I have several types of Google alerts set and tonight this one really touched me on several levels. What a wonderful project to remember the veterans and to provide access to the information. 1,100 veterans are already in the database. Searches can be done by name, city, service branch, and time period of the service. Lyon County is in Southwestern Minnesota. https://veterans.lyoncomuseum.org/veteran-search/
On May 1st, I presented the topic “Insight into State Archives: ARCs, IRADs, ONAHRs, and Other Branches” for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and mentioned JSTOR. It wasn’t the focus of the presentation. I cover it in other presentations, but it wasn’t the main aim of this webinar and I received a couple questions about access.
This acronym JSTOR stands for Journal Storage and includes digitized scholarly journals and other publications in a variety of disciplines and now more than 13 million articles. One of the uses for the scholarly articles is the footnotes or endnotes of the articles, journal, theses, and other scholarly publications. It’s a way to pick up connection to records or book resources you may not have discovered any other way.
So much history, knowledge, and insight at our fingertips. My favorite search of JSTOR is finding scholarly articles on a variety of topics. It’s a way to learn more about history, repositories, and records. What was the reasoning for a certain law, ways to collect birth, marriage and death records, how a railroad sold land, or about migration patterns in the early 19th century? It might be an in-depth article about the 17th century ethnic groups in a state, the early Methodists in an ancestral county, or an obituary in an architectural journal for your granduncle who died in 1922.
The article you view might be from an archivist, historian, county or state historical society, other historical organization, business organization, musicians, African American historian, or biologist. How many organizations, businesses, religions, and college majors connect to your family over the decades?
JSTOR has brought together 14,000+ institutions, 2,800 academic journals, 75 disciplines, and 57 countries for millions of users “to create solutions that reduce costs, extend access, and preserve scholarship.”
Check your county, city, or university library for free access or sign up for limited but still expansive access. Home subscriptions (JPASS) are available if you aren’t able to get access via a library.
JSTOR Home Page: https://www.jstor.org/ scroll to the bottom of the page to access sections with more information
Help and ways to log in: https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/360000313328-Need-Help-Logging-in-to-JSTOR
JPASS: https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115004675707-JPASS-Individual-Subscriptions-to-JSTOR
My webinar is Free through May 8th. Insight into State Archives: ARCs, IRADs, ONAHRs, and Other Branches via my affiliate link: https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/insight-into-state-archives-finding-records-in-regional-branches/?ref=566036
My next two presentations are:
Check the Speaking tab above to see what other presentations follow in May.
New members get a full year of Legacy Family Tree Webinars for just $25—a 50% discount. It includes access to 2,700+ webinars, 56 AI classes, and 11,000+ syllabus pages.
Offer ends Sunday, May 3!
Join here using my affiliate link: https://familytreewebinars.com/checkout?ref=566036
Have you been watching the webinars for free when first offered but want to watch it again or missed it? Really want the syllabus material? Join to do this.
Details:
While you are taking advantage of this special offer, don’t miss signing up for my webinar presentation this Friday afternoon. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars?ref=566036
I am thrilled to announce that I’ll be doing a brand new free and live webinar the afternoon of Friday, May ,1, 2026 for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. My topic is Insight into State Archives: ARCs, IRADs, ONAHRs, and Other Branches and there will be a syllabus of six pages for those who are members of Legacy Family Tree Webinars. I’ll be covering several states with these branches and their surprising indexes, databases, and how they operate.
Registration is open! You can join me live for free, listen to it for a week afterward, or sign up for a membership to get ongoing access to this and other presentation handouts and the massive on-demand library.
Register and learn more: https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/insight-into-state-archives-finding-records-in-regional-branches/?ref=566036
Join Legacy Family Tree Webinars to access that and my other webinars at any time. It also provides access to almost 3,000 other webinars by an exciting array of other presenters plus 11,000 syllabus pages. https://legacyfamilytree.com/product/membership/?ref=566036
I appreciate you using these affiliate links to help keep this blog going.
2. Methodology help. For this course, it’s part of what you grasp from a specific record that may not jump out on first look. Interpreting what it tells you and what it leads to is vital. How does it connect to other records that you didn’t know about? How do certain records provide answers to questions you weren’t aware of! Where are those records for your ancestral areas?
