Just want to share this with y'all.

Howdy, everybody! I don't know whether I'll post a real article today or not. But I wanted to share two fantastic resources I've come across recently.


First, something I discovered about a month ago- Ancestry.com Library Edition. Most of my readers are students at the U of A, but I imagine students at most other universities can access this in a similar manner. If you're even marginally interested in genealogy, you've likely watched the Ancestry ads with more than a little interest. I almost asked for a subscription for Christmas one year, but it's expensive. But while I was playing around on the UA website, I discovered that you can access the library edition from anywhere. It doesn't have all the fancy tree-linking features, but it gives you access to the important part- the documents. So here's step-by-step instructions on how to find it.

• From the myBama homepage, click on the "Library" tab.
• On the left side of the page, click "Databases."
• Scroll through the menu on the left and click "Genealogy" and then click the "Find Databases" button.
• Ancestry should be the fourth database on the list.
• It'll probably make you enter your myBama username and password. I say probably because it usually makes me do that, but today it didn't. I don't know if that's because I log in a lot, or what.
• Enjoy! And, if you're not a student, you can access it for free at the public library, but you can't access it remotely.

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is the Good News Archive. It's a database of hundreds of historic newspapers, ranging from the eighteenth century to today. Obviously, I'm not remotely interested in the modern stuff; I'm currently perusing century-old copies of The Tuscaloosa News. 

One caveat, some of the scans are not very good, so reading them is not easy on the eyes, but most of them are fine. I'm frankly not even sure how I got there, so I can't give y'all an exact address. But y'all are smart, just Google it and I'm sure they'll lead you right to it.

I hope y'all have a fraction of the fun with these two sites that I have! If you use either one, I would love to know what you find!