Michigan eLibrary and Gale Launch Michigana, Sources in U.S. History Online

This Michigan history resource looks really good. I played around in it for a few days last week and found some very interesting data. I especially loved the biographies section.

But what I found most intriguing (and useful!) was the online book called "The emigrant’s handbook, and guide to Wisconsin, comprising information respecting agricultural and manufacturing employment, wages, climate, population &c. : sketch of Milwaukee, the queen city of the lakes : its rise and progress : business and population : list of public offices, with a full and accurate table of statistical information of that and other ports on lake Michigan : also, table of routes from New York, Boston, &c. ..."

It was fascinating and even though the focus was Wisconsin, it gave me a much better idea of what my ancestors faced on leaving their homelands and sailing across to America in that time period.

The table of routes was invaluable and I'd most likely not found it any other way.

I found this book by using their list of Subjects (Topics). I chose Emigration & Immigration and then browsed the titles that are in that category. Very easy, very fast. I plan to go back and do some more exploring, as there are other ways to find what you are interested in

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Here is the Press Release for this resource:

New Resource Provides Online Access to Michigan History at www.MeL.org

Farmington Hills, Mich. – Michigan eLibrary (MeL), and Gale, part of Cengage Learning, announced the launch of Michigana, Sources in U.S. History Online, an online resource providing access to primary source documents and contextual essays for the study of Michigan history.

Michigana: Sources in U.S. History Online contains valuable and authoritative content packaged with an engaging user interface, allowing students and researchers multiple ways of accessing historical information.

“We are pleased to make Michigana available to all Michigan residents through Michigan eLibrary,” said Nader Qaimari, Gale’s senior vice president of market strategy. “This resource includes state and regional histories, biographies, historical maps, speeches and more. It is a treasure trove for anyone interested in Michigan history.”

Michigana: Sources in U.S. History Online provides access to primary source documents in an online system that is easily accessible by students and researchers of all levels. For example, a user may enter a search term such as Fort Mackinac to find all references to that word or phrase found on any page within the database. Or a student may choose a subject term from the listing of top subjects that are listed on the home page to quickly find all works that are closely related to that person, place or event – for example, William Hull or railroads.

Another way to access the content is through contextual essays that have been written by Michigan historians specifically for the database. These are accessed through the images at the bottom of the home page which take a user to a list of related essays, all of which include a bibliography of related documents from within the database.

“We are excited to have Michigana, Sources in U.S. History Online added to Mel.org. We know that researchers of all ages and who are interested in various depth of coverage will find the information useful. From students simply having fun digging for fun facts, to college students writing in-depth research papers, to genealogists tracking down family history, this resource is invaluable,” said Deb Biggs Thomas, the Library of Michigan’s MeL Coordinator.

“Anyone interested in any aspect of the history of our state will find this resource a valuable tool,” said Larry J. Wagenaar the Historical Society of Michigan’s executive director. “Users of Michigana will find it helpful to research family history, learn about the area in which they live and uncover many other remarkable facts. We are pleased that the Michigan eLibrary is able to provide this wonderful resource.”

MeL is a project of the Library of Michigan in partnership with all Michigan libraries and supported by federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding. Through MeL, Michigan residents can access electronic resources such as Academic Onefile, Kids Infobits, Educator’s Reference Complete, Business and Company Resource Center, General Business-File, InfoTrac Custom Newspapers, the New York Times and e-books on all aspects of general reference.

MeL Michigana can be accessed at http://mel.org/michigana

Tutorial: Using British Newspapers 1800-1900

British Newspapers, 1800-1900 is a fantastic site with over two million pages of 19th century newspapers. However with such a large database it becomes nessasary to find ways of narrowing your search so you can find the info you want quickly.

One way to narrow your search is to Browse publication by location. This will allow you to narrow your search to the geographical location that you are interested in. To do this simply choose the Browse by Location tab located in the navigation bar near the top of the screen. This will bring you up a map of England, Scotland and Ireland. On the map you will find blue icons that correspond to newspapers for that location. For example if you click on London you will get a list of London newspapers to choose from.

