DPLA PRIMARY SOURCE SETS

While Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture via primary sources, I think they will prove useful for anyone beginning to explore a covered topic. Materials are drawn from the online exhibits of libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, and can include letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more. Each set includes a topic overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide with discussion questions and classroom activities.

I took a closer look at the U.S. History category. Numerous topics are included that may interest genealogists, among them:

• Full Steam Ahead: the Steam Engine and Transportation in the 19^th Century
• The Great Migration (1910-1930)
• The Homestead Acts
• The Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
• The War of 1812
• The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878
• Women in the Civil War
• World War I: America Heads to War
• World War II: Women on the Homefront

Additional Primary Source Sets cover:

• World History
• African Americans
• Asian Americans
• Latino Americans
• Native Americans
• Migration
• Women

Information of this sort can prove very useful as we try to solve research roadblocks, or flesh out a dry-as-dust family history. Take a look!

GRUNT

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Available to our cardholders as a download via Overdrive. 

DOUGLAS MacARTHUR: AMERICAN WARRIOR

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Available to our cardholders as a download via Overdrive. 

THE CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON

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Available to our cardholders as a download via Overdrive. 

UPCOMING GENEALOGY/HISTORY CLASSES

Classes listed below are sponsored or co-sponsored by St. Louis Public Library, and are free and open to the public. Please note that locations for classes vary.

Weds October 20 6:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Hoe! Hoe! Hoe! Researching Farmers & Other Rural Ancestors. Join us as we discuss various ways that genealogists can find books, microfilms, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, and Internet sites that offer information about ancestors who owned / worked farms or other agricultural ventures. Hayner Public Library, 326 Belle Street, Alton, IL 62002. To register or for more information, email me at tpearson@slpl.org.

Sat October 30 10 a.m.-Noon. A Perfect Storm: the Witches of Salem Village. Join us as we discuss witchcraft and witch trials in Europe and North America; the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692; and ways to research ancestors who were accused as witches. Buder Branch. To register or for more information, email me at tpearson@slpl.org.

Thurs November 4 7:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Thirteen Dollars a Month: Recruiting, Enlistment, Conscription, & Desertion in the American Civil War. Join us at this monthly meeting of the St. Clair County Genealogical Society as we discuss how they joined the army during the Civil War; what they got paid for doing so; and how some of them took the money and ran. St. Luke’s Parish Hall, 301 N. Church Street, Belleville, IL 62220. To register or for more information, email me at tpearson@slpl.org.

Thurs November 18 10 a.m.-Noon. Research at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Join us as we discuss the wealth of resources for the genealogist and historian available at this Springfield, Illinois institution. Buder Branch. To register or for more information, email me at tpearson@slpl.org.

Sat November 20 Meeting starts 10 a.m.; talk at 10:30 a.m. Hoe! Hoe! Hoe! Researching Farmers & Other Rural Ancestors. Join us at this monthly meeting of the St. Louis Genealogical Society as we discuss various ways that genealogists can find books, microfilms, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, and Internet sites that offer information about ancestors who owned / worked farms or other agricultural ventures. St. Louis County Library, 1640 S. Lindbergh, St. Louis, MO 63131. To register or for more information, email me at tpearson@slpl.org.

Buder Branch Library
4401 Hampton Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63109

Pre-registration is recommended but not required. To register or for more information, please email me at tpearson@slpl.org. Parking on the Buder Branch lot is always free. It’s easy to add you to my programs notification list. Just email me at tpearson@slpl.org and use NOTIFY in the subject line- that’s all you need to do!