ProQuest & Genealogy Heritage Quest Online & Ancestry Library Edition GOLD/GALILEO User Group Conference 7/31/09

What is Genealogy? Overview of Heritage Quest Online (HQO) and Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) HQO & ALE Comparison Let’s Go Live Questions? Happy Searching Agenda

What is Genealogy? A hobby enjoyed by millions! –A recent survey shows 73% of Americans are interested in learning more about their roots (up from 60% in 2000) –Many community programs focus on genealogy –Includes a variety of interests and sub-branches beyond family ancestry –Local and social history –Military history –Business history –Building history –Scrapbooking –Smart Search

What is… cont’d The objective of a genealogist is to: –Place a specific person at a specific place at a specific time No one collection is ever complete, no one genealogist is ever done –The starting point for most research is interviewing living relatives, looking for vital records (birth, marriage, death records) –Primary and secondary sources reside in many places—many not yet digitized –Next, search key records such as US Federal Census, UK Census, Canadian Census (if applicable).

Overview of Heritage Quest Online Coverage dating back to the late 1700’s Content is made up of 6 collections to include: –US Census ( ), 13 million pages, head of household indexing –Genealogy & Local History collection -- 24,000+ books –Periodical Source Index (PERSI) - 6,600+ journals and magazines, developed by Allen Co. Public Library Ft. Wayne IN –Freedman’s Bank Records – key African American collection –Revolutionary War records –U.S. Serial Set content from LexisNexis

HQO cont’d Each collection has some unique searching functionality Cross searching provides additional information about same subject Most cases downloading in PDF format preferable Searches saved for that session

Overview of Ancestry Library Edition World’s most popular consumer online genealogy resource (from and maintained by the Generations Network’s Ancestry.com) billion names of individuals from NA, Europe, Australia and more

ALE cont’d Every name indexed and searchable Extensive US coverage Charts/Forms downloadable Soundex for names 1850 census – slave trade schedule Non-Exact ~Exact searching –Ranked –Looks for variations of names –Populate as many fields, even a guess

HQO & ALE Comparison These two resources are complementary to each other— with one of the only content overlap points being the US Census –And even within the US Census records there are unique aspects to each in regards to the image and indexing –Please refer to the handout for side-by-side details HQO also allows remote access

Let’s dig in!!! Useful URLs: –Training Materials US/support/training/materials.shtml –Technical Support (HQO) –Webinar Calendar !

Review HQO & ALE Comparison Chart Questions? Happy Searching!

Questions and Thanks! Thanks for your time. Linda Cubias, M.L.I.S. East Region Supervisor Customer Education & Training ProQuest 7200 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 601 Bethesda, MD ProQuest... Start here