Veteran's Day -- Free Access to Ancestry's Military Records until Nov. 12, 10 am ET

It is Veteran's Day, November 11, 2025.

First, MCGG wants to say, Thank You for Your Service!

Second, to let MCGG members and our readers know that Ancestry is having a free-access day to its Military Records until tomorrow, Nov. 12, 10 a.m. ET.

Enjoy your research time.

See you at our favorite library!
LE 

Free Access to OldNews.com from MyHeritage July 3 to 5, 2025

MyHeritage is offering free access to the entire collection of 151,432,486 U.S. newspaper pages on OldNews.com from July 3 to 5, 2025!

 

There is a post on the MyHeritage Blog for more information. But you can jump into search at the OldNews.com website. At the bottom of the home page is a list of US States where you can explore what newspapers OldNews has for each state.

Enjoy some time on your genealogy searches this holiday time.

See you at our favorite library!
LE 

Free Access to Publisher Extra on Newspapers.com until Feb. 17

Hopefully you have already heard. This weekend genealogists can explore and search the content and the Publisher Extra content of Newspapers.com website. This free access weekend at Newspapers.com ends February 17, 2025, at 11:59 pm MT. The link here take you to the Newspapers.com free access search page.

*Access to Publisher Extra papers on Newspapers.com will be free until 17 Feb 2025 at 11:59pm MT. Registration required. After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view Publisher Extra papers using a Newspapers.com Publisher Extra subscription.


Have fun searching the past.

See you at our favorite library!
LE

Find My Past Gives Free Access until Nov. 11 in Honor of Veterans

Until November 11, 2024, Find My Past websites (like FindMyPast.com) are giving free access to ... the 1921 census, the entire newspaper archive, all military records -- really everything -- it is a free access weekend in honor of Veterans Weekend.

Just sign in with an existing user account or create one if you have not already done so. The easiest way is to perform a search and then create an account or sign into your existing free account when asked to do so.

See you at our favorite library!
LE

Find My Past Gives Free Access to its 1939 Register Collection until Nov. 4

Until November 4, 2024, Find My Past websites (like FindMyPast.com) are giving free access to its 1939 Register.

Just sign in with an existing user account or create one if you have not already done so. The easiest way is to perform a search and then create an account or sign into your existing free account when asked to do so.

See you at our favorite library!
LE

Find My Past Gives Free Access to its Entire Newspaper Archive until Oct. 28

Until October 28, 2024, Find My Past websites (like FindMyPast.com) are giving free access to its entire newspaper archive.

Just sign in with an existing user account or create one if you have not already done so. The easiest way is to perform a search and then create an account or sign into your existing free account when asked to do so.

See you at our favorite library!
LE

Free Access FindMyPast Websites November 9-13, 2023

FindMyPast websites (like FindMyPast.com) are having a free access weekend in honor of Veteran's Day/Remembrance Weekend. From November 9 to November 13, 2023, there is free access with some exclusions.

Just sign in with an existing user account or create one if you have not already done so. The easiest way is to perform a search and then create an account or sign into your existing free account when asked to do so.

See you at our favorite library!
LE

Fold3 Free Access in Honor of Veterans Day through Nov. 12, 2023

It is the 76th Anniversary of the first Veterans Day Celebration, started in a small community as a day to celebrate all veterans regardless of war, both living and dead, which eventually became a national celebration.

Fold3 is giving free access to its site through Sunday, November 12, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. MT.

Just register for the basic Fold3 membership which is free with no credit card required. If you already have a free Fold3 basic membership, just sign into the website. (You do not need to sign up for a 7-day free trial which requires a credit card.) Another way to do this is to just start a search and then click to view an image (marked free) and then the correct registration link to a free basic membership option will come up.

Have fun searching and finding!

See you at our favorite library!
LE

 

It's a Free Access Holiday Weekend at Newspapers.com Includes Publisher's Extra Collection thru Feb. 20, 2023

Hopefully you have already heard. This holiday weekend genealogists have a long weekend to explore and search ALL of the content of Newspapers.com including the Publisher's Extra newspapers. This free access holiday weekend at Newspapers.com ends February 20, 2023, at 11:59 pm MT. The links here take you to the Newspapers.com Facebook page. Just click the link on the Facebook page to take you to the website to register to obtain access.

Have fun searching the past.

See you someday very soon at our favorite library!
LE

Fold3 Free Access in Honor of Veterans Day from November 10 thru 13, 2022

It is the 75th Anniversary of the first Veterans Day Celebration, started in a small community as a day to celebrate all veterans regardless of war, both living and dead, which eventually became a national celebration.

