American Genealogical Research Services

11/03/2025

Biographies

Recommended Reference - American Biography: a New Cyclopedia. New York: Pub. under the direction of the American historical society. Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, and Inc. American historical company. 1916 - 57 Volumes

American biography; a new cyclopedia. Compiled under the editorial supervision of a notable advisory board. Description Tools Cite this Export citation file Related Names Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918 American historical company, inc., New York. Language(s) English Published New York, Pub. unde...

10/31/2025

Biographies - American Revolution

Recommended Reading - Biographical sketches of loyalists of the American Revolution: with an historical essay. 2 Volumes. Boston Sabine, L., Sabine, L., H.O. Houghton & Company., Little, B. and Company. (1864).

Biographical sketches of loyalists of the American Revolution with an historical essay / by Lorenzo Sabine. Description Tools Cite this Export citation file Main Author Sabine, Lorenzo, 1803-1877 Related Names Sabine, Lorenzo, 1803-1877. H.O. Houghton & Company Little, Brown and Company Language(s)....

10/30/2025

Historical Artist Highlight

Conceived in the age of neoclassicism, the Rotunda was intended to recall the Pantheon, the ancient Roman temple. Bulfinch created in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda an ambitious orchestration of architecture, sculpture and painting.

10/28/2025

State Highlight - Arkansas - Madison County

Official Website of the Madison County Arkansas Genealogical and Historical Society, Huntsville, Arkansas.

10/27/2025

State Highlight - Alabama - Libraries & Archives

This pages serves as landing page for Special Collection in the Samford University Library.

10/24/2025

Ethnic Highlight - African American

Recommended Reading - Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century

Tera W. Hunter
Harvard University Press, May 8, 2017

Americans have long viewed marriage between a white man and a white woman as a sacred union. But marriages between African Americans have seldom been treated with the same reverence. This discriminatory legacy traces back to centuries of slavery, when the overwhelming majority of black married couples were bound in servitude as well as wedlock, but it does not end there. Bound in Wedlock is the first comprehensive history of African American marriage in the nineteenth century. Drawing from plantation records, legal documents, and personal family papers, it reveals the many creative ways enslaved couples found to upend white Christian ideas of marriage.

“A remarkable book... Hunter has harvested stories of human resilience from the cruelest of soils... An impeccably crafted testament to the African-Americans whose ingenuity, steadfast love and hard-nosed determination protected black family life under the most trying of circumstances.”
—Wall Street Journal

“In this brilliantly researched book, Hunter examines the experiences of slave marriages as well as the marriages of free blacks.”
—Vibe

“A groundbreaking history... Illuminates the complex and flexible character of black intimacy and kinship and the precariousness of marriage in the context of racial and economic inequality. It is a brilliant book.”
—Saidiya Hartman, author of Lose Your Mother

Winner of the Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History
Winner of the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize
Winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize
Winner of the Mary Nickliss Prize
Winner of the Willie Lee Rose Prize

10/23/2025

Transcription Tools

"Many church records and legal documents include Latin terms that are not used in our everyday speech. In some cases these Latin terms require the help of a Latin scholar, but in many cases a quick translation will at least help us to understand what the record is telling us."

Many church records and legal documents include Latin terms that are not used in our everyday speech. In some cases these Latin terms require the help of a Latin scholar, but in many cases a quick translation will at least help us to understand what the record is telling us.

10/22/2025

Subject Highlight - Women

The Library's unique and diverse collections are rich with resources for the study of women's history. This research guide gathers together a collection of topical guides and essays that tell the stories of women in America.

The Library's unique and diverse collections are rich with resources for the study of women's history. This research guide gathers together a collection of topical guides and essays that tell the stories of women in America.

10/21/2025

State Highlight - West Virginia - Jefferson County

10/20/2025

Webinars and Tutorials

"Biographical research on people from the past is a gamble. Our person of interest may or may not have been literate. Even the schooled may have left few traces of their existence. Many documents we expect to find for the place and time will have suffered destruction. The answers we seek to specific research questions may not appear in any surviving record created by our person.

All these trials explain why many successful researchers live by the FAN Principle: When those we study left no document to handily supply the information we seek, we often find it in the records created by members of their FAN Club—their Friends, Associates, and Neighbors."

Biographical research on people from the past is a gamble. Our person of interest may or may not have been literate. Even the schooled may have left few traces of their existence. Many documents we expect to find for the place and time will have suffered destruction. The answers we seek to specific....

10/17/2025

Vital Records

Recommended Reference - International Vital Records Handbook, 7th Edition: Births, Marriages, Deaths
by Thomas Jay Kemp (Author)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Genealogical Publishing Company
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 1, 2017

This is the 7th edition of the "International Vital Records Handbook," a resource that is even more valuable today than it was when it was first published. Not only does it give persons needing certification of their own important life events the tools needed to obtain these certificates, it also gives genealogists and historians the location--both online and on-site--of vital records databases and indexes, as well as other resources that could help further their research. it offers complete, up-to-date information on where and how to request vital records. It also includes copies of the application forms, where available, thus simplifying and speeding up the process by which vital records are obtained, regardless of the number or type of application forms required. Locating vital records and navigating your way through the various privacy laws and storage facilities can be difficult. The "International Vital Records Handbook" will make the process immeasurably easier.

10/16/2025

State Highlight - Virginia - Augusta County

Recommended Reference - The boundary controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia; 1748-1785. Minute book of the Virginia Court held at Fort Dunmore (Pittsburgh) for the District of West Augusta, 1775-1776
by Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Virginia. County Court (West Augusta District)

Publication date 1902

Publisher [Pittsburgh?]

Cover title