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
- 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.
- These notes, with active Internet links and other related
articles, are posted on Don's website http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
.
- 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.
- This class will discuss the website HeritageQuest Online which has
many genealogy records and is free to use with public library cards.
WHAT IS HERITAGEQUEST ONLINE (HQO)?
- 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
- An online description -- http://www.proquest.com/products-services/HeritageQuest-Online.html
- 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
- Article and list of libraries subscribing in the US is on
Dick Eastman's Encyclopedia of Online Genealogy -- http://www.eogen.com/heritagequestonline
- 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
- HQO used to contain
- PERSI = Periodical Source Index, an index of world-wide
genealogy periodicals, but that is at FindMyPast now
- Freedman Bank Records of African-American freed slaves after
the Civil War -- that is at Ancestry now
- See HQO's Research Aids for information and helps in using the
databases
- 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
US FEDERAL CENSUSES
- HQO has all the US censuses from 1790 through 1940, except, or
course, the 1890 US Census which was destroyed
- 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
- Interactive maps of county boundary changes for each state, and
hence the US censuses, are on http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/
- 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
- Can search through all censuses for the family or any particular
one; can browse any census by just entering the city, county, and
state
- 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
- 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
FAMILY HISTORY BOOKS
- Includes full text scanned images of 40,000 family history books
- Emphasis is on US genealogy, but includes some international
volumes, e.g. Genealogical Gleanings in England by Henry F. Waters
- Books are completely word-searchable on HQO, but not after
downloading
- Can browse or search by People, Places, or City Directories
- 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
- Examples of books included
- City Directories from US Cities 1821-1989 -- lots of good
information here
- Massachusetts Vital Records books (yellow covered series),
about 250 volumes -- examples
- Woburn, Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 -- http://search.ancestryheritagequest.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10145
- Lynnfield, Massachusetts Vital Records to 1849 -- http://search.ancestryheritagequest.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=10099
- Many family and county histories, etc.-- e.g. History of
Middlesex County, Massachusetts with Biographical Sketches,
1890; has 2908 pages
- 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
US REVOLUTIONARY WAR MILITARY PENSION RECORDS
- Click on Search Military Records to see more details about the
record collections
- 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
- Can search by name, state (18 states by then), and military
service
- Several other military record sets there; some
require you to sign in to an Ancestry account to see it
- Can print or save the images, as above
DEATHS, BURIALS, CEMETERY, AND OBITUARIES
- See the Research Aids for Cemetery and Find-A-Grave Information
- 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
- Search boxes allow many combinations of entries
- Gives additional information from the Ancestry website about the
person, but asks you to sign in to an Ancestry account to see
it
OTHER DATABASES AND COMMENTS ABOUT HERITAGEQUEST ONLINE
- 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
- US CONGRESSIONAL SERIAL SET
- For information on this set click on Search at the top of HQO
> US Serial Set > Read More About US Serial Set
- Includes records from Congress, Petitions, Military, Post
Office, Indian Affairs, Public Land Records, and more
- Completely word-searchable by name, place, keywords, and date
ranges
- IMMIGRATION RECORDS
- Includes some foreign records and some naturalization records
- PUBLIC RECORDS
- SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX, 1935-2014
- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PHOTO COLLECTION, 1840-2000
- U.S. INDEXED COUNTY LAND OWNERSHIP MAPS, 1860-1918
- U.S. INDEXED EARLY LAND OWNERSHIP AND TOWNSHIP PLATS, 1785-1898
- RECORDS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES (Europe, South America, Caribbean,
Russia, etc.)
- MORE US RECORDS (Deceased Physician File, some births,
christenings, deaths, and burials, various state and county records)
- 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
CONCLUSION
- 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 .