by AGS Member Michael Wilson
AGS Member Mike Blackledge has been reminding us for years about what a great resource the Internet Archive is. He recently sent me an email from them pointing out some of the genealogical resources they have, including their Genealogy Collection, Family Genealogy Collection, and a collection of yearbooks.
I agree with Mike’s recommendation. Those links are good starting places if you want to get an idea of the wealth of information available there. I want to also mention some ways it has helped me personally.
Years ago, I bought some of the many county histories that were produced in the late 1800s. Back then, you had to go to one of the companies that sold reprinted versions, such as Higginson Book Company. They were expensive, but now many of them are available for free on the Internet Archive. I have downloaded several county histories that have been a big help to me. One that is particularly dear to my heart is the History of Saline County, Missouri, from 1881. It includes a nice bio of one of my ancestors, Judge W. A. Wilson (see here). In many cases, the Archive version is even better than the printed one because many of those histories did not have indexes, but the Archive version is searchable. Beware that a search does not always find everything. Optical character recognition is not perfect, especially if the book is old and the scan is not great.
Another book I was pleased to find was Memoirs of Lincoln by Herring Chrisman (1930). The author was a distant relative of mine, and it is also interesting to see a first-hand account of
someone like Abraham Lincoln (see here). I have benefited from some of the family genealogies they have collected, too, such as Boyle Genealogy: John Boyle of Virginia and Kentucky
by John Boyle (1909), which is included in the Family Genealogy Collection mentioned above, and Historical Sketches of the Campbell, Pilcher and Kindred Families by Margaret Campbell
Pilcher (1911), which unfortunately is not included.
I hope you’ll give this resource a try!
Comment by AGS Member Mike Blackledge: The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that costs nothing to join or use. There is so much available to you: books, manuscripts, video, photos. IA’s credo is just a bit over the top: “To provide access to all the world’s information.” AGS already has uploaded much of its data. Every PDF file uploaded is converted to a fully searchable, flip-page book. If you wish to provide your genealogical research to future researchers, here’s where it will be available “forever.”