Fold3 is giving free access to its site from Thursday, November 10 through Sunday, November 13, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. MT.

Just register for the basic Fold3 membership which is free with no credit card required. If you already have a free Fold3 basic membership, just sign into the website. (You do not need to sign up for a 7-day free trial which requires a credit card.) Another way to do this is to just start a search and then click to view an image (marked free) and then the correct registration link to a free basic membership option will come up.

Have fun searching and finding!

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE

 

FindMyPast Free Access Nov. 10-14

This one is pretty big.

It is Remembrance Weekend coming up so from 10 GMT on Thursday, November 10, (today) through 10 GMT on Monday, November 14, 2022, FindMyPast.com is giving free access to its website.

This year's free access offer includes almost all of Findmypast's records and newspapers. However, the 1921 Census of England and Wales is NOT included. You can find additional information on the web page set up the free access offer. See the free access link above.

To participate in the free access period you must register for free at any of the FindMyPast websites (US and Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, or Ireland) or sign into your existing account. The easiest way is to perform a search and then create an account or sign into your existing free account when asked to do so.

Have fun searching and finding!

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE

Free Access to the Newspaper Archives at FindMyPast in Honor of Queen Elizabeth II

In honor of Queen Elizabeth II, Find My Past is giving free access to its newspaper archives during this time of national mourning. From Friday, September 16, to Tuesday, September 20, 2022, the FindMyPast Newspaper Archives will be free of charge.

See the access landing page for details. Simply sign up or log in.

See you some day soon at our favorite library.
LE

Ready ... Set ... Tomorrow is Less Than 24 hours Away for the 1950 Census Release

Are you excited for tomorrow?

You do recall that TO-MORR-OW is the release day of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census? No, fooling. The 72-year delayed release of this census enumeration is April 1, 2022.

It is the first census to be released with an index.* * Meaning an Artificial Intelligence / Optical Character Recognition of handwriting generated index.

Will the 1950 census index be perfect? Probably not. But you can provide corrections. So be flexible and have an idea what letters could have been misread as: an a, e, o being read as one of the others. An m, n, w, v not quite read correctly. And even an R read as a K because the ink was very faint on the top. Be creative.

But if you have done your prep work for this census and you know where your people are and the index search is not finding them, then do the search by location or even enumeration district.

Where do I find this census? Keep an eye on the 1950 Census page of the National Archives website. It is there that the link to the new, dedicated 1950 website will be released tomorrow, April 1. Once we see that website URL address is released we will post it here too.

So what do I do tomorrow? After finding the link to the new, dedicated website and going to it, you will decide how to want to search. By name, location or Enumeration District. To get some hints, watch the short presentation the National Archives hosted yesterday, March 30. The recording is already up. However, the chat from the presentation is not available that we can see.

What if ... Yeah, there is a possibility that the new website might crash a bit or a little slow. Be patient. Everyone be patient. Come back later at an odd time of day, or another day, or keep trying.

So get yourself ready for tomorrow. Clear some time from other obligations so you can search for your family in 1950.

Good Luck Everyone!

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

It's a Free Access Holiday Weekend at Newspapers.com Includes Publisher's Extra Collection thru Feb. 21, 2022

Clear up that snow tomorrow so you have all holiday weekend long to explore and search ALL of the content of Newspapers.com including the Publisher's Extra newspapers. This is a free access holiday weekend at Newspapers.com which ends February 21, 2022, at 11:59 pm MT. The link can also be found on the Facebook page for Newspaper.com website. You just need to register to obtain access.

And while you are enjoying the accessibility and ease of searching, please consider joining MCGG in Twitter tweet voting to help Mount Clemens Public Library to win the 2022 DigMichNews Grant so that the earliest newspapers of Mount Clemens can be digitized and put online for free.

Get your free Twitter account and tweet with the hashtag, #DigMountClemens with as many tweets each day of the contest as you are able to do so. The voting dates are February 21 to 28. See our previous post on this contest.

The grant contest winning newspaper usually ends up at the Digital Michigan Newspaper Portal and the Chronicling America - Michigan Collection.

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE

Library of Michigan Cardholders can Now Access thru NewsBank Toronto's The Globe and Mail Newspaper 1844 - 2017

We have been notifying and reminding everyone of the many databases accessible from home during the pandemic using a Library of Michigan library card. Today we learned that through its NewsBank database, Library of Michigan cardholders can now access Toronto's The Globe and Mail newspaper. This database spans from 1844 to 2017. Yet another good reason to have a Library of Michigan library card.

 

Remember from our last post new for Library of Michigan cardholders is the The Detroit News (1873-1999) and the Michigan Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970. The Library of Michigan now owns access to the Proquest Michigan Digital Sanborn Map collection in perpetuity.

