I found this don't know how good it is, but it could lead some somewhere maybe.

Here is a link that might be useful: freegovinfo

Vieja,

The Mormon church has a website that provides free information as you outlined above. See the link below. HTH.

Terry

Here is a link that might be useful: Free Family History, Family Tree, and Genealogy

Not only does the Mormon church have an excellent web site as Terry states above, they have huge resources. You can download a free family tree maker to keep your records straight. They have Libraries all over the world with extensive collections of materials, check for your area. If they do not have what you need in the local library they will bring it in from Salt Lake for a nominal fee in the form of film or microfiche.

Be aware the local libraries can get very busy so you may need to book a time for an overhead film viewer or computer although the online information seems much improved now. The local libraries were free when I went but a donation was appreciated, I gave $2 a time and was told that was overly generous.

Yes, I have also used the Morman Family History service here locally & found it to be helpful in a lot of family geneology search but I was wondering if I could at home access Gov't. info. just on things like census reports, birth/death records. I thought that some years ago I was able to access this info.from my computer at home & that this was public information accessible x the Gov't.

Seems these businesses that sell the info. have closed access now to this info. to make $$ ?

Our local public library cardholders can access HeritageQuest online which has the census records available. You might check your library for resources like this.

The link below has land patents and is accessible by the public. A land patent is the first recorded ownership of a parcel of land. It will include surveyor's description of the parcel, when purchased or homesteaded, the land office where the patent was first recorded, the date of purchase, and by what instrument it was purchased. The purchcase method are mostly cash and warrants.

Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Mexican War were issued warrants good for land patents. The majority of the receipitents of these warrants used those to aquire land for themselves. However, these warrants could be sold to others, sometimes as low as 10 cents to the dollar. In this case, I'm not sure how it got recorded when a someone used a purchased warrant to aquire land.

A land patent is valuable for documenting exactly where an ancestor's land holdings were located.

BLM GLO (Bureau of Land Management - Government Land Office)

Several states also have public genealogy web sites. The Illinois site also has duplicate of land patents in Illinois. For example, brouse the Illinois site below to see what sort of information is available.

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/

A third source of information is the Government Military listings. Use Google to uncover these URLs with search words such as "Civil War", "Military pension", "World War 1", etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: BLM GLO Records - Home

There is a slightly morbid site called SSDI where you can do a quick check to see if someone who had social security has died.

Seniors use it to remove names from their holiday card mailing lists. There is a bit of additional information such as when and where some people died.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Jemdandy, I shall try the sites you mentioned, esp. SSDI & the military records. The people at the Family History office at one of our Morman churches also suggested a library in a near by town that has more info. He said the Catholic Church they find is somewhat reluctant to give out info. & I had found that to be true as I had wanted to get copies of birth, baptism, marriage certificates from them. What little I have so far from the State of New Mexico are some copies that havee their source printed on the back as coming from the Morman's too! As I understand, the census info. is not available to the public until about ? 50 or 70 years have passed ... the next available census will be that of 1930. The copies I got from the Morman Church History Office from 1900 & 1910 census are fascinating as to the info. that was recorded then!

1930 Census records have been available since 2000. The next records to come available will be 1940. You can find some census index records on the US GenWeb sites.

Here is a link that might be useful: Genweb

vieja, you mentioned New Mexico, so I have linked the webpage on Genweb for what they have available on the New Mexico census records. These are all submitted by volunteers so there is a limited number of records.

Here is a link that might be useful: GenWeb New Mexico Census Index

so many options now for me... I just had no idea as to where to begin; I can see now where geneology can quite easily become more than just a curiosity & be rather addicting! One good lead is all it takes & now I have so many ..thanks!

Thanks camp56 for correcting the dates on census records; any reason as to why they are not released earlier ... privacy maybe?

Yes, vieja, I believe there is a Federal law that only allows the full census information to be released after a period of 60 years, so the 1940 census will be available in 2010.

Vieja, you also should try getting hold of as many old photos as possible. Contact/badger relatives for copies. With the computer it is now so much easier as they can hopefully scan you a copy of what they might have. It can get quite fascinating and you might just get sidetracked a time or two. Be sure to get details of who is on those photos, how many of us have an old cookie tin or shoe box with photos and no names, places or dates?

owbist: I'm a photo 'nut' already! I have 16 labelled photo albums full & have made a directory so I can refer to it when I want to know what album to look in for a particular photo. I inherited my Mom's suitcase full of old family photos ( a few tin type!) & thankfully (or not: ... if no names written on the backs I could have then tossed them in good conscience!)she had names of all the persons in each one marked on the backs. Being so old & knowing they wouldn't last much more (though those old B & W photos sure held up great!)I spent a whole winter - and much $$$- using the Kodak & Fuji machines at SAM's & WalMart making copies. Then I put them in albums according to each family line & relations. Me obsessive/compulsive about order/saving ? ... you bet!! :)
And what will the next generation do with all this stuff? Hmm!

I faithfully label & date the back of every photo I have developed x my digital camera as soon as I get the photos home & also make a CD of them all. I notice the color prints from just a few years ago sure don't hold up as well as the B & W seem to do. I try to get them developed on Fuji paper ... any thoughts on this vs. Kodak paper in those machines? I don't trust the Kodak sheets used in my home laser printer for saving photos.

Oh, brilliant news about the photos. I always feel the reason those old black and whites stay so good is because they were always stored in biscuit/cookie tins so the light never had a chance to fade them. Except when times to reminisce came along and they were brought out.

As I emigrated to Canada over 40 years ago I was not about as the family gradually went off to the happy hunting grounds in the sky so never got given any old photos. Once I started a tree I foraged and was sent quite a few. Then I spent quite a bit of time repairing scratches and tears in some but I enjoyed that bit.

I assume you know you can 'write' on the backs of your digital photos and it then stays with the file? For anyone who may not know how just right click on a photo, click Properties at the bottom, click Summary at the top. You then have the choice of simple or advanced. Lots of information there if a photo is taken with a digital camera.