Advanced American Records

Optional Course Print Material: American Institutional Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

Focusing on vital records and the census can yield a rather incomplete picture of our ancestors’ lives. Many researchers may avoid examining institutional records because they believe it is demeaning to the ancestor, or they believe the records will not shed any new information. Institutional records often contain a wealth of information. This course will introduce the student to records of institutions such as orphanages, prisons, poor houses, asylums, and schools. Students will learn how to determine the correct institution, how to find the records, and how to use the records to lead to new sources. The course also covers possible difficulties in records access.

Optional Print Course Material: American: Newspaper Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

This course will introduce you to newspapers as a genealogical resource; from an introductory overview of newspapers, and a look at the history of American newspapers to accessing newspapers online. A look at how you may already be using newspapers will be examined. The different kinds of information, from basic vital record details to local news and historical or biographical items will be discussed with emphasis on how to get the most genealogical information by knowing what types of news items will have what kinds of facts and what may require additional research. Finally, you will be introduced to the different ways to find and access newspapers including interlibrary loan, newspaper morgues, microfilm, and online.

Optional Course Print Material: American: Military Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

Within this course, there is a discussion of the various types of records created by military service, such as service records, muster rolls, pension records, and draft registration. The content of the records and their usefulness for genealogy and immigration research are described. Records of conflicts of the United States and colonial America from the early colonial wars of the seventeenth century to the Second World War are included. The Army, Navy, and other branches of service are detailed. History of military action in America as it relates to records is also included.

Optional Print Course Material: American: Court Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

This course provides an overview of United States court records, selected finding aids to United States court records and strategies for gleaning the records of the courts. It introduces additional resources and strategies for documenting the interaction of your ancestors and the United States courts; and provides a brief historical background as is relevant to various court records.

Students will be encouraged to share their findings (including additional sources and strategies) while studying the interaction of their families and the courthouse.

Students enrolling in this course will have successfully completed the International Institute of Genealogical Studies’ courses United States: Land Records, United States: Probate Records, and United States: Immigration & Naturalization Records, or have a great deal of experience researching land, probate, and immigration & naturalization records.

At the end of this course, an exam will be provided to evaluate your understanding of the course materials.

Optional Course Print Material: American: Occupational Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

Genealogy and the study of family history are more than just the gathering of names and dates. To understand our ancestor, we must look at all aspects of their life, including what they did for a living. This course will focus on occupational records and what they can reveal about our ancestor’s lives.

To learn more about an individual’s occupation the researcher must utilize more than one record. Once the researcher has searched familiar records like the census, city directories, and newspapers, they must continue on with archival records that may document the ancestor’s specific occupation and activities surrounding that occupation. This requires the researcher to access data from many different sources and then analyzes the data to gain the most complete picture of an individual and their occupation or life’s work.