Armchair Genealogy

There is so much genealogical information that is accessible via the internet. And those collections are only growing in this digital age.

One trick is to do an internet search for your state plus the words 'digital collections'. So if I were researching ancestors in The Garden State, I would search for "New Jersey digital collections" or"New Jersey digital archives"--quotation marks and all.

Each state will have different offerings and results of course, but I haven't yet found a state for which no results were returned. Some major cities can also yield results. This geographic approach isn't family-specific, but you may still find useful information that pertains to your search. It might also give you ideas of which types of records could be available for your ancestors, either off-line or on-.

New content is being added all the time. So even if you don't find anything useful at first, checking back every so often might be fruitful.

The State Library of Oregon's digital collections, for example.