American

AncestorsPresented by Reference Librarian, Cindy Grove

January, 15 2014

Logging In

• The library has a subscription that can be accessed

within the library asking the Reference Librarian for

access.

• Anyone can great a guest account for limited access.

What does American

Ancestors have?• 500+ online databases

• 3,000+ volumes of records

• 125 million+ records (more

are added weekly)

Records Include

• Vital records

• Journals

• Court, Land & Probate

records

• Census, Tax, & Voter lists

• Military records

• Societies & Organizations

• Town Records

• Genealogies, Biographies,

& Local Histories

• Study projects

• Atlases, Maps, &

Reference

Viewing the databases

• There are two ways to view the databases.

• One way is to click “All Databases” on the main page.

• The other is to click on the leafy branch. Then click on it

again.

Browsing the catalog

Viewing database

information• When you select a database you can gain more

information about the database and any searching

restrictions or broadening tips that are important.

Searching• The easiest way to get started is by doing a basic search from

the home screen. Searching here or on the Advanced Search

page will not include external databases. All searches ignore

punctuation.

Advanced searching – first

row• Start your search off wide and then get narrower. Unlike other

databases American Ancestors does not add any irrelevant results.

Advanced searching –

second row

• If you have a guest account click the “Free Only” to restrict result to

what you have access to.

• When you select a database under the advanced search box you will

get the search tips we saw previously. This is VERY important because

it could give false negatives.

Advanced searching – third

row

Advanced searching –

bottom row & icons• The keyword search can be anything.

• You can use wild cards in the keyword field.

Wild cards & Operators

Soundex

• Soundex is a phonetic operator that search for a name

based on the way it sounds.

• American Ancestors only has this option for the last

name.

Database results• Use side filters to narrow results.

• SSDI are Social Security Death Index results

• Other AmericanAncestors.org Results include blogs

and more articles.

Viewing the record

Image viewer• On the bottom left you can choose between three

different viewers. You may need to download the first

from Microsoft.

• On the bottom right you can save, print, rotate, zoom,

expand to full screen and return to the default view.To save an

image I

recommend

going to print,

then choosing

PDF. This way

you can save

the image in

PDF format

instead of as an

image.

Image translation

• Below the image you can see some information from the

document typed out. This is the information that is

searchable in the advanced search fields, not everything

that is in the document.

Citations

• At the very bottom of the screen there is citation

information. Write this information on the back of the

printed document.

External databasesThese are not available to guest accounts.

19th Century U.S.

Newspapers

Early American

Newspapers, Series 1 1690-

1876

Marquis Biographies Online

American Jewish Historical

Society, New England

Archives Digital Archive

Questions?

• Please feel free to contact me with any questions or

feedback.

Cindy Grove

Reference Librarian

Tewksbury Public Library

978-640-4490 ext.207

cgrove@mvlc.org