Do you have ancestors who come from Ireland? While most of the Ireland Census records were destroyed prior to 1901 were destroyedm they 1901 and 1911 Ireland Census records are available to researchers. In fact, The National Archives of Ireland has images of the 1901 and 1911 Ireland Census for free on it’s website.
The Census is easy to search and you can download and view the original records. Once you find your family see which townland/street they lived on. Once you have that information go back to the search engine and use only the townland name in the search criteria. Do not put in a surname or a forename. If you’re lucky to have someone who cam from a small townland you can often find other relatives or at least very close neighbors. My Ester Doyle was from Carrickslavan. In the 1901 Census there were only 21 people living in that townland. They must either have been all related or at least very close neighbors. Be careful using the townland name. The Carrickslavan from 1901 was spelled Carrickslavin in the 1911 Census. Notice the slight spelling difference.
Make sure you check the National Archives of Ireland if you have Irish ancestors.
The Pennsylvania has a website which contains a large number of digital records.
A portion of this website is dedicated to service records : Archives Records Information Access System (ARIAS) .
There are also quite a number of additional subjects of interest for people with Pennsylvania roots.
- Vital Statistics
- Military Records
- Coal Mining
- Farm Census, 1927
- Slavery and the Underground Railroad
- Photographs
- Audio Recordings
If you have Pennsylvania Roots be sure to check out the Pennsylvania State Archives website.
The East Texas Digital Archives is a website you’re going to want to explore if you have ancestors from the East Texas area. There are almost twenty different collections each with it’s own unique treasures. Below are some links to just a few of the many collections;
Many of these collections contain digitial images of the original documents as well as a transcription. You might find a civil war letter written by or to your ancetsor or from the unit in which they served. You could find funeral records about one of your relatives.
For researching East Texas ancestors a trip to the East Texas Digital Archives will be well worth the time.
If you have Virginia ancestors, I stumbled across a website you might want to check out. The website is called Virginia Memory . It is from the Library of Virginia. This website has a vast collection of digitial materials.
Some of these materials include;
- Virginia History and Culture – War of 1812 Bicentennial Collection
- Biographical and Genealogical – S. Bassett French Biographical Sketches
- Maps and Architecture – Alan M. Voorhees Map Collection
- County and City Research – Chancery Records Index
- African American Resources – Cohabitation Registers
- Military Service – Revolutiionary War Virginia State Pensions
- Military Service – Robert E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers’ Home Applications for Admission
- Newspapers – R. M. S. Titanic: Ninety-Nine Years Later
- Historic Virgina Government – Early Virginia Religious Petitions, 1774-1802
- Web Archiving – Jamestown 2007 Commemoration Collection
- Photograph Collections – 1939 World’s Fair Photograph Collection
- Land Office Patents & Grants – Virginia Land Office Patents and Grants/Northern Neck Grants and Surveys
Many of these digital collections would be hard to find or utilize without the Library of Virginia making them available on-line. Some collections such as the Cohabitation Registers might provide the only documentation of a marriage of colored persons after the Civil War. Here’s the website description of this collection; “A cohabitation register, or as it is properly titled, Register of Colored Persons…cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866, was the legal vehicle by which former slaves legitimized both their marriages and their children. …”.
If you have Virginia ancestors, it would be well worth your time to explore Virginia Memory .
