Lesson 9 South Dakota Library Resource Challenge

History and Genealogy Resources—Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest and Sanborn Maps

1. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be dead to be listed in AncestryLibrary and can frequently find useful information in the U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002. You may even find your marriage license. Search for your own name in AncestryLibrary and report the results.

I search for my name, Tammy Swenson and found that apparently there are a lot of us!   I found 17577 hits.   I narrowed the search and still found gadzooks of them.   I have been doing genealogy for over 10 years and so I am in my tree posted online.   Many others have included the information in their as I linked to their trees as well.  

2.  In AncestryLibrary, search for a grandparent or great-grandparent and see if you can locate them in the census.  Report your findings.

Again, because I have  done genealogy for so long, I have found many records for my grandparents.  I have one branch trailed back to the 1200's in Denmark.   I have the world membership which allows to look outside the US and creates even more fun!    

3.  In AncestryLibrary, type "South Dakota" in the location box and click Search. On the left side of the next screen is a link for Pictures.  Click Pictures, see what's there, and look at one or more. Report your findings. 

When  searching for pictures in the manner as we were instructed, I found there are more pictures available for south Dakota than any of us could ever live long enough to view.   Thankfully they are indexed allowing specific searches.   Not only are there historical pictures available, there are many that are scanned documents, postcards, and family photos available.   It is a great resource for finding civil war information and for me I found my grandfather's draft registration card.   It was fun to see his handwriting, and even his specific height, weight, and coloring including his eye color.   

4. In HeritageQuest, there are over 28,000 family and local histories in their online historical books.  Search for a place or browse the publications.  Report back on something that interested you.

 

I have generally had more successful searches in Ancestry than I ever had in HeritageQuest.   today was no exception.  I entered a number of locations which I have in my family tree connections before ever having a publication show up.   It was somewhat of interest though.  I searched for Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.   This are is where my great grandmothers parents settled when first arriving in the United States.   After some time there they moved to Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota.  The only information I found was a book about how the area in Manitowoc County was divided at the time of settlement.   I was easily able to see the maps and areas as they were divided.  I do occasionally use HeritageQuest but it generally isn't my first go to source.   

5. In Sanborn Maps, select South Dakota. Then select your town or a town with which you are familiar. Choose a date. Look at the first page containing the Index. Then navigate around the pages and see what you discover. Try to find a building on the map that is still in use today. Report your findings

In Sanborn Maps, I looked for Milbank, South Dakota.   I chose to look back as far as I could go figuring I may as well see the biggest change I could.   There was 3 pages available for July of 1884.  This was only a few years after the arrival of my great grandparents who undoubtedly went to Milbank for supplies, etc.   It was interesting how few of homes there actually was at the time, or at least how far apart they were.   Many blocks only had a few homes.   Main street did have many buildings and some of them still do stand today.