Learn about Family History research through the Library of Michigan at www.michigan.gov/familyhistory and apply or renew at www.michigan.gov/librarycard for a Library of Michigan library card. (Remember, this is for Michigan residents and out-of-state students enrolled in a Michigan college or university.) The Library of Michigan will send you your library card information using email and send the physical card at a later date. It does not take long to get your library card information by email. Since applications are done online, you do need to supply your Michigan driver license number.
This is a fantastic opportunity for genealogists. There is lots to explore, search and find.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Genealogy News You Can Use: Temporary Free Remote Access to Ancestry Library Edition Extended until Dec. 31, 2021

This slipped our attention but we just noticed that it was announced that the temporary free remote access of Ancestry Library Edition, thanks to its providers ProQuest and Ancestry.com, has been extended until December 31, 2021. As we have said before, according to ProQuest this temporary remote access will be re-evaluated monthly.

This resource is accessible via the website of the library that issued your library card if that library has a library subscription to Ancestry Library Edition and that library's website setup meets certain requirements and the library has requested this temporary remote access.

So, we patrons of the Suburban Library Cooperative libraries and many other library systems across the United States and Canada can continue to keep on researching while we stay safe to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

You can access Ancestry Library Edition by signing into the website of the library that issued your library card and then clicking the link to Ancestry Library Edition. You will be taken to the Ancestry Library Edition home page and from there you can search to your heart's content.

Ancestry Library Edition has no personalized features so among other things you can not access while using it is your personal Ancestry online tree nor can you link records to it if you have one. Regardless of whether you have an online tree or tree in a genealogy program on your computer, you will need to remember to download your record image finds with their source information and add them to your genealogy trees manually so you have access to that information in the future. 

To compliment this online resource, remember that on our Macomb County Genealogy Group YouTube channel we have a informational video, An Overview of Ancestry Library Edition. After explaining the differences between Ancestry Library Edition and a personal home Ancestry.com subscription, we walk you around the Ancestry Library Edition website and some different ways to start searching for your ancestors.

We hope you are able to utilize this genealogy resource (Ancestry Library Edition) and learn something new about your ancestors.

If you need help starting genealogy see our MCGG Beginner's Packet for Family Research on our Research Help page.

Remember to have fun researching your ancestors everyone. And stay safe.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Library of Michigan Cardholders Now Can Access The Detroit News (1873-1999) and Michigan Digital Sanborn Maps Databases

Last month we reminded you about the many database resources of having a Library of Michigan library card. We promised to follow up if we heard anything further regarding the mention of a Detroit News database.

We are happy to report that the Detroit News (1873-1999) database is now accessible. You will find it under, Detroit News Historical (1873-1999), MLive Publications, and more (NewsBank.)

 

Also, new for Library of Michigan cardholders is the Michigan Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970. The Library of Michigan now owns access to the Proquest Michigan Digital Sanborn Map collection in perpetuity.

Learn about Family History research through the Library of Michigan at www.michigan.gov/familyhistory and apply or renew at www.michigan.gov/librarycard for a Library of Michigan library card. (Remember, this is for Michigan residents and out-of-state students enrolled in a Michigan college or university.) The Library of Michigan will send you your library card information using email and send the physical card at a later date. It does not take long to get your library card information by email. Since applications are done online, you do need to supply your Michigan driver license number.
This is a fantastic opportunity for genealogists. There is lots to explore, search and find.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

We Learned the Other Night: Temporary Free Remote Access to Ancestry Library Edition Now Extended to September 2021

 We received word last night that once again it was announced that the temporary free remote access of Ancestry Library Edition, thanks to its providers ProQuest and Ancestry.com, has been extended until September 2021. As we have said before, according to ProQuest this temporary remote access will be re-evaluated monthly.

This resource is accessible via the website of the library that issued your library card if that library has a library subscription to Ancestry Library Edition and that library's website setup meets certain requirements and the library has requested this temporary remote access.

So, we patrons of the Suburban Library Cooperative libraries and many other library systems across the United States and Canada can continue to keep on researching while we stay safe to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

You can access Ancestry Library Edition by signing into the website of the library that issued your library card and then clicking the link to Ancestry Library Edition. You will be taken to the Ancestry Library Edition home page and from there you can search to your heart's content.

Ancestry Library Edition has no personalized features so among other things you can not access while using it is your personal Ancestry online tree nor can you link records to it if you have one. Regardless of whether you have an online tree or tree in a genealogy program on your computer, you will need to remember to download your record image finds with their source information and add them to your genealogy trees manually so you have access to that information in the future. 