If you find you are interested in one of the Newspapers simply click on it and it will take you to a page containing information on that paper. You will also find several different ways to search the paper depending on your personal preference.

On the left you will find a search box labeled Search within this publication. This will allow you to search the entire database for that newspaper. So for example if you are looking for any Smiths that were ever mentioned in that newspaper this will bring them all up.

However you can also search a specific issue of the paper. This feature is handy when you are looking for a event that you have a good idea of the date. For example if you are looking for an obit for great grandpa smith and you know he died on October 15th 1900 then you would go and look at first issue published after that date. To search a specific date, simply start back on the page containing the information on that paper. If you look down the page you will see an About this Publication box that you can use to pick the publication date of your choice.

I'm hoping to explore British Newspapers 1800-1900 more fully over the next week and will post about my experiences plus any tips I can share to help genealogists use this wonderful website!

British Newspapers, 1800-1900 available online

The following press release about British Newspapers 1800-1900 was sent to Olive Tree Genealogy from Gale, part of Cengage Learning. I explored the site briefly and was very impressed! My first experiences using the site will be published here tomorrow so stay tuned!

Farmington Hills, MI, September 24, 2009 – Gale, part of Cengage Learning, along with The British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), have made nineteenth-century British newspapers available on the internet. The database, known as British Newspapers, 1800-1900 gives users access to over two million newspaper pages from 49 different national and regional newspapers from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Chosen by leading experts and academics, the newspapers represent a cross-section of nineteenth-century society and contain illustrated materials on a variety of topics, including business, sports, politics and entertainment.

Providing the historical news content needed to track the lives of ancestors, “British Newspapers, 1800-1900” is a powerful new resource for genealogists and family historians, providing access to property and legal notices, marriage and birth announcements, illustrations and photographs. Users are able to search for relatives by name or keyword with additional resources available including biographies, timelines and publication histories.

This web site also offers users a unique opportunity to travel back in time to uncover rarely read accounts of nineteenth-century events as if they were historians stumbling upon long-lost artifacts. Whether it be a fascination with the East End of London at the time of the Whitechapel murders, “the hunting grounds of some of the lowest and most degraded types of humanity” (Penny Illustrated Paper, Sept. 1888), or an affinity for Civil War history and Abraham Lincoln, a man who “had in him not only the sentiments which women love, but the heavier metal of which full-grown men and Presidents are made” (Penny Illustrated Paper, Oct. 1861), this database offers historians, genealogists, researchers and anyone with a curiosity for nineteenth-century history the opportunity to read first-hand accounts of momentous events.

Many key anniversaries and world-changing events -- the Economic Panics of 1857 and 1873, the abolition of slavery, the Great Potato Famine, the California Gold Rush, the settling of the American frontier and many more -- are documented and available via a few keystrokes. Users can also access work from celebrated authors of the nineteenth-century, including Charles Dickens and William Thackeray.

“‘British Newspapers, 1800-1900’ places the fascinating events of the nineteenth century at the fingertips of genealogists, researchers, historians and consumers,” said Jim Draper, Vice President and Publisher, Gale. “We are honored to be able to give audiences around the world access to content that was once only available to a small audience who had access to local library reading rooms in the United Kingdom.”

To make this collection available to users, Gale turned The British Library's collection of nineteenth-century newspapers into a high-resolution digital format with searchable images. The database presents online access to a key set of primary sources for the study of nineteenth-century history. For the 49 newspapers selected, every front page, editorial, birth and death notice, advertisement and classified ad that appeared within their pages is easily accessible from what is a virtual chronicle of history for this period. Users of the database can search every word on every page.

“This web site was developed with the researcher in mind,” said Simon Bell, Head of Strategic Licensing and Partnerships, The British Library. “There is a huge appetite for wider online access to this kind of resource and we are pleased that so many researchers and journalists have used the web site to research material which enables users across the world to delve into this unrivaled online resource.”

Searches of the site are free and downloads of full-text articles are available by purchasing either a 24-hour pass or a seven-day pass. Content from The Penny Illustrated Paper and The Graphic is available free.

For more information, please visit http://www.gale.cengage.com/DigitalCollections/ or http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/