Genealogy Research Resources

$2 Million Sloan Foundation Grant To Help Digitize Thousands of Books Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Library of Congress a $2 million grant for a program to digitize thousands of public-domain works, with a major focus on at-risk "brittle books" and U.S. history volumes. The project, "Digitizing American Imprints at the Library of Congress," will include not only the scanning of volumes, but also the development of suitable page-turner display technology, capability to scan and display foldouts, and a pilot program to capture high-level metadata, such as table of contents, chapters/sections and index. Past digitization projects have shied away from brittle books because of the condition of the materials, but "Digitizing American Imprints" intends to serve as a demonstration project of best practices for the handling and scanning of such vulnerable works.

If you are having a problem getting started I would encourage you to make a list or time line. Think about the different periods of your life. Start by listing important events that have occurred during your lifetime. Birth Kindergarten Grade School High School Graduation First Job Military Service First Date Marriage Birth of children Make a list of other events that happened during your lifetime. Your first pet The first time you went camping or on a family trip Places you have traveled to Places you have lived Your favorite book or comic book First movie that you saw First TV program that you saw Your first car Shirley G. Hodges Use family albums to jog your memory. With age our memories can get a little fuzzy. When we look at old photos it helps us to remember events as they were. You might find one of yourself with your favorite outfit. I was pleased to find one of me carrying a purse that my parents had given me. I find it interesting to see how I delighted in things that made me feel grown up. Some things marked a real passage for us. I remember the first time I was able to wear nylon stockings. It was for my brother's wedding. I felt absolutely grown up at the advanced age of eleven.

Although the current search is simple, it does have some advanced options that we thought you might like to know about. We’ll be creating some search helps, but for our blog readers, here’s a sneak peek at some of the things you can do. > Basic Search > The basic search on Footnote looks for records that include all the terms you put in the search box, but it doesn’t find any records with all your terms it will look for records that include some of the terms you included. >

Did you know that many of the men, women and children that experienced the Revolutionary War first hand lived into the age of photography (1839)? Several veterans appeared in Reverend Elias Hillard ‘s Last Men of the Revolution, but now through photographs and documents, my colleague David Lambert (of the New England Historic Genealogical Society) and I are trying to bring to life those great Americans who lived during the Revolutionary War and into the age of photography.