Farewell, Peggy and Best of Luck!

The Grosvenor Room of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is sad to announce the retirement of the first Deputy Administrator of Special Collections, Peggy Skotnicki.   After 26 years of public service, with many years spent as reference and children’s librarian, Peggy spent her final years promoting and advocating for the improvement of policies and procedures in the Special Collections department.  She will be greatly missed.

1930 Mexico National Census

Just in time for National Hispanic Heritage Month, Ancestry Library Edition has added the 1930 Mexico National Census to the database.  Data which you will find about those listed is:

• name
• age (in years, months, and days)
• gender
• head of household
• birthplace
• marital status
• whether marriage was civil or church
• nationality
• religion
• occupation
• unemployment
• native language
• address
• physical or mental defects
• real estate holdings
• literacy

Ancestry Library Edition  is available for research at all B&ECPL locations.

To see more Grosvenor Room resources for Latin American genealogy research click here.

 

Beyond Vital Events Announcements: Newspapers in Genealogy Research

Many family historians think of newspaper research in narrow terms: birth, marriage, and death announcements.  Newspapers can provide so much more.  Here are some examples:

• Advertisements: for family businesses, an ancestor’s property for sale, a business move, going out of business sales.
• Church functions and committee members.
• Civil and Criminal trials.
• Clubs and Community organization members and award winners.
• Crimes committed.
• Death information: burial permits (larger cities), military casualty lists, disaster victims, articles about homicides and accidental deaths, notes of thanks from families after funerals, social columns may mention a visit due to a death.
• Family reunions.
• Feature articles on ancestors.
• Genealogy columns (See: Newspaper genealogical column directory by Anita Cheek Milner at call number GRO CS44 .M49 1992, for a list of columns.)
• Hospital news – admittance and release names.
• Legal notices: debtors, bankruptcy, missing persons, probate and estate settlement, divorce, delinquent tax lists, juror lists.
• Local government: bills paid to individuals and businesses for services, voter lists, tax rolls.
• Local columns may contain a plethora of information including: visits which prove relationships, health information, family trips, successful endeavors, social events, retirement, gossip.
• Marriage information: engagements, anniversaries, list of marriage licenses.
• Military service news.
• Political appointees and candidates.
• School awards, graduations, and special training.
• Slave data: advertisements for runaway slaves, slaves for sale or hire.
• Unclaimed mail lists could help narrow down when your ancestor moved from an area.

Below is a list of New York State Digital Newspaper Archives to help you get started.  Keep in mind that the condition of the newspaper scanned can result in poor indexing.

When you search for an ancestor, try searching in many different ways such as:

• Different name combinations: maiden and married names, middle names with last names, last names only if it is not a common name, first name only if it is an unusual name.
• Other relatives’ names.
• Your ancestor’s address.
• Include a town with your ancestor’s name.
• Family business names.
• Browse newspapers by date, if you know the dates of important events.
• If you find that your ancestor’s family is often listed in local columns, you may wish to browse these columns issue by issue.

The Friend of Man – Covers social movements in Central New York, Western New York, and the New York City area.  Scattered issues: 1836-1842.

Fulton History – A large collection of historic New York State newspapers, including many from Western and Central New York.  Click here to see a list of some of the newspapers included on the site.

New York State Historic Newspapers – Many libraries and other institutions have digitized newspapers and posted them to this website.  Some Buffalo, Lackawanna, Grand Island are included.

New York Times Archives – Includes an index from 1851-present.  Articles from 1851-1922 are free.

New York Newspaper Databases Available Through BECPL

New York State Newspapers – New York State Newspapers offers the full text of seven newspapers including the Buffalo News, Post Standard (Syracuse, NY), New York Post and the New York Times. For use at any library or from home with a valid Buffalo & Erie County Public Library card number. This database is made available through NOVEL: New York Online Virtual Electronic Library. NOVEL Databases is an electronic database access project provided by the New York State Library that enables libraries across New York State to give their communities online access to the full text of hundreds of journals, newspapers and other references.

General Digital Newspaper Directories

Chronicling America – A project by the Library of Congress.

Cyndi’s List – Includes links to genealogy columns, and newspapers by title, some of which are historic digital projects.

Google News Archives – An alphabetical list of newspapers by title.

Internet Public Library – A directory of current newspaper websites by state.

United States Online Historical Newspapers Directory – A digital newspaper directory by state.

A New York State Newspaper Directory

New York State Newspaper Project – Find out what libraries own the microfilm or print versions of newspapers.  You can browse by title or location.

Antiphonaries

Antiphonarium de tempore et de sanctis choir, 1653

The antiphonary is a liturgical book of sacred vocal music used by the Catholic Church that generally consists of the antiphons, or responsory chants, sung by the cantor, congregation, and choirs of the Divine Mass.  The first of these collections of plainsong melodies can be attributed to Gregory the Great (590-604), and would often contain decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations on parchment or vellum to accompany the music and text.

Title page

The Antiphonarium de tempore et de sanctis chori monialium S. Nicolai nouelli lucet, 1653, is one of several illuminated antiphonaries in the Rare Book Room’s Manuscripts and Music collections.  Gregorian chant notes can be found in black, with musical staves in red.

Interior pages