The third of the overlooked gems is state genealogical societies. Yes, genealogical societies cost money to join, BUT some have free databases on line that can be accessed by anyone. My husband’s Williams family lived every place imaginable where the records burned from Virginia to Tennessee. Because they lived mostly in the South, birth and death records were rarely found until modern times.
Two of my favorite genealogical periodicals are those of the Tennessee Genealogical Society and the Arkansas Genealogical Society.
Both societies have digitized images of their publications, Ansearchin’ News and Arkansas Family Historian, posted on their websites. The Arkansas Genealogical Society also has PDF images of Ancestry Charts and Family Group Sheets submitted by members over the years and a database of the Arkansas Ancestry Certificate Index, listing early Arkansas settlers for whom descendants have submitted documentation.
Here are a few examples of harder-to-find types of genealogical-related information that I randomly found in these journals:
From the July 1964 issue of Ansearchin’ News, p. 119 – “Early East Tennessee Land Surveys” of Anderson County. These surveys are great because they not only list the land owner, but often give neighbors’ names as they owned bordering properties and the “SCC” or “sworn chain carriers” were often friends or relatives.
In the October 1962 issue, also Ansearchin’ News, page 132,
“Spears-Gable Bible.” Note that the death entries even include cause of death in a time period where death records were not kept in Tennessee. (I did not include the birth and marriage records in case this is your family, but they are there.)
In the Arkansas Family Historian, June 1966, page 40 I found the descendants of Don Jose Vallure de Hautervive listed in an abstract of a White County, AR land deed dated 1841. Don Jose served as Captain of the Sixth Regiment of Louisiana under the Spanish government and received land grants in both Louisiana and Arkansas. He died in New Orleans in 1799 and the deed lists all of his descendants known over forty years later. (As with the Bible records above, I only clipped part of the entry.)
Last example: Arkansas Family Historian, Jan 1976, page 43 has family queries, which I absolutely love. I have found more missing twigs and branches of the family tree than I can count by perusing queries in genealogical publications. Yes, I know that I can look at family trees on line, and I do, but so many people don’t do their own research anymore. They just cut and paste and/or import data that is just as likely to be wrong as right. This query gives a lot of possible background for the Fowler/Oats family:
What else can be found in genealogical publications? Cemetery records! Why would you want to look at 50 or 60 year old magazines for cemetery records when we have findagrave.com, BillionGraves, etc.? First reason – many transcriptions in these journals are from abandoned cemeteries that still have readable stones or are from cemeteries in out of the way locations (like in a family’s backyard) and are not yet available on line. Second reason – because many of these published epitaphs are 50-60 years old, or even older, these stones might no longer be readable due to the ravages of time and weather or they may have sunk in the ground or been removed or destroyed. Therefore, they won’t ever appear, at least with a photo, on any cemetery website.
Besides cemetery listings, there are many transcribed tax lists (which, yes, can be viewed on microfilm, but many don’t ever look at this resource in a library), there are occasional family diary excerpts, there are old photographs and many other tidbits of information to help paint a picture of your ancestor’s life.
Here are a few sources with links to state genealogical societies:
Take a moment and check out a state where your family lived.