I have been a subscriber to the Grodfrey library for more than a month now and am VERY happy. Granted, it does not have all censuses YET, but they are working on them. Following is Dick Eastman's latest article about them. Cathy - Godfrey Memorial Library Expands Online Resources The Godfrey Memorial Library has long been a great resource for genealogists, especially those interested in New England ancestry. The library opened in 1951 and was named by A. Fremont Rider, founder of the library, in memory of Grace (Godfrey) Rider and her brother Brig. Gen. Stuart Chapin Godfrey. In the past 52 years, many have made the trip to Middletown, Connecticut, in order to use the excellent resources stored at the library. The book collection of about 16,000 volumes is divided into three main categories: family genealogy, local history, and biography. The Godfrey Memorial Library is expanding and changing. The big news is the new online service. Underwritten by the Godfrey Scholars (the library's support group) the Library now is offering remote access to a growing number of genealogy sources. Best of all, these new resources are not limited to New England. They will appeal to anyone searching ancestry anywhere in the U.S. The key initial offering is ProQuest’s HeritageQuest Online and ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers: New York Times. Best of all, you no longer need to drive to Connecticut in order to access this information. This week I sat in my home and accessed the Godfrey Memorial Library Web pages. I clicked on "Digital Book Collection" and then entered a GML barcode number, a form of User ID. A second or two later I was looking at ProQuest’s HeritageQuest Online. This excellent collection includes every page of nearly 8,000 family histories and more than 12,000 local histories, every word searchable. I searched on my own surname and found every single book on that name that I have ever heard of, plus more that were new to me. Every word on every page is indexed, making it a snap to find information about ancestors. My first search was strictly on my own surname. The database returned a status page stating that there were 3,021 books or other documents with that name someplace within the pages. Obviously, searching three thousand books is much too difficult. I needed to narrow the search. For my second attempt, I again entered my own surname but also entered a place name of "Maine," the state of primary interest. This time the database found "only" 2,876 entries. I backed up and used the same surname but this time specified a town of Corinth, Maine, a tiny place north of Bangor where my great-great-grandparents lived and died. This time the search produced 34 results, a much more manageable list. I was able to browse through each of these books, jumping from "hit" to "hit" with a simple click of the mouse. Each "hit" displayed an image of a page that contained the word(s) that I had searched for. Within a half hour I read more pages with occurrences of my family name in that small town than I could have found in a full day at a regular genealogy library. The capability of searching every single word on every single page greatly simplified my task. The same online service also has the full U.S. census images available online for 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1860, 1870, 1890, 1900, 1910 and 1920. NOTE: The 1890 consists only of fragments and reconstructed documents since more than 99% of the original 1890 census records were destroyed in a 1921 fire. Only 6,160 names were able to be extracted from the remnants. However, those names are available online in this database. Unlike many other online census databases, this one includes full images. You can see all the information as recorded in the enumerators' (census takers') handwriting. You can even print copies of the original census records on your own inkjet or laser printer. The HeritageQuest Online database that is available through the Godfrey Memorial Library also includes several thousand books and magazines of historic and/or genealogical interest. The New York Times from 1851 to 1999, with every word searchable, is also available from your home by using the Godfrey Library's Web site. Another database of interest is the African American Biographical Database, from ProQuest and Chadwyck - Healey. This is a major resource for biographical information, including photographs and illustrations, for African Americans. From the famous to the everyday person, AABD includes profiles and full-text sketches providing both biographical detail and illuminating narratives chronicling the lives of Black Americans. The Godfrey Memorial Library online catalog continues to grow and currently contains more than 10,000 items. The Library staff is also cataloging digital items as well as "analytics" for useful content that appears within books, annuals, and the like. Most of the analytics that they create are for biographical sketches and lengthy obituaries published in professional journals. The goal is to make it even easier for researchers to find this otherwise obscure information. The Library staff presently concentrates on titles not included in Ancestry, Heritage Quest, PERSI, and such. For over 50 years the library has published biographical index citations in the American Genealogical-Biographical Index, or AGBI. This is the equivalent of more than 200 printed volumes. The AGBI database contains millions of records of people whose names have appeared in printed genealogical records and family histories. The current run of AGBI will be completed in early 2004. All in all, this is a first-class resource, available to you today in the comfort of your own home. Best of all, it is available for a modest fee of $35.00 (U.S.) per year. For me and for many others, that is cheaper than venturing out, paying for gas, parking fees, photocopy costs, and other miscellaneous expenses for a single trip to a genealogy library. With the Godfrey Memorial Library, you can make multiple "trips" at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year. Not bad for thirty-five bucks! I have written before about HeritageQuest Online's databases. I have always commented that this service is not available to private individuals. Instead, you have to go to a subscribing library to use it or else sign up for remote access from a participating library. The Godfrey Memorial Library is one such participating library, and their membership fee is lower than most. For thirty-five dollars a year, you can sit at home and access HeritageQuest Online, the New York Times from 1851 to 1999, and some other databases unique to the Godfrey Memorial Library. For more information about the Godfrey Memorial Library and its many online services, go to http://www.godfrey.org. A link on the same page leads you to an application form to become a Godfrey Scholar and then access the various online resources described above. You do have to apply by mail, not online. You can expect a delay of a few days until you receive your GML barcode number, which you will need to access the online databases.