The internet is a genealogist’s paradise. There are so many resources available online that it is difficult to keep track of them all. Our helpful researchers periodically mention various resources to us, so I thought I’d pass some of the recent ones along to you. Hopefully, this will help us to remember these things are out there.
Pinkowski Institute – This site is dedicated to Polish-American history and genealogy and includes something called the Pinkowski Files, a database containing both Polish-American topics (i.e. astronauts, events, churches, publications & etc.) and the short biographies of Polish-Americans.
The Minnesota Farm Bureau has a site dedicated to Century Farms. When you click over to the site, simply select the county you want to examine from the map and a window listing all Century Farms from the county will pop up. Select the name of the particular Century Farm owner and a digital copy of the Century Farm application will appear.
Find a Grave is an online application that you can search for . . . what else? Graves. Primarily from the United States, but the goal is world-wide. You can even sign up for an account with the site and add grave listings to it. The site is operating on the Web 2.0 philosophy of “wisdom of the crowds,” or “many hands make light work.” The site is by no means a complete listing of every grave everywhere, but someone (a someone who has volunteered for MCHS) has entered a lot of data for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Cemetery in Pierz, Minnesota. In fact, in conducting a search for cemeteries by county on the site, I see that burials have been listed for quite a number of cemeteries in Morrison County. Not a lot of individual burials, mind you, but it’s definitely worth a look.
Another cemetery search site is the Dalby Database. It can also be used to search obits, marriages, births, city directories and more. The site was started by John and Jan Dalby and originally focused on data from Rice County, Minnesota, although it may have expanded from there. Once again, when searching for family history, it’s good to check all available resources.
Okay, one more resource for you. This is one we’ve been aware of for some time. In fact, we’ve had the data you can find on this site on a CD that we’ve been using for years. The General Land Office (GLO) has a listing of land patents from between 1820 and 1908. Our CD has the land patents specifically for Minnesota, but patents from the entire United States can be searched via the Bureau of Land Management’s GLO website.
Happy searching!