Laura's Favorite Genealogy Resources  

Laura's Favorite Genealogy Resources

A list of some tools I've found useful for
my Scottish & New England genealogy research
 

Book Stores : 

Picton Press:  A Maine publisher of genealogy books

Essex Books:  A good source for New England related books

AlibrisBibliofindBibliocity :  All three of these are excellent sources for used and rare books

Amazon.com  or  Barnes & Noble :  For anything current, the selection and service offered by these two companies are hard to beat

Amazon.co.uk :  I loved Bookpages, the British on-line bookseller for its great selection of Scottish history books.  Now they're owned  by my favorite US bookseller, Amazon, and known as Amazon.uk.

Genealogylibrary.com :  It's not a bookstore, but Familytreemaker offers a great service that allows subscribers access to hundreds of genealogy books on-line for a small fee.
 
 

Societies & Organizations: 

East Ayrshire Family History Society :  Nice resource for overseas researchers.  For a small annual fee, members can request look-ups and other  services.

Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society  :  Same as above for the Glasgow area.

Dumfries Galloway Family History Society :  Again, same as above but for southwestern Scotland

Rootsweb :  Provides valuable services like mailing lists and searchable databases to genealogical researchers on the Internet, supported by members.

USGenWeb :  A great volunteer project presenting available resources at the town, county, state, and national levels.

NEHGS :  Located in Boston, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has a huge archive of research materials.  They also offer member services and have an on-line bookstore.

The Center for Maine History  :  Located in Portland, Maine.  Great source for Maine research and an excellent place to start your research.
 

Books:

(My very favorite vice, other than chocolate.  Here are a few I've found either useful as a reference or for historical background information.)
 
Old Kittery and Her Familes - 
E. S. Stackpole
Vital Records of Biddeford Maine prior to 1856 - by John D. Beatty
Pepperrellborough - First Church Records 1762-98 Published by York Institute, 1914 History of Saco and Biddeford - George Folsom
Saco Valley Settlements - G.T. Ridlon Early Families of Standish - Albert J.  Sears
Pepperrellborough - Early Vital Records Villages of Glasgow Vol 1 & 2 - Aileen Smart
Old Rutherglen - Rhona Wilson The Steel Bonnets - George MacDonald Fraser
Mining - Ayrshire's Lost Industry - Guthrie Hutton A Century of the Scottish People, 1830-1950 -Thomas C. Smout
Your Scottish Ancestry - Sherry Irvine History of the Family Millingas, Millanges, etc. - G.T. Ridlon
Maine Wills 1640-1760 - William M. Sargent Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire - Libby, Noyes, and Davis
The Hamiltons of Waterborough - Samuel King Hamilton

 

Online Info and Lists:

Cyndi's List :  Amazingly complete listing of resources available for genealogists on the Internet.  Also see  Cyndi's Webpage Toolkit if you want comprehensive info on how to create your own homepage.  It's all covered here.

Familytreemaker.com :  I find their page layout to be a little awkward, but they offer a lot of how-to info as well as searches.

Ancestry.com :  Again, a lot of nice how-to's, some searchable databases, an on-line store..Family Search : The IGI and Ancestral File on-line. A great finding tool, but do be sure and follow-up on sources.

 Scots Origins :  I've had excellent results using this database.  If you don't mind the expense, it's a lot of fun.

Maine State Library : Search their list of holdings online.

Genuki :  Very complete explanation of available genealogical resources for Scotland.

Maine Revolutionary War Land Grants and Pension Applications : This is a list veterans who were recipients and/or applicants for land grants and pensions. It can provide some really interesting background on your ancestors. 

This page provides all the addresses and other info you'll need to locate Vital Records Information for a particular area. 

Universal Currency Convertor :  You'll probably need this, sooner or later, if you're doing research overseas.

Ruesch International :  And once you've figured out what you owe, this is a great inexpensive service for converting your money to the currency you need.

Maine Marriage Index : Maine marriage index for the years 1892-1960

Mayflower Families : A lot of interesting info on early families

Maine Court Records :  Searchable, selected records put on line by USGenweb volunteers.
 
 

Software : 

Familytreemaker :  I used it for two years and enjoyed it.

The Master Genealogist :  I'm in the process of switching to this.

Paint Shop Pro : A powerful but relatively inexpensive graphics program

WS FTP :  I've found this FTP software easy to use

Parloc :  This is a nice freeware program that locates parishes in Great Britain
 
 

Search Engines :

Infoseek :  My everyday favorite search engine and it has a nice child-friendly option to limit objectionable content

Dogpile :  Industrial strength...does simultaneous searches with multiple engines.
 
 


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