To compliment this online resource, remember that on our Macomb County Genealogy Group YouTube channel we have a informational video, An Overview of Ancestry Library Edition. After explaining the differences between Ancestry Library Edition and a personal home Ancestry.com subscription, we walk you around the Ancestry Library Edition website and some different ways to start searching for your ancestors.

We hope you are able to utilize this genealogy resource (Ancestry Library Edition) and learn something new about your ancestors.

If you need help starting genealogy see our MCGG Beginner's Packet for Family Research on our Research Help page.

Remember to have fun researching your ancestors everyone. And stay safe.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

A Few More Reasons to Get a Library of Michigan Library Card ... Besides it's Free

Last year we let everyone know that there were a variety of genealogy and historical database collections accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic if you had a Library of Michigan library card. Recently, a few more database/collections have been added. So if you still do not have a Library of Michigan library card and you qualify, what are you waiting for?

Are you a Michigan resident or an out-of-state student enrolled in a Michigan college or university? Yes to either? Don't wait any longer. A Library of Michigan library card is free!

Did you get a Library of Michigan library card last year? Yes? Then it is likely time to renew your card for some more genealogy fun time.

Like the other libraries in Michigan, the Library of Michigan is still closed during these COVID-19 times. Which means besides the library itself being closed, the Library of Michigan card services: LM Collections circulating collections at Lansing; MeLCat borrowing of materials from other Michigan libraries for pickup at the Library of Michigan; and LM Databases access to specialized subscription databases while visiting the library are currently not operating.

BUT the LM Databases services, during these COVID-19 times, is giving access to some of these specialized subscription databases from home!

Learn about Family History research through the Library of Michigan at www.michigan.gov/familyhistory and apply or renew at www.michigan.gov/librarycard for a Library of Michigan library card. (Remember, this is for Michigan residents and out-of-state students enrolled in a Michigan college or university.) The Library of Michigan will send you your library card information using email and send the physical card at a later date. It does not take long to get your library card information by email. Since applications are done online, you do need to supply your Michigan driver license number.

The Library of Michigan's list of databases accessible from home during these times.

What database can you access from home?  They are Ancestry Library Edition, Fold3 by Ancestry, Michigan History Magazine, MyHeritage Library Edition (also available thru MeL.org the Michigan Electronic Library), NewspaperArchive, Newspapers.com by Ancestry World Edition, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Detroit Free Press, 1831-1999.

The Michigan Genealogical Council mentioned the new database Heritage Hub by GenealogyBank which is a collection of obituaries from GenealogyBank. MGC also mentioned a Detroit News 1873-1997 database but it is currently not listed and there were some access issues noted with it. If we find out more we will post an update.

This is a fantastic opportunity for genealogists. There is lots to explore, search and find.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

New Genealogy News: Temporary Free Remote Access to Ancestry Library Edition Now Extended to June 2021

Now that the MCGG boxes are moved in preparation of our favorite library's renovation we turn to some news. Yet again on the one hand we can consider this good news but on the other ... well, it may not be so comforting. So focus on the positive aspect of this everyone. The other day, it was announced that the temporary free remote access of Ancestry Library Edition, thanks to its providers ProQuest and Ancestry.com, has been extended until June 2021. As we have said before, according to ProQuest this temporary remote access will be re-evaluated monthly.

This resource is accessible via the website of the library that issued your library card if that library has a library subscription to Ancestry Library Edition and that library's website setup meets certain requirements and the library has requested this temporary remote access.

So, we patrons of the Suburban Library Cooperative libraries and many other library systems across the United States and Canada can continue to keep on researching while we stay safe to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

You can access Ancestry Library Edition by signing into the website of the library that issued your library card and then clicking the link to Ancestry Library Edition. You will be taken to the Ancestry Library Edition home page and from there you can search to your heart's content.

Ancestry Library Edition has no personalized features so among other things you can not access while using it is your personal Ancestry online tree nor can you link records to it if you have one. Regardless of whether you have an online tree or tree in a genealogy program on your computer, you will need to remember to download your record image finds with their source information and add them to your genealogy trees manually so you have access to that information in the future. 

To compliment this online resource, remember that on our Macomb County Genealogy Group YouTube channel we have a informational video, An Overview of Ancestry Library Edition. After explaining the differences between Ancestry Library Edition and a personal home Ancestry.com subscription, we walk you around the Ancestry Library Edition website and some different ways to start searching for your ancestors.

We hope you are able to utilize this genealogy resource (Ancestry Library Edition) and learn something new about your ancestors.

If you need help starting genealogy see our MCGG Beginner's Packet for Family Research on our Research Help page.

Remember to have fun researching your ancestors everyone. And stay safe.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE