month’s GeneaGem spotlight is on the FamilySearch Research Wiki.

If you aren’t already a regular user of the wiki, you should be. If you’re a newbie to it, here is how it is set up.

The wiki covers topics worldwide, mostly places down to towns. It’s created by volunteers and, like the other generalized wiki found online that many people use, it is continually growing and being updated.

However, the FamilySearch wiki has a specific focus on how and where to find genealogical and historical records that an aide our research.

Each page is set up in a similar format with opportunities to add details into specific categories. Of course, not all places have the same kinds of records available so some categories in the list have no entries.

Let’s look at Addison County, Vermont as an example.

I would need another five or six crops to include the entire page for Addison County, Vermont, but the above images give a good idea of what pages in the wiki look like, the alpha-order categories that are set up and what types of information might be found on the pages.

Each page opens with historical information about the county formation and population information.

Notice in categories listed, that FamilySearch has no Bible record collection for Addison County, nor are there Biographies.

The wiki page is also helpful in another regard. It will list other repositories that have records and includes a notation as to whether the site is free or by subscription.

Notice that for Vermont vital records, all the record collections happen to be at FamilySearch, which is free, with the exception of one collection of birth records from 1909 onward, which is found on MyHeritage, a subscription website.

The bottom of each page concludes with links to Resources outside of FamilySearch:

The wiki page will tell you at a glance when vital records began, if the location has suffered record losses, includes contact information for local libraries, museums and societies and so much more.

The most important tip is that you can access the FamilySearch Research Wiki without even signing into an account. It is free and accessible to all researchers.

The FamilySearch Research Wiki is truly an A+ GeneaGem as it is a resource with something for every genealogist

Be sure to bookmark the wiki home page so you can visit frequently and many thanks go out to all the FamilySearch volunteers who keep the wiki up to date.

Have you ever wished there was a directory of archives and libraries within the United States that held genealogically related collections? I’ve sung the praises of the FamilySearch research wiki in the past, but it is time to do that once again.

An important step in the process of completing a “reasonably exhaustive” genealogical search is to identify repositories which might have documents, books and/or other resources that will aid us in that hunt.

Creating a research plan for each and every family in our tree isn’t a realistic goal and, often, isn’t even needed. However, for a family who remained in one location for decades, or even centuries, or for others who have presented us with brick walls, a personalized research guide is an essential tool which can be used to contact organizations from home or to plan an on-location genealogy trip.

Identifying available resources is probably the most important step in developing one’s plan because we don’t want to overlook the one source that might have the elusive record we are seeking!

State libraries and archives are often passed by in our research with the thought that our ancestor or family “wasn’t that important” and so we think it wasn’t likely that records about them would be at the state level.

I used to think that way, but having learned more about what state-level repositories have to offer in the way of specialized collections, I now include them on my “to do” lists.

Locating these institutions and organizations isn’t always easy, but FamilySearch has a wiki page devoted to United States Archives and Libraries!

This wiki page is chock full of information and links to national, regional, state and local archives and libraries.

Exactly what types of archives and libraries are in the wiki article? Major U.S. repositories are in the list and most even have their own separate articles:

After the major repositories, there are a number of other categories:

I generally find libraries much easier to navigate than archives because there is a card catalog with the holdings.

However, archives, maybe realizing the difficulty in locating resources, have all created finding aids. NARA has a set of finding aids, given that the collection is massive.

Guides and Finding Aids help the researcher identify the specific collection that may have items of interest. The screen shot above is only a partial list of NARA’s finding aids.

There is even a short list of digitized records online, including DPLA, the Digital Public Library of America.

What types of items did I find for Passaic? First, Passaic wasn’t incorporated as a city until 1873. Before that time, it was classified as a village. Take a look at this stereoscope image from 1860:

Source: DPLA, Public Domain

This isn’t exactly my idea of a village and it turns my perceived view of early Passaic upside down. It was a thriving city long before it officially called itself that.

NARA has a collection of city directories, including one for Passaic, which dates to 1929-1930.

Yes, I know Ancestry and other sites might also have them, but no one website has a complete collections. This might be the directory from which I can glean a new fact about my family.

My paternal grandfather’s family was living in Passaic when his older brother died c1901-1903. A link on the wiki page took me to a four-page PDF of New Jersey records:

I’ll have to wait a bit longer, but death records up through 1896 have been indexed and are searchable online. (Since I don’t have the exact year, I decided not to make a request by mail.)

I don’t have any Dutch ancestors in New Jersey, but if I did, the Library of Congress has a collection that would pique my interest:

This is the table of contents for a 48-page PDF!

In summary, the United States Archives and Libraries in the FamilySearch wiki contains a huge assortment of links to about every imaginable collection.

It’s definitely a genea-gem!