Find Millions of Genealogy Clues with This Free Website

There are millions of genealogy clues published by genealogy societies that you will never find on Ancestry or FamilySearch. Here's how to use a free resource called PERSI to find those valuable clues.

PERSI (the Periodical Source Index) is now available for FREE on the website of the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It has references to more than 3 million articles. It's definitely worth exploring!

Chapters:
0:00 - What is PERSI (the Periodical Source Index)?
2:42 - How to search PERSI (surname search)
6:34 - Finding how-to genealogy articles
7:34 - Searching PERSI by location
12:42 - Searching PERSI by article title keyword
13:49 - How get the articles you've found on PERSI

#genealogy #familyhistory #ancestry

📙 Amy's book "31 Days to Better Genealogy" is available on Amazon:
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[adoptedscot]

I found my husbands grand uncle and his family who had moved from Scotland to North East England in an article in the NE Family history society magazine and from that made contact with a new branch of the family.

[jackrowe]

I used PERSI in college a thousand years ago! I'm 70 now! You had to go to the library, haul huge volumes from a research shelf, look through that volume and be prepared to repeat the process! This sounds heavenly!

[kangel]

I don't know how you do it, but you explain things in such a clear way that I can understand and then turn around and apply to my genealogy searches! Thank you for your videos! I've learned so much! Ok, now I'm off to go do some PERSI searches! :)

[CocoAmanda]

Thank you so much for this! Never heard of PERSI! I can’t wait to search this weekend.

[annnottingham]

I watched your video about WorldCat last night and tried searching for my family name in Canada. Within ten minutes, I'd nudged a brick wall big time (didn't learn everything but have a lot more!). Thank you!

[debralarrabee]

“Bread crumb navigation” - perfect description! 👍

[kellyalvarado]

Thanks Amy. I used PERSI years ago, but had "forgot" about it. For my local genealogy society, we try to come up with more creative headlines for our newsletter and journal articles, like "grandpa forgot his teeth" . . . but we may be working against ourselves by not keeping them more subject oriented for just such indexing.

[cherimontana]

I am so glad I found you. Wish it would have been a few years earlier. Love what you are doing. Thank you.

[LadyMinKansas]

As I’ve been watching your videos, I kept thinking “I wonder if she did one about PERSI”? ❤️❤️❤️ This has fascinated me for years and I pray this gives me tips and how to access it. I need a private lesson 🤣🤣🤣

[pamgrant]

Great info. Thanks so much. Lots of brick walls in the SHenandoah Valley due to the CIvil War.

[lazygardens]

This opens out a whole new approach.

[dianegouldhall]

This is a wonderful video Amy. Thank you so much. I’ve used PERSI in the past, but it’s been years and I wasn’t good at using it. Guess what I’m doing today? You rock! 😍👍🏻

[donnanorris]

I live in Fort Wayne Indiana! Great library! Have to admit I haven't done much genealogy since the 80s- have 3 grandparents born in the UK and had trouble researching their genealogy - should revisit trying PERSI.

[patriciajrs]

Thanks for showing us so many ways to combat our roadblocks. It does help.

[sigridkutz]

I have relatives who moved to United States from Germany, I believe right after WW1. The lady was my grandmothers aunt. She and her daughter than granddaughter corresponded with her for years. The last letter and card I have was in the late 1950s. I would love to find out what happened to them

[soulGrafitti]

Interesting. I was just in Ft. Wayne a few weeks ago on a business trip and walked right by the library. Next time I'll add some time to actually go in.

[pastorclay]

Half my family is Ramsey, our Higginbotham reunions in Nahunta had loads of them. Considering my brother and I are the only Higginbotham’s left with the name from our line.

[gmagpa]

Thanks for this great video. It helped me learn so much more about PERSI. Your instructions were clear and easy to follow. It is something I definitely want to explore! How great that you can order the articles right from the search pages. I really appreciate your work!

[maureentaphouse]

These days Family researchers from anywhere in the world can watch videos also made anywhere in the world. As I'm in the UK is PERSI of any use to me looking for non US material? It would be helpful to clarify whether it is specific to a particular country or not. Thanks for your help on this as I got a bit excited that it might be of use to find a particular Training school for lads wishing to go to sea from West Wales. Somehow my instinct is that is not.

[fluffy]

Very helpful videos from fellow Pennsylvanian. Thank you