HERITAGEQUEST ONLINE: FREE FAMILY HISTORY DATABASES
AT HOME WITH YOUR LIBRARY CARD

©2017 by Donald R. Snow

This page was last updated 2017-03-27.  Return to the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page  or  Don Snow's Class Listings Page .
ABSTRACT: HeritageQuest Online is a website that many libraries subscribe to and allow their patrons access to at home with their library cards.  It contains all the U.S. censuses; 40,000 scanned genealogy books, including many US city directories; U.S. Revolutionary War Military Pension records; and other databases.  This talk will show what HQO is and how to use it.  The notes for this class and related articles, all with active Internet links, are on Don's website http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

  1. Instructors are Donald R. Snow of St. George and Provo, Utah ( snowd@math.byu.edu and and his daughter, Linda Snow Westover, ( linda.westover@gmail.com ) of Orem, Utah.
  2. These notes, with active Internet links and other related articles, are posted on Don's website  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
  3. Tips:  (1)  To put an icon on your desktop for the URL for these notes, or any webpage, just drag the icon in front of the address in your browser to your desktop.  (2)  To open a link while keeping your place in the original page, hold down the Control key while clicking the link so it opens in a new tab.
  4. This class will discuss the website HeritageQuest Online which has many genealogy records and is free to use with public library cards.
  5. WHAT IS HERITAGEQUEST ONLINE (HQO)?

  6. HeritageQuest Online (HQO) is a genealogy website, recently purchased by Ancestry from ProQuest, with primarily US databases and is available through libraries, not by individual subscription
    1. An online description -- http://www.proquest.com/products-services/HeritageQuest-Online.html 
    2. Can be used at home through your library card barcode, if your library has a subscription; many libraries subscribe, e.g. in Utah it is available through  http://pioneer.utah.gov/  or your local library's website; if your library card barcode doesn't work, ask you library for an access code
    3. Article and list of libraries subscribing in the US is on Dick Eastman's Encyclopedia of Online Genealogy -- http://www.eogen.com/heritagequestonline
  7. The databases on HQO include US Censuses, 40,000 full text genealogy books, US Revolutionary War records (Military service records, pension applications, and results), US Government Serials sets (official US government documents), and more
  8. HQO used to contain
    1. PERSI = Periodical Source Index, an index of world-wide genealogy periodicals, but that is at FindMyPast now
    2. Freedman Bank Records of African-American freed slaves after the Civil War -- that is at Ancestry now
  9. See HQO's Research Aids for information and helps in using the databases
  10. Many changes since Ancestry took it over from ProQuest a couple of years ago; used to have a different search engine and didn't lead to Ancestry asking you to subscribe 
  11. US FEDERAL CENSUSES

  12. HQO has all the US censuses from 1790 through 1940, except, or course, the 1890 US Census which was destroyed 
  13. The Census Book by William Dollarhide -- chapters are in the Research Aids section for censuses and can be downloaded as searchable pdf's -- excellent book on censuses; includes forms for each census, details of each census, the census days, and maps of the counties of each state at each census  
  14. Interactive maps of county boundary changes for each state, and hence the US censuses, are on  http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/  
  15. HQO has search boxes to enter various combinations of search terms including names, locations, parents, children, "Lived In", etc. -- can change the selection from Broad to Exact by sliders, then click Update, so it is easy to search broadly and then narrow it down
  16. Can search through all censuses for the family or any particular one; can browse any census by just entering the city, county, and state  
  17. Hovering the cursor over the View Record shows the text so you can see the family; clicking on it opens the text including a link to View the actual census page; you can Save the picture to your computer or else send it to your email address to your My Discoveries collection  
  18. If you already know the serial, roll, and page number, you can go directly to a census page -- conversion table between film numbers for NARA and FHL census films at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/NARA_and_FHL_film_numbers  
  19. FAMILY HISTORY BOOKS

  20. Includes full text scanned images of 40,000 family history books
  21. Emphasis is on US genealogy, but includes some international volumes, e.g. Genealogical Gleanings in England by Henry F. Waters
  22. Books are completely word-searchable on HQO, but not after downloading
  23. Can browse or search by People, Places, or City Directories
  24. Has search boxes for various combinations of terms and sliders from Broad to Exact -- helpful to start broadly and narrow down the searches, if you get too many hits
  25. Examples of books included
    1. City Directories from US Cities 1821-1989 -- lots of good information here
    2. Massachusetts Vital Records books (yellow covered series), about 250 volumes -- examples
      1. Woburn, Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 -- http://search.ancestryheritagequest.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10145
      2. Lynnfield, Massachusetts Vital Records to 1849 -- http://search.ancestryheritagequest.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10099
    3. Many family and county histories, etc.-- e.g. History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts with Biographical Sketches, 1890; has 2908 pages
  26. Downloads seem to be limited to single pages now -- used to be able to download up to 50 pages of a book at a time; if you find a book here that you are interested in, try other book websites and you may be able to download the entire book and make it searchable 
  27. US REVOLUTIONARY WAR MILITARY PENSION RECORDS

  28. Click on Search Military Records to see more details about the record collections 
  29. Selected Records from Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Applications Files contains 80,000 pension and application files of American military, naval, and marine officers and enlisted men -- much information about the military person and it indexes many family members listed in the pension files 
  30. Can search by name, state (18 states by then), and military service
  31. Several other military record sets there; some require you to sign in to an Ancestry account to see it  
  32. Can print or save the images, as above
  33. DEATHS, BURIALS, CEMETERY, AND OBITUARIES

  34. See the Research Aids for Cemetery and Find-A-Grave Information
  35. Now has a Death, Burials, Cemetery, and Obituaries section -- http://search.ancestry.com/search/category.aspx?cat=125&o_xid=59133&o_lid=59133&o_sch=Social -- Includes Find-A-Grave which has lots of world-wide burial information
  36. Search boxes allow many combinations of entries 
  37. Gives additional information from the Ancestry website about the person, but asks you to sign in to an Ancestry account to see it 
  38. OTHER DATABASES AND COMMENTS ABOUT HERITAGEQUEST ONLINE

  39. These are all listed in HQO and some are free with HQO, but several take you to Ancestry's website and you need an Ancestry subscription to view them 
  40. US CONGRESSIONAL SERIAL SET
    1. For information on this set click on Search at the top of HQO > US Serial Set > Read More About US Serial Set
    2. Includes records from Congress, Petitions, Military, Post Office, Indian Affairs, Public Land Records, and more
    3. Completely word-searchable by name, place, keywords, and date ranges
  41. IMMIGRATION RECORDS
    1. Includes some foreign records and some naturalization records
  42. PUBLIC RECORDS
  43. SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX, 1935-2014
  44. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PHOTO COLLECTION, 1840-2000
  45. U.S. INDEXED COUNTY LAND OWNERSHIP MAPS, 1860-1918
  46. U.S. INDEXED EARLY LAND OWNERSHIP AND TOWNSHIP PLATS, 1785-1898
  47. RECORDS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES (Europe, South America, Caribbean, Russia, etc.)
  48. MORE US RECORDS (Deceased Physician File, some births, christenings, deaths, and burials, various state and county records)
  49. May be able to see old versions of HeritageQuest Online at the Internet Archive's WayBackMachine -- https://web-beta.archive.org/web/*/http://heritagequest.com 
  50. CONCLUSION

  51. HQO is a rich source for US genealogy information including censuses, books, and other publications, and can be used at home with your library card.

Return to the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page   or  Don Snow's Class Listings Page .