Have you hit a brick wall in the search for your ancestors? Stop by the library and try the Ancestry Library Edition database. This is a rich collection of genealogical and historical information including:

• U.S. Federal Census information from 1790 to 1930
• Census information for various states, Canadian provinces, and portions of Great Britain
• Marriage, birth, and death records
• Immigration records
• Stories and articles from newspapers and local histories
• Maps and photographs
• Yearbooks
• City directories
• Military records

Although the collection focuses on the United States, it also includes Canadian and European records.

If you'd like some help getting started, consider signing up for our Genealogy computer class. This class gives you a hands-on overview of the Ancestry Library Edition database and HeritageQuest, our other genealogy database. Just call the Reference Desk at (603) 589-4611 to register.

Of course, we have more genealogical research tools in our local history collection. Stop in to use Ancestry Library Edition (sorry, it's only available from inside the library), and stay to browse the Hunt Room collection!

Now available on the library's web site: the History of the City of Nashua, N.H., edited by Edward Everett Parker. Published in 1895, this history of Nashua covers the settlement of the area when it was called Dunstable, and follows its progress up through the late 1800s. Chock full of portraits and biographies of prominent citizens, it also discusses aspects of the town's development, from manufacturing to railroads to medicine. You can download the entire book as a single PDF file, but be warned that it is 350 MB. If certain chapters interest you, you can just download the files for the individual chapters. Each file is searchable. You will need the free Adobe Reader to open these files.

Of course, you can still view the paper copy of the History of the City of Nashua, N.H. and other Nashua history books here at the library. We have a number of copies in the Hunt Room and in the reference collection. Just ask at the reference desk.

The digitization of the History of the City of Nashua, N.H. was a project of the Reference Department of the Nashua Public Library. It was made possible by funding from a library trust fund.

Many people are interested in family history and genealogy. We receive calls, e-mails, and visits not only from Nashua Public Library cardholders, but also from people across the country whose ancestors were born, lived, or died in Nashua. They use numerous resources, including old issues of The Nashua Telegraph, the directories and histories in the Hunt Room, and genealogy databases such as Ancestry.com to trace their lineage. In some cases, people find ancestors who lived during the colonial period, and they know from which country or countries their family originates. But, what would happen if their ancestors were slaves? Because slaves were considered property, they were often listed in their owners' records by age and gender only. Many did not even have last names. Can the descendants of slaves discover their families' country of origin?

According to the PBS series African American Lives, it is, in fact, possible. This series follows host Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Chair of Harvard’s African and African American Studies Department at Harvard, as he searches for his ancestors and those of 8 other prominent African Americans. Many of the guests had known that they are descended from slaves, but did not know much about their ancestors who lived under the peculiar institution. It was not often discussed in their families, nor was the desire to discover their African roots. Whoopi Goldberg, one of the participants, states, “I don’t think they ever thought that there was any reason to figure out where we had come from.”* Others reported that slavery was an embarrassment to their families or too painful to discuss. This group, which includes Oprah Winfrey, Chris Tucker, and Quincy Jones, among others, was eager, delighted, and moved to learn about their roots, despite knowing that their relatives were subjected to the horrors of slavery.

In some cases, Gates, with the assistance of genealogists and historians, was successful in tracing his guests’ roots; in others, he reached dead ends. Filling in the branches of the family tree prior to the Civil War was especially challenging. The detectives had to be more creative and make some assumptions, often looking for slave owners who shared the last names of the guests’ ancestors. Watching the process unfold was very interesting, as the expertise of historians, genealogists, and geneticists provided information that was seemingly lost. The guests (and this viewer) were amazed to learn that DNA testing could tell them the percentage of African, European, Native American, and Asian blood they had. Gates was surprised that his lineage is actually 50% African and 50% European. Yet another DNA test determined that Chris Tucker descended from Angola, and Oprah's ancestors hailed from the country that is now Liberia.

This fascinating program grabbed my interest as I flipped through the channel listings last week, and you can watch it too. The DVD is available in the Music, Arts, and Media Department. For more information about the series, guests, or science used, you can visit the series' website.

If you are inspired to trace your own African American ancestry, we have some books that pertain specifically to African American genealogy, such as African American Genealogical Sourcebook, Afro-American Genealogy Sourcebook, Slave Genealogy: A Research Guide with Case Studies, and Black Family Research: Records of Post-Civil War Federal Agencies at the National Archives.

*Goldberg, Whoopi, quoted in African American Lives http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/index.html (accessed February 10, 2007).

