The last I heard, Ancestry.com has north of 10 BILLION records online.  Anyway you slice it that’s a LOT of records, and it’s certainly far more than my humble search skills can comfortably navigate.

That’s why I’m tickled to see that they have introduced Research Guides. Tucked in their free section (no membership required) is a portfolio of subject-specific research guides for anyone and everyone to use.  The guides help you navigate the 10 billion records and tens of thousands of databases on Ancestry.com, which is great in and of itself.  But they also give you subject-specific helpful insight such as history, key terms, abbreviations, and other information far and away beyond a simple description of a database.

Quaker Research

Guide to Finding Quaker Records by Ancestry

One of their research guides is the Research Guide to Finding Your Quaker Ancestors.  It’s an eight-page, well written and designed cheat sheet to understanding the nature and complexity of Quaker research.  Naturally, they explain who the Quakers are with a little blurb on Quakers and Slavery.  Then they break down the nature of Quaker Records – the meeting hierarchy, they explain the birth and death registers and the marriage records.  Then they explain the uniquely Quaker certificates of removal, disownments and apologies.  Finally, there is a discussion of uniquely Quaker terms to help you unpack this world.  I’m surprised that they don’t list the Quaker databases on Ancestry.com.  Maybe there are just too many to list.  (You can go to the SEARCH drop-down list and search the card catalog for the keyword “Quaker,” and probably get the vast majority of the databases.) Nonetheless, it is a very helpful guide.

Loyalist Research

Loyalist Resources on Ancestry

Another interesting guide is the one on Loyalists.  It’s my understanding that one-third of the Colonists were actively supporting the Revolution, one-third were Loyalists (supportive of England), and the last third weren’t interested and had better things to do such as tend to their farms.  No doubt there are plenty of Loyalist descendants looking for information and records.  This guide offers a brief history to understand the Loyalists, then it gives an extended list of hyperlinked databases for your researching pleasure.  Just click on the database of your choice and start searching.  Just follow this link (Loyalist Resources on Ancestry) to get started.

These are just two of the guides you will find.  There are about two dozen at the moment and it looks like they are adding more regularly.  Here are a couple more.

• Search Strategies on Ancestry
• Using Religious Records
• African American Research on Ancestry
• Finding your Immigrant Ancestors on Ancestry
• Find them in WWII
• Black Sheep: 10 Things to Know

Again, this is just a sampling.  Go to the main page for Research Guides in the Learning Center – you can access it here – for the full and updated list.  And check back often, as I mentioned they seem to be adding more and more.  Indeed, you can even submit a suggestion for a new guide.

I’m glad to see Ancestry offering help navigating their vast collection to genealogists.  I hope you’ll find these research guides helpful as I have.

Happy Researching!

We are fortunate to have the US Censuses, which were taken every 10 years starting in 1790, for our genealogy research.  We are even more fortunate if our ancestors lived in a state at a time when the state conducted independent censuses typically in the years ending in “5,” i.e. 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935, etc.  The information in the state censuses aren’t usually as detailed as the US Censuses; however, they are irreplaceable for locating a missing ancestor between US Censuses.

The 1925 Iowa State Census

With this knowledge as backdrop, I stopped dead in my tracks when I learned what the wonderful State of Iowa asked of its residents in 1925. On page one of each series of names you find the usual name, family members, relation to head of household, age, sex, marital status and by default the location.  Really, pretty rich information for a state census.

Here’s Pietro Cervetti and his family in the 1925 Iowa State Census.

Pietro Cervetti – 1925 Iowa State Census – Page 1

Page TWO!

But lo and behold, if you turn the page there is more information on the family.  There is a “Page Two” and sometimes a “Page Three” for each family surveyed in the census.  Before you dismiss this as a head count of their cattle, which would be interesting but not worth getting too excited about, read on.

Page Two asks for “Place of Birth of Each Person Enumerated.”  Okay, that’s nice.  Then it asks for “Name, Place of Birth, Age, and Place of Marriage of Parents (of each person enumerated).”  Wow.  And the Census Takers said, “here, future genealogists, the gift of parental information all gift wrapped for you.”  So, if you have ancestors, who lived in Iowa in 1925, go now – right now – to the 1925 Iowa State Census.

Here’s what you’ll find.  Here is Page TWO for the same Pietro Cervetti.

Pietro Cervetti – 1925 Iowa State Census – Page 2

We learn that he was from Italy, and we learn his parents’ names are Pacifico Cervetti (Pietro named a son after him.) and Julia Madici, both from Italy.  In all honesty, this was already known information, but this is a second source and it is in writing.  But wait!  It gets better.  Remember, the census asks for this information for every respondent.  So Pietro Cervetti provided the same information for each of his children, which would reflect the birth origins of he and his wife.  Pietro was very helpful in that he didn’t give just “Italy” as his birth origin and that of his wife.  No, he gave the home towns!!!  Pietro is from Corsica, and his wife, Julia is from “Franel.”  If that’s not worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.

Where IS This Golden Census?

The good news is that Ancestry (www.ancestry.com) has the 1925 Iowa State Census digitized and indexed.  (The indexing is for page one only reflecting your ancestor and not his/her parents.)  So you can either access this through a personal subscription or through a library or archive, which offers access for free.

If your ancestors either settled in or migrated through Iowa in the mid-1920s, I would strongly encourage you to check out this census.  Further, if you’re like me and dutifully found your ancestor in the census and only found page one, go back.  Find the census again and turn the page.  It’s well worth your efforts.

Happy researching!