Bill Burgess Tutorial: A Toolbox of Posting Tools

[Bill Burgess]

Some helpful research hints. I thought I'd lend the benefit of my experience as a researcher. Hope this assists others who search for certain things.

I do a great deal of research in seeking both dates of birth and death. I do this constantly, and every day. So, here are some of the most productive places to find such information.

ancestry.com - This is a paid for website, but most libraries carry some degree of their databases.

For dates of birth, here are some of their databases.

1. The World War I Civilian Draft Registration, 1917-1918 - This database carries full names, dates and places of birth, place of residence, occupation, place of occupation, employer, race, country of citizenship, for all males born between September 11, 1872 and September 12, 1900. It consists of around 24 million names of US males.

In 1917 and 1918, approximately 24 million men living in the United States completed a World War I draft registration card. These registration cards represent approximately 98% of the men under the age of 46. The total U.S. population in 1917-1918 was about 100 million individuals. In other words, close to 25% of the total population is represented in these records.

2. 1900 Federal census - Only census which lists month and year of birth.

3. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 - These are the official documents of ships. They usually list one's age but often list one's actual date of birth and/or occupation.

4. Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1943 - These are the official documents of ships. They usually list one's age but often list one's actual date of birth and/or occupation.

4. Passport Applications, 1795 - March 31, 1925 - This database lists one's actual date of birth, place of birth, place of residence, occupation, employer, and most of the time, a photograph.

5. Social Security Death Index, 1937 - 2009 - This massive database has about 37 million listings for deceased US citizens. But this database doesn't really get good until around 1970. For some inexplicable reason, it does not give the actual date of death until around 1993. Before that it only lists one's actual date of birth and the month/year of death. It also gives one's last place of residence, including the town, county and zip code, one's SS number, and the state it was first issued. It lists one's middle initial but seldom one's middle name.

6. Federal Census, 1790 - 1930 - All of these census lists one's age, occupation, one's family members, type of employment, township of residence. Ancestry also carries the census of Canada, Unitied Kingdom, Australia and Germany. They also carry many state census. The UK census includes England, Scotland and Wales.

Ancestry also carries databases which carry Dates of Death
1. Social Security Death Index, 1937 - 2009

2. United States Obituary Collection - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources.

Proquest (via Mid-Continent Public Library)
One can request an out-of-state library card from this library in the suburbs of Kansas City, MO for $25. One can thus access their robust roster of Gale research databases of newspaper, magazine and publications from the comfort of your home.

Historical Newspapers: Historical Newspapers includes the following:
New York Times 1851-2005,
Wall Street Journal 1889-1990,
Washington Post 1877-1991,
Christian Science Monitor 1908-1994,
Los Angeles Times 1881-1986,
Chicago Tribune 1849-1986,
Chicago Defender 1910-1975,
Hartford Courant 1764-1984,
Atlanta Daily World 1931-2003,
Boston Globe 1872-1924,
Los Angeles Sentinel 1934-2005,
New York Amsterdam News 1922-1993,
Pittsburg Courier 1911-2002

Access NewspaperARCHIVE
Access NewspaperARCHIVE contains tens of millions of searchable pages from over 400 cities and towns from hundreds of newspapers dating back as far as the 1700s. The collection includes coverage from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
This historical resource includes digital facsimile images of both full pages and clipped articles for hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers. For each issue, the newspaper is captured from cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement and illustration.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index - This unbelievably massive database has more than 13 million biographical sketches culled from more than 3,400 volumes and editions of current and retrospective reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world.

Biography Resource Center
Biographies of more than one million people including current celebrities, authors, musicians, artists, scientists, and many others from throughout history and around the world. Some biographies include pictures, magazine articles, and links to Web sites.

World Vital Records.com

Sporting News - This archive, 1886-2008, was once available cheaply via SABR, then was available for free. Now it is available via World Vital Records.com
This most important of all sports publications, had it all. Boxscores, obituaries, interviews, stats. I used its obituaries to assemble my Meet The Sports Writers Index and fever thread.

Their general search engine is amazing in its comprehensive scope. Its searches include Sporting News, books scanned by google, ancestry.com, the SS Death Index, and scores more databases.

[Brian McKenna]

Also:

Familysearch.com

HeritageQuest

LA84 Foundation - for Sporting Life, Baseball Magazine, Outing

http://research.sabr.org/journals/ - for Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime

Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online

SABR also has: College database, War Veterans databases, Biography Project, 19th Century Trade Register, The Baseball Index

[Bill Burgess]

All worthy additions to the collection, Brian. Thanks, old friend.