Richards Free Library Blog

How much do you know about your family history? Is your family new to New Hampshire, or have you been here for decades—or even for centuries? Where did they come from originally? When and where were they born? What did they do for a living?

Now you can find out.

Through a program initiated by the New Hampshire State Library, public libraries throughout the state, including Richards Free Library, now have access to Ancestry.com’s Library Edition, which includes more than 7,000 databases that deliver billions of records using censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, maps and more.

Ancestry.com’s Library Edition is available only at participating libraries; you cannot log in from home. Patrons with laptops can access the information on site at libraries with wireless internet access.
The service is easy to use: to get started, all you need is a name. Ancestry.com’s Library Edition then searches its databases to find everyone with that name, or even names that are similar. The more information you have—country, state, year of birth, etc.—the more Ancestry can filter its databases to help you narrow down your search.

You can learn not only about people’s birth, marriage and death dates, but also their jobs, how long they went to school, who lived with them and other interesting facts. You can even view enlistment records and, in some cases, find the streets they lived on or learn their phone numbers.

New content is always being added, so you can keep coming back to discover more about your ancestors—or even others.
To date, more than eighty New Hampshire public libraries are using Ancestry.com’s Library Edition through the group organized by the New Hampshire State Library. As more become interested, they will be able to add this service.