Using GALILEO for Genealogy and Historical Research

Using GALILEO for Genealogy and Historical Research

Handout

Laura W. Carter, Heritage Room Librarian, Athens-Clarke County Library

Note: The phrases in quotation marks throughout were copied and pasted from either the GALILEO description or the database itself. I could not write a shorter one that explained things as well.

Public Library Databases

AncestryPlus – Ancestry.com and The Gale Group have combined their efforts to develop this large database and provide advice on how to do research. Most of the premium databases that Ancestry.com charges extra for above the regular subscription price are in AncestryPlus, along with genealogical databases from Gale Group like Passenger and Immigration Lists Index through 1981???. New records and databases are added regularly (the info. in GALILEO says daily), so keep checking for new additions. There is a “Getting Started” section for those new to genealogical research.

GALILEO has a contract that insures we should have access to this database until August 2005.

ArchivesUSA (Chadwyck-Healey) -- This ProQuest database is a current directory for over 5500 U.S. manuscript repositories and indexes more than 141,000 manuscript collections. This index makes the entire collection of NUCMC (National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections) from 1959 to present electronically searchable. NUCMC covers more than 93,000 archival collections.

ArchivesUSA also includes names and detailed subject indexing of over 54,000 collections whose finding aids have been published separately in ProQuest UMI's microfiche series, National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS).

The Repository search allows you to search a particular repository for items other than those indexed in NIDS or NUCMC. In addition, this database includes collection descriptions that have been submitted to ProQuest and a growing set of links to online finding aids.

Area Studies and Ethnic Studies via SKS WebSelect – This site provides links to public internet sites. Pick the area from which the ancestor came and explore what is there on this site. Some sites are better than others for genealogical purposes.

To start with, the areas that will probably prove to be most useful are Human Relations, Reference, Global Issues.

Examples: Human Relations > Ethnic Groups > African American or

Human Relations > Ethnic Groups > Native Americans

Global Issues > History > Historic Documents > Historical Maps Online

Reference > Maps

Arts & Humanities via SKS WebSelect – This link takes you to the same database page as the one above. You would probably choose Global Issues > History as one of your choices. Others might be:

Environment > Population

Architecture and Design > Domestic Architecture

Arts and Humanities Search - This is a FirstSearch database that indexes articles in the arts and humanities. Using advanced search, it is amazing what you can find.

Books in Print + Reviews - Records of in-print, out-of-print, and forthcoming books from North American publishers some with full-text reviews. This database is updated monthly and you can create your own lists of things you find that you are considering purchasing. This may not locate many of the materials of interest to genealogists and family historians being published by individuals or small firms, but those by major publishers usually can be found. You can print or e-mail the list you create.

Dissertation Abstracts (at ProQuest) - An index to doctoral dissertations and master's theses from universities in North America and Europe. "Covers dissertations accepted at accredited U.S. institutions since 1861. Approximately 47,000 new dissertations and 12,000 new theses are added to the database each year. It selectively covers masters theses, Canadian dissertations, British, and other international dissertations. Abstracts are included for dissertations beginning July 1980 and for masters theses beginning spring 1988." … Not all dissertations from all participating institutions are available. See the detailed information by clicking on “More…” in GALILEO at this database.

You can search for FREE the most recent 2 years of the Dissertation Abstracts database, over 225,000 citations and abstracts. You can also access via their Web site the full text of over 450,000 dissertations. This is not free.

If you are looking for detailed information on a locality, a particular subject, etc. you will be amazed what you might find of interest in this database. For instance, suppose you cannot find a land grant you are looking for and something clues you in that contrary to popular belief the female ancestor may have gotten a land grant. You can search in Dissertation Abstracts for "land AND grants AND women" and retrieve 8 hits one of which is:

Land of Their Own: Land Grants to Women in the Lower Colonial South (Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina) by Lee Ann Caldwell Swann. The complete citation is provided and the following abstract can be pulled up.

/ “Women were among the earliest settlers in the lower colonial south and many came to own and manage land through inheritance, purchase, gift, and grants. This study examines the land grants to women in the Carolinas and Georgia throughout their colonial periods. Only in Georgia during its Trusteeship period was the ownership of land by women denied. That, along with other prohibitions on land alienation, resulted in protest from the colony and eventually the policy was changed. The Proprietors in the Carolinas and the royal governments in all three colonies granted land to women without restriction. The size, location, and date of the grants are analyzed to reveal patterns of ownership of land by women. Inventories of estate were studied to determine what women did with their land. Wills and deed were sampled to gain some understanding of land acquired by methods other than grant. The majority of women who received land were widows or never-married women who used their land for self-support, although some became quite successful planters and entrepreneurs. Some married women, however, received grants but their numbers were few. In the early decades of colonial development women requested land in or near established communities. Those who requested farm acreage were women with large families or with servants and slaves and thus larger headrights to claim. But as the isolation and threats to security of the early years were overcome, more women of modest means requested grants for farm acreage and the average size of farms granted to women decreased steadily in the last three decades before the Revolution. Most of these grants of small farms were in the backcountry with women receiving fewer grants in the areas characterized by larger plantations. South Carolina issued the largest number of land grants to women with hundreds given land in the 1760s and 1770s. In North Carolina, where isolation and lack of community development continued throughout the colonial period, far fewer women requested land. In all three colonies women used their land as men did, cultivating farm acreage in food crops and staple crops depending on location, and operating businesses in towns. “

This dissertation probably does not provide a list of women who received land grants, but it certainly will tell you about the time and place in which these people lived. The sources used by this researcher will be a great place to start to look for a list and other records that might prove useful.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, University of Georgia or

University of Georgia Electronic Theses and Dissertations is a collection of the theses and dissertations submitted electronically to the Graduate School at the University of Georgia since the summer of 1999. New material is added regularly.