Looking for photos of Nashua in the olden days? The library's Hunt Room local history collection includes hundreds of photos of Nashua dating back to the 1800s. About 400 of these photos have been copied, numbered, and indexed for easy access. The rest are organized in folders by topic.

If you're interested, stop by the Reference Desk and ask to see the collection. The 400 that have been indexed are available for browsing in binders. To find what you're looking for quickly, check the subject index. It will give you the number of each photo showing a particular subject.

Once you find what you want, the photos can be reproduced for a fee.

We have also embarked on a project to improve access to the collection. Through the efforts of the Reference Department and Simmons College graduate student Donna Albino, our historical photos will be scanned and a digital copy of each photo will eventually be made available for electronic searching. In addition to creating digital copies, we are adding more photos to the subject index, recording descriptions of each one. Once the project is completed, this information will make it easier to search the library's entire photo collection to locate the type of photo you want. Over time, we will be making the photos available for searching via the library's web site, www.nashualibrary.org. Currently, we have nearly a hundred photos available for browsing on our web site at http://www.nashualibrary.org/HistoricalPhotos/index.htm.

Recently, family history web site Ancestry.com added 24.5 million records to its genealogy database, including many military records. The military collection spans from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam war. These records, normally part of Ancestry's subscription service, are available free to everyone until June 6 (the anniversary of D-Day). After June 6, they will only be accessible to those with a subscription to the site. The good new is that you can still access these records for free at the library, through our subscription to Ancestry Library Edition.

Military records can be a key tool in researching family history. Although a lot of material is still only available in microfilm or paper format, more and more historical records are gradually becoming available online. According to Ancestry.com, the newly released material in their collection includes:

• World War I and World War II draft registration cards
• Prisoner of war records from the War of 1812, Civil War, World War II, and Korea
• Muster rolls (unit rosters) for the Marine Corps 1893-1958 and WWII
• U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Muster rolls, 1939-1949
• U.S. Military burial registers 1768-1921
• Service Records from Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War
• Civil War Pension Index
• Casualty listings from WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam
• WWI and WWII The Stars and Stripes newspapers
• Young American Patriots Military Yearbooks (WWII)
• Complete online collection of WWII United Newsreels from 1942 - 1945
• The Stars and Stripes newspapers from WWI and WWII
• Complete collection of WWI draft registration cards

You can reach the military collection directly at http://www.ancestry.com/military, free until June 6. After June 6, remember, you can still use the library subscription for free--just come into the library and use one of our computers. Feel free to ask the reference staff if you have any questions!

Genealogy buffs will understand the thrill of breaking through a brick wall and finally finding an ancestor who has eluded you for years. I had just such a Eureka! moment this weekend when I finally found evidence of not one but four of my mother's great-grandparents. Now, I'm a fairly casual researcher. I get occasional moments of genealogy frenzy when I go out on the web and poke around to see what's available. And every now and then, I get lucky. This breakthrough, for example, came from a Google search that led me to FamilySearch.org, the Mormon Church's huge online database of genealogy information.

Now, I could probably have had this information years ago if I were a serious researcher. What I found on FamilySearch was a transcription of a marriage record that I could have just requested from the New York City vital records office. It is apparently held there on microfilm.

Although new content is released in digital format all the time, there are still many, many other records like this are not yet available electronically. Here in Nashua, for example, we have birth, marriage, and death records on microfilm:

• Birth records on microfilm, 1826 to 1900
• Marriage records on microfilm, 1836 to 1915
• Death records on microfilm, 1837 to 1915

Any reference librarian on duty will be happy to assist you in using our microfilm scanner-readers. You can print copies of records or scan them and send them via e-mail.

We also have a number of paper resources for vital records in the Hunt Room, including:

• Vital records of Dunstable, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849 (call number REF 974.44 D93 V). These records date from the time when Nashua was part of Dunstable.
• Deaths registered in the city of Nashua, NH, from the city's annual reports (1887–1919)
• Other books of marriage, death, and birth records including church baptism records, marriage intentions, and cemetery listings

So, if you're looking for vital records, remember: it's not just about Ancestry.com and the great vast web. Come and see us at the reference desk if you'd like to broaden your search and see what's available on microfilm and paper.

(Of course, we do have subscriptions to Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest, to help you cover the electronic bases. You can find these on our genealogy web page, http://www.nashua.lib.nh.us/IbrowseAdultGenealogy.htm.)

Nashua is not as big as Manchester, as quaint as Amherst or as cosmopolitan as Boston, but look around our city and you’ll see why people call Nashua home. There are our schools, our shopping, our restaurants, our parks, our location, our music, our art, our sports, our “quality of life,’ and behind it all, many dedicated people – both paid and volunteer – working tirelessly to make our city a better place to live.

