Skip to main content

Monday Mention: Digital Public Library of America

Photo: A screenshot of the homepage for the Digital Public Library of America
As I mentioned in a previous post, last week I attended RootsTech, a major genealogical conference. I spent my days absorbing new information, and learning about available resources to help me learn more about my ancestors. I thought I'd share one of those resources with you today. 

 The Digital Public Library of America  holds an enormous collection of "images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States," according to their home page. I started typing in surnames of my ancestors, and it didn't take long before I found something interesting. When I typed in "Telfer," one of the results that came up was labeled, "Fowler and Telfer families at Fowler's Prairie, Juneau County, 1898." It is an old photo of a large family gathering, but even better, it has a list of names of the people in the photo!  I know that my Telfer line was living in Juneau county, Wisconsin, at that time period, and I recognize some of the names listed. I will need to do a bit more digging, as the George Telfer in the photo might not be my direct ancestor, but a cousin of his. In any case, I'm fairly certain the people in the photo tie in somehow.
Photo: Screen shot of the photo result I obtained when searching "Telfer" 
Now, unfortunately, I am receiving an error message when I click the "view full item" button, but I can see from the DPLA site which library holds the photo, so I can contact that library to see about obtaining a copy. 

 If you decide to search for your ancestors on the DPLA site, be aware that you can refine your search by image type, date, location, and other criteria. That would be particularly useful if you are searching for a common name. 

 I'm thankful for resources that make research easy! Let me know if you make any exciting discoveries at the Digital Public Library of America.  

Comments

  1. messymimiMarch 4, 2019 at 7:35 PM

    Went and typed in my maiden name, which is very uncommon. Got one very odd result, a picture of a petition for naturalization with that name on it and nothing else from back in the late 1800's. Maybe someday i will want to pursue the whole thing, i get the feeling it won't be that easy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristiMarch 5, 2019 at 8:41 AM

      If you would like help getting started, I am happy to help. Naturalization petitions are actually helpful (if it is your ancestor's.)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Things of Thankful: Autumn Edition

It's autumn time, one of my favorite times of year.  I just couldn't leave this weekend as a one-post weekend.  
21 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Last Two Weeks

  Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, as viewed from an overlook I apologize for not commenting on your blog posts this past week; John and I took a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, leaving behind our computers and, to a large extent, cell phone service. We escaped the outside world and just spent time in nature. Though we have friends near Yellowstone (who we love to visit) we made this trip just about us, so please forgive us if we were nearby and didn't stop by. The crowds were minimal (though we did mask up whenever we passed someone on the trails) and we spent our days hiking, taking photos, and watching geysers erupt. Today, we are back home and back to work, and, in the case of my computer, back to old shenanigans like not letting me import my photos. (I was able to add the above photo by using blogger on my phone, but that isn't my preferred method.) I want to write about Yellowstone and have photos I want to share, but will leave that for another...
10 comments
Read more

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this...
4 comments
Read more