Finding Indexes
PRINT/DATABASE INDEXES
People have been indexing and abstracting records for a long time in books and in recent decades in databases or on webpages. These indexes can help lead you to the original record. They often abstract ALL names in a record which means they point you to a will that your Great Grandfather is named in or a deed that he witnessed.
In some cases these books will give you a volume and page of the original so you can quickly find them. In other cases all they provide is the date but they alert you to the fact that the record is there and when it would have been made.
Top online Book Collections to check:
the Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/texts
Google Book Search http://google.com/advanced_book_search
HathiTrust http://www.hathitrust.org/
more and more these sites are including not just books but digitized record collections. You never know what they will have.
here are some examples of the kinds of indexes found at these sites:
An abstract of North Carolina wills from about 1760 to about 1800. published 1925 held at Hathitrust
p. 16 shows me that there is a will for Israel Jasper left in 1784 with a wife Lurana in Beaufort Co. NC
which can send me to this record at FamilySearch Beaufort Wills image 138
Vital records of Billerica, Massachusetts shows the birth of Nathaniel Sternes b.1663 on page 184
which leads me to his family birth record in the Billerica town records at FamilySearch image 12
Other places to look for possible indexes
Always start by doing a Google Search because that may be the quickest way to locate what you are after
"York County" Pennsylvania ~probate
Kentucky ~"land records" index
Other possibilities to hunt through:
Court House sites that have indexes
Genealogy Society Sites
Library sites:
State Library
State Archives
University library
Public Library
Ancestry & FamilySearch
More and more both Ancestry and FamilySearch are uploading data sets of digitized records that are not indexed from their global search. This means we need to know if an index is included in the set itself and if not our options for finding an index elsewhere.
Both Ancestry & Family Search have their own catalog. Learning to use it often helps point you to materials you might otherwise miss.
Ancestry - the Card Catalog - find the Search Tab at the top of the page and pull down your choices - Card Catalog is at the bottom of the list
Don't use the title search unless you are certain of the title - instead use the keyword search.
search by surname or by locality and then use the filters to see what they have (vital records, land records etc.)
FamilySearch - under the Search Tab choose Catalog. The most useful searches are usually the Surname and Keyword search unless you have an exact title
Surname searching will hunt through family histories that have sizable information on that surname.
Some things you pull up will be digitized, some are only on film and some are only in book form in Salt Lake. If you find a book that looks like what you need put the title in Google with the author's last name and see if any of the online book collections have it.
Locality searching
In most cases you want to search by county but if your family was associated with a town or if they were from New England where town records were kept also try searching by town.
Using record sets at FamilySearch that are not yet indexed
The main search page (to indexed records) shows a map of the world on the right and below that map is "browse all published collections" Follow that link
Find the PLACE you are interested in by following the menu on the left. Some computer setups do not seem to work with that menu and if that happens to you type in your state and see what appears. Many data sets like probate or land or town records are not indexed yet. Choose the set and look at the bottom of the page for BROWSE IMAGES. Find your county.
You will see a selection of records. Look at them carefully. In some cases the indexing will be in the first few pages or the last few pages of a volume. Some groups have master indexes - watch for any set that says index or docket. Some will have both and you can use the one that is easiest.
Indexes kept by county clerks are varied
examples of indexes in alpha order
Mississippi Confederate Applications 1900-1974 records arranged alphabetically here is image 282
examples of indexes kept at the front or back of the book
Hardin Co. Kentucky Court Order Books
examples of master indexes
Naturalization Index to Henry Co. OH
Jefferson Co. New York Estate Index
Onondaga Co. New York Grantor Index