Genealogy Research

African American Biographical Database is the largest electronic collection of biographical information on African Americans from 1790-1950. Biographies of thousands of African Americans, many not found in other reference sources, are assembled from biographical dictionaries and other sources. Includes extended narratives of African American activists, former slaves, performing artists, educators, writers, and more.

Biography Reference Center offers a comprehensive collection of more than 461,000 full-text biographies, including the complete full-text run of Biography Today and Biography, as well as thousands of narrative biographies that are not available in other databases. In addition to keyword searching, users can also locate biographies of interest by browsing more than 30 genre categories, including actors, authors, composers, explorers, figures relevant to U.S. & world history, inventors, musicians, Presidents of the United States, current world leaders and many others.

Includes family histories, genealogical serials, local histories, and primary sources for genealogical research.

The HistoryMakers collection is an archive of filmed oral history interviews of contemporary African Americans who have shaped modern history and made significant contributions to history, politics, education, law, arts, science, business, the military, and sports.

Military & Government Collection offers current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government, including full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals. The database also offers indexing and abstracts for more than 400 journals.

Search across multiple ProQuest Databases that include theses, dissertations and multiple newspapers from around the world.

Accessible Archives provides access to several primary source collections. African American Newspapers contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and is rich with first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day, including the Mexican War, Presidential and Congressional addresses, Congressional abstracts, business and commodity markets, the humanities, world travel and religion. The collection also provides a great number of early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements all of which embody the African-American experience. The Civil War Collection contains in depth articles from a variety of perspectives and sources. Bluford Library also has access to The Liberator (the newspaper published by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison) and The Pennsylvania Express.

Find diverse global perspectives on topics related to business, controversial issues, criminal justice, economics, health, education, the environment, government, journalism, politics and more from a variety of current and retrospective news media including newspapers, newswires, blogs, broadcast transcripts, periodicals and web-only content including the Charlotte Observer (1985-Current) and Greensboro News & Record (1990-Current). Also includes Access Business News, Access International News, Access Military, Government, and Defense, Access Newswires & Transcripts, and Acceda Noticias.

This database contains periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals.

This database provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.

IIBP Full Text draws its current content from international scholarly and popular periodicals in Black Studies and contains full-text coverage of core Black Studies periodicals. The database covers a wide array of humanities-related disciplines including art, cultural criticism, economics, education, health, history, language and literature, law, philosophy, politics, religion, and sociology among others.

Proquest Databases also includes access to dozens of newspapers across the United States, some with regional offices that covered events out of state. For example, the Norfolk (Va) Journal and Guide had a Greensboro, NC columnist.

Produced for over a century, Sanborn maps chart the growth and development of more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Sanborn maps are large-scale plans of a city or town, drawn to scale of 50 feet to an inch. They were created to assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property. The maps list street bocks nad building numbers including numbers in use at the time the map was made and previous numbers. Bluford Library provides access to Sanborn maps for North Carolina.

PolicyMap offers easy-to-use online mapping with data on demographics, real estate, health, jobs and more in communities across the US. From the classroom to the boardroom, thousands of organizations trust PolicyMap to find the right data for their research, market studies, business planning, site selection, grant applications and impact analysis.