Google Books for Genealogy

If you are looking for free online historical books to use, Google Books is the way to go.

What is Google Books?

Google Books is generally a digital archive of books, newspapers, encyclopedias, etc. You can even view most of them for free.

Using Google Books

Go to https://books.google.com/

You can search for a specific family history book, an ancestor, a locality, or a particular place.

In the example below, I searched my 3rd great-grandfather with the location he lived in most of his life. Use quotations around names or variations of them.

I see a few results of my ancestor. In the second result, it says a "Snippet view", which means only a tiny section of the book will be shown highlighted with the keywords you have used to find it.

The 1st result it says "Preview" so, the book is available to read. Some pages of some books might not be in the preview.

When some books aren't available to view you can use WorldCat. WorldCat is mainly an online catalog, of books, DVDs, and biographies that have historical information that you have been looking for.

Type in the name of the book that wasn't available on Google Books.

Enter your zip code in the field. After entering your zip code, the nearest location(s) that carry the book will be shown by the number of miles away from you. You find libraries and/or universities that have the book that you want by doing an interlibrary loan with your local public library.

Google Books is a useful tool to utilize in your genealogy search. You might find something you didn't know before by using Google Books.

Share what you have found on Google Books in the comments below.

Comments

My Eight Surnames

After reading Lisa Gorrell's post about her surnames , I decided I wanted to try it out too. My Surnames: Pearson Gable Harlan McDaniel Armstead Barton Rogers Rogers The 2 Rogers surnames my maternal great-grandmother, Lela Rogers married Earnest Rogers. They are not cousins from what I know of. (c) Copyright Lacie Madison 2019 All Rights Reserved.

Vestal (Images of America) - Book Review

This is the first edition of "What's NEW in my Bookshelf?" Recently, I received a book called Images of America-Vestal by Vestal's town historian, Margaret Hadsell. Here are my personal thoughts on the book. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Prehistoric Vestal 2. Vestal 3. Ross Corners 4. Tracy Creek 5. Twin Orchards 6. Vestal Center 7. Willow Point 8. Mile Wide Summary The book mainly shows photos of prominent settlers and locations around the town of Vestal. It briefly mentions pre-Vestal and the families, churches, schools, businesses, etc. within parts of Vestal. Evaluation I liked how the author inserted plat maps into the book. At the beginning of each chapter, there is a section of the entire map in which part of it will be "zoomed in" on specific areas of Vestal. I was a bit disappointed with this book because I expected more context, though I did love ...

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun- Which Ancestors Would You Like to Talk to?

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun! Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to: 1) We sometimes find we have questions we would love to discuss with our ancestors - the who, what, when, why and how questions that might help with our genealogy research. 2) Which ancestors would you like to talk to? What questions would you ask? 3) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook. There are so many ancestors I would love to talk to, but I will only list my top 5 ancestors. 💗 1) My first choice would be my great-grandmother, Clara Loretta Scott Armstead (1904-1998). I would ask her what her biological mother's name is, the reasoning behind why her brothers were placed in an orphanage, and why her ex-husband, Anthony Tony Armstead, was abusive toward her sons and possibly ...

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