Norway Heritage is the best place on the web to find information on Norwegian emigrants and the ships they sailed on. The passenger list database (1825-1873) contains 62,121 entries from 425 voyages, and elsewhere you can search or browse for ship names, shipping lines, and Norwegian agents. If you know only the year your ancestors departed, browse through the Ship Index (1825-1925) to narrow down the possible vessels. Vessel information and pictures are available for dozens of foreign lines, so check here for details even if your relatives didn't pass through Norway.
Northern New York Historical Newspapers has more than 290,000 scanned and OCRed pages from eighteen Upstate New York newspapers dating from 1811 to 2002. Pages are available as large PDF files, which means that Adobe Reader is required and broadband access is highly recommended. Search results appear in a too-narrow sidebar that you will probably want to resize. Some advanced search options are available, and the FAQs include one other useful tip: Include the newspaper name and year in your query (e.g. "elizabethtown-post-1912") to limit your search to a single year.
Federal Township Plats of Illinois (1804-1891) is a very attractive site with crystal-clear, full-color images of 3,457 plats from the Illinois State Archives. Like the Wisconsin Public Land Survey Records I blogged about in February, these maps can be used with the Federal Land Patent Records Site (try also the Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database.) In just a couple of minutes, I was able to find a particular land patent and call up a beautifully rendered image of the plat. Plats are also available on CD-ROM—one CD for each county, with full-size printable images.
With the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake fast approaching, it seems appropriate to mention San Francisco Genealogy—a clearinghouse for free genealogical and historical information about San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, and the rest of California. Scroll down the list of Online Genealogy Databases and you'll begin to appreciate the effort that has gone into the site. What I like most are the obscure lists found here—listing members of a bowling association in 1949, and guests to the Hotel Bella Vista in 1905. And, yes, there's plenty of information on the 1906 quake and its marital consequences.
Researchers with Swedish ancestry will want to check out a brand-new website called Sök på gravsatta i Stockholm—which is probably not as unintelligible as it appears. The site has information on half a million graves in Stockholm's eleven public cemeteries. Even someone with no knowledge of Swedish should be able to use the search engine ("Förnamn" and "Efternamn" are self-explanatory; for the other words, use your imagination or an online dictionary). In case you're ever passing through Stockholm and want to pay a visit, each search result comes with a map showing where the grave is located.
Medicine was among the more mobile professions in the 1800s, which makes the 19th-Century Indiana Physicians Database all the more useful for researchers with a doctor in the family. Records of over 15,000 self-proclaimed physicians and midwives are included—culled from census schedules, town and county histories, obituaries, and the files of the State Board of Public Health. Entries range in detail from just a single reference to entire biographies, spanning several written pages. For the best-documented individuals, genealogical data is often given in addition to medical curricula vitae.
Sure, Old-Yearbooks.com sells old yearbooks, but—more importantly—they scan and index old yearbooks, and place the information online for all to see. As of today, you may browse through 228 yearbooks, graduation programs, class rosters, and reunion booklets, or search through the indexed text for your surnames. Scans are in full color, and are always legible. Links are given for free and not-so-free resources elsewhere—including the more extensive US School Yearbooks collection at Ancestry.com.
Despite its name, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness is in fact a premeditated effort to match up volunteers with needy genealogists. Researchers from throughout the United States and 48 other countries and territories have agreed to share their time and talents with at least one lucky genealogist per month. Volunteers may charge for out-of-pocket expenses (copies, postage, etc.), but are not allowed to charge for their time. In case you're stumped, the link to "Go Find a Volunteer!" is intentionally placed at the bottom of the Frequently Asked Questions page—a friendly reminder to learn the rules before making a request.