Did you know that many historical books, journals, theses, manuals, even yearbooks, are accessible online at no charge? While many of us may have used subscriptions sites to browse newspapers, city directories, military manuals, and more, there are numerous free repositories available with historical artifacts. A listing of some of the key resources are noted below.
Before sharing these resources, though, it should be noted that some of the content may be considered offensive in today’s society and not in alignment with current laws, morals or ethics. These materials, however, are important when understanding the social norms of the day. A tip would be to view the historical photographs and visual documents as artifacts and records of information which relate to the story being conveyed, completing the picture of that history. If including the information in family history reports, books and charts, a disclaimer to the reader might be necessary as the resources can contain discriminatory content reflecting racial, gender and eugenics themes.
If you encounter difficulties, I’m happy to talk through the conversations and offer advice. You can fill out the Contact Me! form or email me directly at info@shapingyourfamilytree.com.
Online Digital Libraries:
Internet Archive: https://archive.org/. You can find books and journals, even yearbooks, and much more in this online book repository. Some of my go-to resources for Latin, paleography and heraldry are:
- Martin’s, The Record Interpreter. (Martin, Charles Trice. (1910) The record interpreter: a collection of abbreviations, Latin words and names used in English historical manuscripts and records. 2nd ed. London: Stevens and Sons. http://archive.org/details/recordinterpret00mart : accessed 4 September 2022.)
- Johnston and Jenkinson’s English Court Hand A.D. 1066 to 1500. Part 1. (Johnston, Charles and Jenkinson, Hilary. (1915) English Court Hand A.D. 1066 to 1500. Part 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press. https://archive.org/details/englishcourthand01john : accessed 4 September 2022.)
- and Fox-Davies’ A complete guide to heraldry. (Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles. (1909) A complete guide to heraldry. London: T.C. and E.C. Jack. http://www.archive.org/details/completeguidetoh00foxduoft : accessed 4 September 2022.
Google Books: https://books.google.com/. Many books can be previewed online, as e-books. Sometimes the complete book will be available, though most often, online key pages may be previewed. Examples of ones I have used for my dissertation research this time last year are:
- Blanton’s handbook on Texas education (1918-1922). It is full of statistics and information about the poor state of education in Texas after WW1. It describes her recommendations to improve Texas’ standing in the nation. Blanton, Annie Webb. (1923) A Hand Book of Information as to Education in Texas, 1918-1922. p. 167. https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Hand_Book_of_Information_as_to_Educati/diI9AAAAYAAJ?hl=en : accessed 1 September 2021.
- Fass’ book on the culture of youths in the 1920s contains interesting views into their complexities. Fass, Paula S. (1979). The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920’s. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 134. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Damned_and_the_Beautiful/U583DwAAQBAJ : accessed 1 November 2021.
- Hill’s book from 23 years ago; times have changed even in that time, as internet shopping has become more prevalent. I thought this book was especially interesting for the 1920s, the area I was researching. Hill, Daniel Delis. (2002) Advertising to the American woman, 1900-1999. Columbus : Ohio State University Press. p. 177. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Advertising_to_the_American_Woman_1900_1/HY5qgKfwmsEC : accessed 1 November 2021.
Haiti Trust Digital Library: https://www.hathitrust.org/. As with Internet Archive, there are collections of books available for reading, already grouped by specific topics or you can create your own collection. A recent search for Genealogy materials, filtered in the place of publication to United Stated: Texas, resulted in 18 different books, many written in the early 20th century. One which seemed interesting was Life and select literary remains of Sam Houston, of Texas, written by the then President of Baylor College, W. Carey Crane. It includes a chapter with the historical setting and information compiled from his family members. Crane, W. Carey. (1884). Life and select literary remains of Sam Houston, of Texas. Dallas, W.G.: Scarff. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t4gm84201 : accessed 4 September 2022.
The best advice to find an online book?
- Google the book name first and see if it is available online.
- Check WorldCat (https://www.worldcat.org/, a source for identifying books held at a physical library near you.
- Check Google Books, Internet Archive, and Haiti Trust.
- Check Cyndi’s List – https://www.cyndislist.com/books/ebooks/. There are many, many other online book libraries; an easy way to find more is google “free online digital libraries”.
Listed below are a few more resources.
- Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/. (Search bar can be filtered on books, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, personal narratives and more).
- The British Library. https://www.bl.uk/help/online-collections.
- British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/using-bho/subject-guides.
- National Library of Ireland. Searched for digitized collections (includes all types of publications).
- National Library of Scotland. https://www.nls.uk/digital-resources/.
- National Library of Wales. https://www.library.wales/digitalexhibition.
Enjoy reading online. Perfect escape for a rainy day!
Images. Photograph. Library of Congress. 15 September 2017. Washington, D.C., United States. Phyllis Zumwalt, photographer. Private collection.