Genealogy From Home Class Recap

Written by Regina Fitzpatrick
Published on January 21, 2022

Thanks to everyone who attended the Genealogy from Home class on January 19^th. I hope the general overview was helpful! As a reminder, the Genealogy in Quarantine document is full of all sorts of digital resources we didn’t review during class.

When Records Aren’t Digitized or Freely Available

Remember, sometimes records collections are behind a paywall or just not digitized. In person visits to various repositories and paying for records will still be an important part of your research. If you’re doing New Jersey research, you’ll be relying heavily on the State Archives’ and County Offices’ websites to order records and search digital collections or indexes.

New Jersey State Library Resources Available from Home

The Genealogy Research Guide – The State Library has other Research Guides, including the Digital New Jersey Historic Newspapers Guide and the Newspapers Guide.
The State Library Catalog – Remember, this is a useful resource as many Genealogy books were produced pre-copyright law. You can use the catalog to create a book list and search for digital copies on Google.
City Directories Catalog – The State Library has over 1000 NJ City Directories and 258 non-NJ City Directories. This .pdf catalog will give you a listing of our holdings. Again, you can use this catalog to search for digital copies online.
Genealogy in Quarantine Document

A home office setup with a desk, computer, and shelving

Location Based Research and Pebble Approach

Begin location-based genealogy research using the Family Search Wiki. Follow up by visiting websites of local public libraries, historical societies, and genealogy groups.
Use the pebble approach to cut noise in your search results. Think of ripples radiating out when a pebble is dropped into water. The smaller the ripple, the more specific and targeted the search. Start with the smallest ripple first. As you exhaust resources, move on to bigger ripples by lessening the search parameters.