“All dissertations are included, although some may not be viewable from off campus. The [bibliographical] record for an individual document is always viewable, and will indicate the availability of the document. The author of a dissertation or thesis, in conjunction with his or her major professor, makes the determination if the work will be publicly available.

The database can be searched by keywords, author, title, department, major, major professor, committee members, etc. For additional information, click the "Instructions" button on any search screen. Since an individual's name may appear in the database in various ways (especially for faculty members on the advisory committees), use the Browse Search to find all variations. Most of the documents are in the PDF format.

NOTE: The complete text of the dissertations and theses is not searchable in this database. However, for those that are publicly available, use the Adobe ‘Find’ feature (binoculars icon) to search the text of an individual thesis or dissertation.” (GALILEO)

Librarians Index to the Internet - This is a great site to bookmark on your computer for a variety of searches. You do not have to access it through GALILEO. For genealogy sites go to People then click on Genealogy under that.

The other sections that might have helpful information are Reference and Quick Facts; and under Arts and Humanities, the sections like History, Museums, and others depending on what you know about your ancestor may prove very helpful.

Native American Documents - "Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842, contains approximately 2,000 documents and images relating to the Native American population of the Southeastern United States from the collections of the University of Georgia Libraries, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Library, the Frank H. McClung Museum, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Tennessee State Museum and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. The documents are comprised of letters, legal proceedings, military orders, financial papers, and archaeological images relating to Native Americans in the Southeast." (GALILEO)

The first 18 months of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper published in a Native American language, is also available through the Georgia Historic Newspapers database.

OCLC Union List of Periodicals – another First Search database

“The Union Lists of Periodicals database shows over 7 million holdings for journals and other covered items among OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) member libraries. It can help determine if a library holds a specific journal issue.

Many searches in the OCLC Union Lists of Periodicals may result in too many records to be useful. For example, popular journal titles will result in thousands of records being retrieved. A search of only a city name may also result in thousands of records. However, searching a title and city together will narrow the results to those libraries in a specific city that own the journal. For example, type: ti:scientific american and ct:savannah.

The Library keyword (li:) index includes both library names and OCLC symbols for libraries and locations within libraries. The Library exact-phrase (li=) index includes only the library names. You can use WordList to verify a library name before searching. Several words in library names are abbreviated: col for college, univ for university, pub for public, and libr for library.”

You should be able to get information from periodicals through ILL. The code for the Georgia group, Georgia Online Database, is: gl$d. It may be used in a search such as: ti:scientific american and gr:gl$d.

Database provider: An OCLC FirstSearch database
Coverage Dates: Current file
Update Frequency: Semiannually
Subject Categories: All Databases, Directories and Almanacs, News/Facts and Reference” (GALILEO)

SKS WebSelect –

You have already been to this screen to access some other information but you can search by entering terms such as genealogy or even more specific terms and be referred to useful Websites.

“SKS WebSelect is an online database of Internet resources providing access to quality Web sites on almost any subject. WebSelect is continually updated to include new sites and dynamically changing data. Summaries provide a concise overview of site content and authority. Keyword, Subject Heading, and Topic Browse searches can be performed. Topics are assigned based on site content and mission. WebSelect is dynamically updated and offers Internet resources from around the globe, including those of leading universities, government agencies and respected organizations.

Database provider: ProQuest Information and Learning
Coverage Dates: Current file
Update Frequency: Ongoing
Audience: General, student
Keywords: Internet sites | websites | web sites | SIRS | Web Select
Subject Categories: Arts and Humanities, All Databases, Art and Architecture, Business and Economics, Biology, Consumer Information, Economics, Education, Geography, Gender and Multicultural Studies, Kids' Stuff, K-12, Medicine, Medicine and Health Sciences, General and Multi-Subject, News, News/Facts and Reference, Political Science and Public Administration, Sociology, Social Sciences, Science and Technology, Teachers
Format Categories: Reference Sources” (GALILEO)

WorldCat - this is the first place one should check after looking in one's own library catalog or PINES (if you are in a PINES library) to locate materials in libraries. WorldCat is an online catalog for libraries worldwide and has a multitude of search features. Another FirstSearch database, you can search for materials in a variety of formats. This is a great place to locate materials that may have been out of print for years. Patrons can print out the complete citation and ask their local library to try to get for on interlibrary loan.

Georgia Specific databases

Annual Reports of the Mayor of Savannah, Georgia, 1855-1917 (Majority of the reports are from 1881-1917) – “The annual reports of the Mayor of the city of Savannah Georgia for the years 1855-1917 include information on city activities and finances, commercial statistics, health, death, and illness statistics, and information on trade, public schools, weather, charitable institutions and city ordinances. The documents also include reports of the City Attorney, the Police Department (including crime statistics), the City Engineer, the Fire Department (including statistics on fires and property losses), and the Board of Trade, among others. …