Searching for Your Roots

Do those commercials for Ancestry.com leave you longing to search for your roots?  Do you wish you knew more about your ancestors but don't know where to start?

Tracing your family history just got a whole lot easier.  Effective immediately, all branches of the Annapolis Valley Regional Library are offering free access to the Library Edition of Ancestry.com. 

Ancestry.com offers access to tons of genealogical information such as censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more.

Last year AVRL offered the Library Edition of Ancestry.com in four branches as a pilot project to gauge public interest and it proved to so popular that we have expanded it to all locations. In fact almost all public libraries in Nova Scotia now offer it.  It's a great resource for the novice or the serious genealogist.  It's also kind of neat to find documents relating to your long lost relatives.  I found a listing for a ship that regularly travelled from Lunenburg to Boston that my grandfather worked on in the 1920's.  He was listed as a "legal alien" and it even included a physical description of him including height, weight, hair and eye colour so no illegal aliens could stow away on the ship and get into the U.S.!

You can find the link to Ancestry.com on the lower left-hand side of the AVRL website .  This can only be accessed from inside the library using the library computers or you can use your own device with our wireless network.  Come on in and try it! 

Posted by Frances Newman, Regional Librarian