Primary sources at your fingertips

Researchers (died in the wool, heavy duty fact explorers) prefer primary sources. To be able to see the original data, not filtered but right there - the raw, pure, unprocessed data. As the researcher views the original documents then their theories can be affirmed or denied.

Where are original documents for medical students, sociologists, historians, and linguists to be found? Usually the unfiltered data is stored at the repository for the documents - courthouses, archives, research institutions. Usually these repositories are far, far away from the researcher.

GALILEO has a resource with 65 separate databases that have original images that can be printed. What you ask, is this phenomenal resource?

It's Ancestry.com. It is only available at the library (so you don't need the GALILEO password).

If you've done any genealogy, you're already aware that you can find relatives in Ancestry.

As a dedicated researcher, it may not have occurred to you to mine the original images in Ancestry looking for patterns, links, and esoteric bits of information about famous (and not so famous) folks.

How do you find the databases in Ancestry with the original images?

GALILEO (in the library only)
Databases A-Z
A
Ancestry
In the middle of the screen under More Collections, there are links to assorted resources.
Select all databases
In the keywords box, type images
Click the Search button toward the bottom of the screen

65 databases are shown. When you click on one, there is a note to the right that says This database contains images of original records. The next best tool offered by Ancestry for the serious data miner is the Sample Forms which are available for each original images database. The Sample Forms allow one to map out the facts that could be gleaned from this particular database.

Now you know. You only need to travel as far as your local Georgia library to access these primary documents and do your own figuring out why things happened!


-kls