3. Interactive parts. A melding of minds, new ideas, hands-on work, learning from each other, and investigating some of these things in breakout sessions. Analysis can be time consuming and frustrating. But jumping to conclusions or only selectively reading is worse. Apply the new knowledge and resources right away in collaboration with others. Every year we hear from students that this was an important part of the week’s learning.
4. Making the instructors smile. Joining us in the course makes all the instructors happy. Interacting with students and sharing our experience and knowledge is why we do this course. I chose the instructors for multiple reasons and you will totally understand that during the course week. Seeing the students’ smiles and their comments is a big part of this.
Let me know if you have any additional questions, either before or after you register. Post here or send me an email at paulastuartwarren at gmail.com
Learn about the sessions, instructors, and register via https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/courses/digging-deeper-records-tools-and-skills/
Image of woman and computer are courtesy of PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Do you know what libraries in your area have to offer? A simple library card can open up a world of reading, researching, recreation, and extensively beyond. “National Library Week as a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.”
Books, databases, videos, reference specialists, classes and activities for all ages, newspapers, magazines, technology help, computers, printers, study rooms, and the list could go on and on. Interests in genealogy, crafting, painting, cars, computers, gardening, and many more things can be fortified.
Learn more by checking the ALA website and the websites of libraries big and small. https://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/national-library-week-history
Do you know about the 2026 honorary chairperson, Mychal Threets? https://www.ala.org/news/2025/12/award-winning-librarian-and-reading-rainbow-host-mychal-threets-to-serve-as-2026-national-library-week-chair
I’ve had several questions about the course Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills that is part of the virtual week of learning via the GRIP Genealogy Institute this June 22-26. Others may need the same information. This is a rather long post, but it should help. I’ve pulled this out of some responses to emails and other discussions with some who have already registered and others who are in the thinking stage. A later post will provide more help on deciding if you are ready for this course.
As the GRIP website states, This may be your course! It covers 19th through 21st century US records, online resources, “hidden” records, analysis, and methodology. This course often serves as preparation for other GRIP courses . . . If you answer yes to any of the following questions, this course is for you.
When we have checked basic records and done online searches but still have missing details, we need more leads and to do a better job of analyzing records. We will dig deeper into a variety of records, some you may have never heard about, and where they are found. There will be hands-on and interactive activities, small group discussions, and full class interaction.
Why should I participate in an intermediate level course? Even a couple of these reasons provides a reason to take this course.
1. It’s time to understand more about specific 19th through 21st century U.S. resources.
2. Have tough research issues to solve. and not sure where to go next.
3. Need to gain additional resources as far as vital records, newspaper collections, probate, and even court records involving our families.
4. Realization that records not found online are needed.
5. Understand that it’s vital to solid genealogical research to go beyond the basics to learn more about each person, place, and time period.
6. Have questions about doing more intensive work online and in libraries, archives, and historical societies.
7. Have a genealogy question that needs a good answer? This is the course for you. We have the answers or know where to direct you.
8. Receive an online syllabus of almost 200 pages filled with reminders from the sessions, online resources, “hidden” records, analysis, bibliographies, and methodology.
9. Indexes and finding aids that not everyone knows about.
10. Are you past the beginning stages of researching your family history?
11. Have you researched online but know there is more elsewhere or that you have missed some resources? (Even free ones!)
12. Do you need a stronger foundation before taking advanced or specialized courses?
13. Are you not yet comfortable with in-depth evaluation of documents, deciding what to do next, and delving into less commonly used collections?
14. The wealth of knowledge and experience from the five instructors.
Register soon so you receive an early welcome letter with more information and details for receiving help to solve one of your U.S. research problems. You don’t want to miss this opportunity!
p.s. BONUS. Sessions will be recorded and available through Friday, 10 July 2026, at 11:59 PM ET.
https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/courses/digging-deeper-records-tools-and-skills/
Do you check for updates on genealogy related websites? If not, you might miss a new or expanded collection, indexing, or AI search capability on something for records of a city, county, state, province, or country that you have been hoping for. Reading the blogs, e-newsletters, and free social media of these free and subscription sites will help to stay up-to-date. Two recent emails show updates to FamilySearch and MyHeritage.
The Library of Congress has new video tutorials about using the great newspaper collection called Chronicling America. The collection is huge, searching is a bit discombombulated after a recent updating but generally falls into place after a few searches. Thankfully these new aids will help further! I know what I am going to be watching tonight. Full video and description of the segments is here https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america/tutorials?loclr=eacam.
