Those who research historical records - as I do for Quiet Title actions, family history and heir locates - will find the new California Voter Registrations - 1900-1968, supplied by Ancestry.com very helpful. You can search a name for free, but a subscription is required to view an image of the record.

The State of Connecticut Judicial Branch, Conviction & Bond Forfeiture Dispositions Criminal/Motor Vehicle database supplements the Pending Criminal Cases search.

The holdings and limitations are described at the site.

# Each Criminal And Motor Vehicle Charge Disposed On And After January 1, 2000 In Which The Court Disposition Was A Conviction Is Included

# Each Criminal And Motor Vehicle Charge In Which The Court Action Was Concluded By A Bond Forfeiture Order On And After January 1, 2000 Is Included

* A Motor Vehicle Matter Disposed By Way Of Bond Forfeiture Is Deemed A Conviction Pursuant To Connecticut General Statutes Section 14-1(a)(18)

# Youthful Offender And Juvenile Cases Are Not Displayed

# This Criminal History Record Information May Change Daily Due To Erasures, Corrections, Pardons, And Other Modifications To Individual Criminal History Record Information.

Identify civil surgeons who have been designated by the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to perform medical exams on applicants. Search by state or zip code. Or search by name from a search engine with the query: name site:uscis.gov. Replace the word name with the personal name.

Find criminal and administrative actions against doctors at the Drug Enforcement Administration, Diversion Control Program site. A search by last name or year returns name, location, date of arrest, conviction result, DEA registration status and a case summary. This database goes back to 2003. Search older registrant actions from a search engine with the query: name site:www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/.

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Access to Archival Databases (NARA AAD) maintains searchable collections of government records and indexes online. The most popular are military: World War II Army Enlistment Records, Records on Korean War Dead and Wounded Army Casualties, Records of World War II Prisoners of War and Records with Unit Information on Military Personnel Who Died During the Vietnam War. The NARA AAD also has an index of historical Securities and Exchange Commission public companies - searchable by officer and director names and company names. This supplements (although the NARA doesn’t have the documents online) the free full text search in the EDGAR system at the SEC (which is only the past 4 years) and the header information in SEC filings (which goes to 1994).

View the short tutorial on searching the holdings of:

Proposed Sale of Unregistered Securities by Individuals, created, 1/4/1972 - 9/29/2000 and

Trading of Securities by Corporate Insiders, created, 7/11/1978 - 3/12/2001

| View | Upload your own

The New York Attorney General site, Project Sunlight, makes many New York State public records accessible in one search. Conduct a name search simultaneously through corporation, charities, lobbyist, financial contributions and state contracts databases.

U.S. Passport Applications 1795-1925 have been collected together into one database that can be searched by name or date and other criteria. Ancestry.com has assembled this from U.S. government sources The images of original applications may include photographs, physical descriptions, country of origin, place of residence, travel companions, marriage status and affidavits of relatives.

Search the FamilySearch.org index of international birth, death and marriage records collected by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ProGenealogists collect links to international vital records that are searchable in online databases.

The limited statewide California Divorce Index, produced by the Department of Vital Records for a mere 18 years, has been added to the Ancestry.com product line. Divorces that occurred from 1966 to 1984 are searchable by name or partial name, and can be cross referenced with a spouse name or date of divorce, and restricted to a specific county. View a summary record that lists the spouse, location and date of the divorce, or view the microfiche image.

The California Marriage Index, 1960-1985, was also recently added, but this is widely available in other places.

Here are some new, merely worthy of a mention and updated search portals, search engines and databases.

Genealogy

RootsWeb - Newspaper Indexes
Search for the appearance of personal names in some historical newspapers.

Public Records Portals
SearchSystems - New Web site links. This site collects links to searchable public records databases and non governmental databases that collect various types of information. The “Newsites” page is updated several times a week.

Search Engines

American Legal Media has revamped its search engine, which primarily searches sites within the Law.com network. LawQuest may be useful for identifying articles and case decisions but much of the content is restricted to subscribers. [Via LegalSites]

Perform a name search at Voompeople to find employment and business associations. This can be a means of doing a name search for officers in a corporation, particularly useful in states (like California) where the Secretary of State corporation entity lookup is only by corporate name.

The National Archives provides links to all the state archives, which sometimes have online indexes of public records that are not at the local jurisdiction’s Web site. While these may be of more relevance to genealogists, private investigators often are charged with developing social histories for criminal defense cases, tracing beneficiaries for real estate matters, rooting out unclaimed assets or developing background on people and companies.

After you get to the state archives site look for a link to online databases or family history records if you don’t see the type of record listed you’re interested in. If the index isn’t online you can review the index and records at the state archive or receive microfilm through inter library loan. The California list of family history records includes:

COUNTY RECORDS 1850-1987. Includes probate court case files, wills, naturalizations, deeds, homesteads, and vital records for 28 counties. Not all records are available for all counties.

MENTAL HEALTH RECORDS* 1856-1972. Records may include registers and case files for Stockton, DeWitt, Modesto, Mendocino, and Sonoma State Hospitals. Some indexes available.

The Delaware Archives house state historical documents and have created an online index of probate files covering the years 1680 -1925. Search by last name, first name is optional, for a list of full names, date and county of filing.

These are not indexes to all the names appearing in the records, but only the names of the deceased for whom the files were created. Contained in each index are the individual’s name, and a date or dates. The dates correspond to the date of the documents within that individual’s file and may refer to a date of the will or to a date for probate to begin. New Castle and Kent County Probates are on self service microfilm available in our Research Room, and Sussex is in the process of being filmed (inquire with Research Room staff for details). Copies of this microfilm are also available for sale.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has an online Wisconsin Name Index to their holdings. Order document images for a fee.

The Wisconsin Name Index includes 150 county and local histories, dozen of professional directories and biographical encyclopedias, more than 60 scrapbooks containing 30,000 obituaries, and selected articles in Wisconsin magazines and newspapers. These publications were indexed by Wisconsin Historical Society librarians between roughly 1870 and 1970 but contain information on individuals from earlier date ranges. You can search the Wisconsin Name Index and purchase full text copies of available items which will be mailed directly to you.

Glance at my prior postings over the last few years for links to other sources.

The brochure Genealogical Resources in U.S. Federal Depository Libraries has hyperlinks to Federal government resources on the Internet related to U.S. Census, military, immigration, land and vital records, and government agency history. Among the documents are archived telephone directories, some searchable, which are helpful for verifying when and where a person worked for a federal agency.

Review the other genealogical topics I’ve covered in past postings.

State archives, local genealogical societies and State libraries can be unexpected sources for people finder resources. Last year I listed some of the vital records indexes housed at the California State Archive. Gateways to genealogical sites, other state vital records sources and the genealogical associations (which often have more relaxed access to public records than a government office) are collected at this posting.

Find other state or topic specific entries from my archives using the PI buzz search tool.

Find cemeteries on a map within a specified geographical region. This visual tool adds a valuable dimension to the work of building family trees - developed for death penalty, real estate and probate cases - because names of counties change and cemeteries fall into disuse. Select a state and county to see each cemetery plotted on the map. This genealogy site also pre-searches the selected cemetery name for any references at Rootsweb.