Do you have ancestors who lived in Chicago, Illinois?

If so, the Newberry Library has a new resource to make research easier.

Opened in 1887, The Newberry Library, a renowned humanities research and reference institution,houses a world-class collection of books, manuscripts, maps, music, and other printed materials related to the history and culture of Western Europe and the Americas and spanning many centuries. Holdings include medieval manuscripts and early maps, as well as extensive genealogical resources. Among its collections are some 1.5 million books, 5 million manuscript pages and 500,000 historic maps.

A new interactive, map based site has been announced to help family history researchers and Chicago historians. ChicagoAncestors.org was developed by the staff of the library's Local and Family History department.

According to the library, the online map makes searching and sharing historical information easier.

"There is a huge amount of local historical information about Chicago in books and on the Internet," said Jack Simpson, co-director of the project and curator of local and family history at the Newberry Library. "We're trying to help researchers find that data by allowing them to search by proximity of a particular address or intersection."

A look at the site shows that data includes everything from historicchurch locations, neighborhood bibliographies and historic homicides, as well as many Internet resource links, including historical photos of the city.

Visitors can research the history of a Chicago address and identify relevant Library ersources, as well as educational institutions and houses of worship. You might learn where your great-grandfather went to school, or what church or synagogue your ancestors attended.

Researchers can also create a saved profile, and share their research and knowledge with relatives and other researchers of the same neighborhoods or names. And, by registering, users can add comments to points on the map or even map their own historical and genealogical information, such as tracing the various places your ancestors lived and worked in the city.

Ginger Frere, project co-director and reference librarian, says that "researchers are now contributing their own information about schools, churches and other institutions."

Interest in maps and online mapping is growing among researchers as an example of how technology is providing new tools.

I wish I had Chicago-based ancestors so it would help in my own research. Perhaps the success of the Newberry website will encourage other institutions in other cities to create similar projects.

In fact, the website's technical design was created by the Chicago Technology Cooperative, which built it on open-source software, thereby "creating a template for use by other communities for local historical mapping."

The Newberry collections are often the focus of exhibits, music and theater programs, as well as classes, lectures and other activities. If you live in or will be visiting the Chicago area, do spend some time there. See the website for address and calendar of events.

Have you visited the Newberry Library and used their resources?

Let me know - I look forward to reading your comments and questions.

Family researchers on a quest should contact genealogical and historical societies where their ancestors lived. These groups often work on indexing projects relative to their geographical areas.

The Southern California Genealogical Society - which also sponsors a great conference each year (Jamboree) - is particularly active in this regard, publishing volumes on immigration and naturalization extracts and also working on the 1892 Great Register of Los Angeles Voters.

Another major work is a multi-year project to reconstruct the Los Angeles County portion of the 1890 United States census, lost to fire and subsequent water damage, and create a searchable database based on many types of records, such as birth, death, marriage, cemetery, tax, immigration, church, and an every-name index of the 1890 Los Angeles Times.

The SCGS has just published four new volumes in its immigration and naturalization series. Now available in both softbound and CD versions are declarations of intentions filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California, Central District (Los Angeles).

The new volumes cover October 4, 1906-April 3, 1911, April 4, 1911-January 6, 1914, January 8, 1914-July 28, 1915, and July 28, 1915-February 3, 1916. They cover intentions numbered 1-3239.

Included in these documents - addition to name, age and address - are birthdates and places, physical description, method of immigration and port of entry.

In addition to the documents, there is an address index for indicated addresses as well as an index for birth locations indicated by the applicants.

According to one entry, from the SCGS journal "The Searcher" (Autumn 2008):

Lundstrum, Ture Edwin Intention No. 1243

Ture Edwin Lundstrom, aged 32 years, whose occupation is Carpenter, was born in Gislof, Simrishamn, Sweden on March 08, 1880. Mr. Lundstrom presently resides at 150 Colima Ave., Los Angeles, California. He departed from the port of Southampton, England on the vessel Titanic & transferre to Carpathia mid-ocean, arriving at the port of New York in the State of New York about April 18, 19132. His last foreign address was Simrishamn, Sweden.

Mr. Lunstrom's physical description: Color: White; Complexion: Fair; Height: 5'6"; Weight: 145 pounds; Hair Color: Light Brown; and Eye Color: Blue. Other distinctive mars: None. With his Declaration of Intention signed before Wm. M. Van /dyke, Clerk of the United States District Court, Southern District California by Chas, N, Williams, Deputy Clerk on February 25, 1913, Ture Edwin Lundstrom renounces his allegiance to Gustavus V, King of Sweden.

Researchers can obtain a digital or printed copy of the original record from which the abstract was taken, by contacting the society via email: scgs@scgsgenealogy.com.