Many of the services and opportunities that we take for granted come from the efforts of those who came before us. Take for example the Hunt family, who gave the city $50,000 – a princely sum in 1892 – for the construction of a public library, or the late Joseph Sakey, who arrived in Nashua in 1956 and served the city as library director from 1959-1971. A tireless champion of education, the arts, and the free expression of ideas, Joe had an impact on the community far beyond the library, serving on more than a dozen boards, and as a founding member of the Nashua Choral Society, Nashua Symphony Association, the Arts & Science Center, and the Gateway Family Planning Association. Joe was instrumental in bringing a new downtown library – our present facility on Court Street – from dream to fruition before he left Nashua to become director of the Cambridge (MA) Public Library. He also insisted that the former library, now the Hunt Memorial Building, be protected, preserved, and used by future Nashuans. Joe, who was well known for his "foresight, persistence and patience in the face of repeated discouragements and setbacks" according to the 1971 new library dedication program, was successful in both these endeavors.

This is why family, friends, and admirers of Joe Sakey will meet at the Hunt Building on Library Hill this evening from 5 to 7 to celebrate Joe’s life and unveil two bronze plaques: one honoring Joe and the librarians who preceded him, and the other detailing the history of the historic Hunt Building. A few of this evening’s attendees have never met Joe, who died in 2004, but can’t help to admire him for his dedication to the free exchange of ideas and to the cultural and intellectual enrichment of his adopted community.

The next time you visit the Hunt Building, stop for a moment in the main lobby to read the plaque and thank Joe for all his efforts on our behalf.

Ever wish there was an easy way of telling what birth, marriage, or death records the library has for Nashuans? Now there is. The library has a "pathfinder" to the vital records collection, and we recently added it to the genealogy web page.

The guide is divided up by type of event: birth, marriage, and death. Each section has a table listing the library's books, databases, and microfilm materials that contain records of those events. The listings are chronological, in order by the date range covered. For example, our earliest birth records are found in the book "Vital records of Dunstable, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849", and this book is listed first, with the date range 1673–1849 indicating what years you can expect to find in that book. So, if you have a general idea of when your relative was born, you can check the left column to see which materials cover that date, and then check the right column to get the title. The call number is also listed for each book.

"Vital Records @ Nashua Public Library" can be downloaded from our web site in PDF format. You can also grab a paper copy from the Hunt Room if you're here in the library.

Where have the Nashua history books disappeared to? Don't worry, they haven't gone far.

In the Hunt Room local history collection, the Nashua history books are now in the right rear bookcase as you walk into the room. For some time, we have had the New England books in this spot, along with a set of gray document cases housing newspaper clippings about Nashua. The change puts the Nashua history books in the same bookcase as the Nashua history clippings. Now, when you enter the Hunt Room, you'll see from left to right: the Nashua High School(s) yearbooks, then the city directories, then the Nashua history books and clippings.

The New England books are now where the Nashua books used to be: on the left as you walk in, next to the door.

Why? First, to put all of the Nashua materials in one spot. The cases of Nashua clippings will only fit on their current shelf (all the other bookcases have glass doors limiting the front-to-rear space available). Second, to give the New England materials a bookcase of their own, allowing room for all of the New England books to be shelved properly.

We have also moved the New England Historic and Genealogical Register books and the Daughters of the American Revolution lineage books to storage, to allow more room for our genealogical reference materials. The DAR and NEHGR indexes remain on the shelves in the Hunt Room, so you can still look up your ancestors. Once you know which volume you need, just let the reference staff know, and we can grab it from storage for you.

Feel free to stop by the reference desk if you have any questions, or leave us a comment below!

We have some exciting new additions to the local history collection. Several of Nashua's Catholic parishes have released records of the baptisms, marriages, and burials performed at their churches. Our new arrivals include:

Marriages
St. Francis, July 1885 to October 2002. The material from 1977 to 2002 is new to our collection; we also have an older edition that covers 1885 to 1977.
St. Patrick's, 1855 to 1996.

Baptisms
St. Francis, January 1885 to February 2003.
St. Louis de Gonzague, June 1871 to March 2001.

Burials
St. Francis, July 1885 to March 2003.
St. Louis de Gonzague, February 1873 to March 2001.

Those of you who are history buffs might also be interested in another new Hunt Room acquisition, "Strawbery Banke: a seaport museum 400 years in the making."

Happy researching!