ProQuest Debuts Genealogy Center

By Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 5/1/2006

ProQuest is giving genealogists a boon with the announcement of its forthcoming Genealogy Center, a family history resource that allows librarians to pick and choose from the vendor's numerous genealogy databases such as newspapers, maps, military records, and archival magazines to customize the tool to address community needs. The vendor said that libraries, for example, could choose its HeritageQuest Online and Ancestry Library Edition, which sports census records, etc., and mix and match them with more reference-type tools, including dictionaries, bibliographies, and gazetteers.

Obits

In other genealogy action, ProQuest will soon be marketing a database of death notices from the complete runs of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boston Globe, and Chicago Defender, reaching back to 1851—roughly ten million names. Obituaries can be rich resources for genealogists because they often contain birthplace, full proper name, maiden name, spouse information, parents' names, siblings' and children's names, occupation, religious and ethnic background, military service, activities in community organizations, and cause and place of death.