Thursday, September 20, 2018

10 Tips for using "The Ancestor Hunt"

Hello! It's Lauren Kuntzman, again, guest blogging once more for Kathy Petras. For this week's post, I'll be discussing one of my new favorite resources - The Ancestor Hunt!

Why would you want to use The Ancestor Hunt? Well, it has a lot to offer, including links to...
  • 26,000+ Newspapers
  • 1,700+ Obituaries/Obit Indexes
  • 2,000+ Birth/Marriage/Death Record Databases
  • 3,800 Yearbooks
  • Collections of Historic Photos
  • "How To" Articles & Videos
And, it's all free.

Because of its massive collection of newspapers and obituaries, The Ancestor Hunt is now my first stop for tracking down these essential documents. If you're also looking for these sources -- or if you want to find vital records, yearbooks, or old photos -- then you should definitely check out this website, too.

Here's a little bit more about the website and 10 tips for using it: 



Overview

The Ancestor Hunt is created and managed by Kenneth R. Marks. Though I've only discovered recently, the website has existed since around 2010. It reminds me of Cyndi's List, in that it points users to resources located elsewhere on the web.

10 Tips for Using The Ancestor Hunt

1. To find information, The Ancestor Hunt is first organized by resource type, and then by geography. Generally, it's divided by country, then by state/province, and then may get to a city/county level.

2. Speaking of geography... The Ancestor Hunt focuses on the United States and Canada. (Exception: there are a few "world" newspaper links.) 

3. You'll notice that there is a link for "Newspapers" and a link titled "Newspaper Links." "Newspapers" will teach you how to best search historic newspapers. "Newspaper Links," on the other hand, will take you to digitized newspapers. 

Options for resources are listed in the main menu. 
"Newspapers Links" will take you to the list of 26,000+ newspapers available online.

4. Some of the resource lists are a little long, so I recommend using the Find command on your web browser (Control+F for PCs or Command+F for Macs) and search for keywords.  By the way, your city or county make great keywords!

5. Most of the "Obituaries" category resources are indexes, however there are notes if the links include clippings or transcriptions. 

Here's a screencap of some of the Ohio Obituary/
Obituary Index links.  Some links include clippings and transcripts.

6. With the birth, marriage, and death (BMD) record links, many point to databases on FamilySearch or local library's webpages. Church records may be included, too. 

7. When using the "Photos" section, some links will include information about restrictions on rights for usage.  

8. Make sure you read the end of the lists as special collections, miscellaneous resources, and other information may be included there. 

Make sure you read the end of the resource lists, which may contain
miscellaneous collections, like this list of Ohio BMD Links.  


9. The "Yearbooks" are just for the United States, and are organized alphabetically by the name of the city, not the name of the school.

10. Be aware that the information on the site is periodically updated.  Until an update happens, however, some links may be dead and brand new resources might not yet be included. Following the Blog is a great way to learn about updates.



To get you started hunting for your ancestors, here are links to all of the Ohio resources on The Ancestor Hunt:

Happy Searching!



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