2026 is upon us, fam. It's got us all thinking about time and what to anticipate in the new year. You know, like people have been doing for CENTURIES. Question for you: How did that work out for the people in your past? No, not your ex-boyfriend from high school who used to play drums. Your PAST PAST: your ancestors. Do you know who they are? How the Depression affected them? When and how they came to this country or, if you're of indigenous ancestry, where and how their tribe lived?
If you don't know the answers to those questions, Normal Public Library can help. We subscribe to a number of databases, including Ancestry, that can help you discover who your ancestors were and how they moved through the world. Recently we added Heritage Hub, a database that contains content from newspapers published in the US and its territories. This can be useful for, say, looking up birth and death dates as well as other relatives' names that you may not know. Once you've got some of those, you can pop into the Ancestry database here at the library. It must be used only in our building (darn digital rights restrictions). But it has ZILLIONS of bits of historical data, including photos, census records, and other items that can help you look into your family's past.
Does the term 'zillions' or even the term 'database' sound intimidating? NO WORRIES. We can help with those too! We have a monthly program called 'Genealogy Meetup' on the first Tuesday of the month from 2-3 pm. Adults can attend in person or via Zoom for help in searching family history on Ancestry and in other sources. Our next session takes place on Tuesday, January 6th, and don't forget to reserve a spot here.
Prefer to start with print? We've got several items in our nonfiction section at 929.1 to start your journey, including Practical Genealogy: 50 Simple Steps to Research Your Diverse Family History. If your peeps were local, we even have historical city directories and other local history treasures so you can see where someone lived or went to school back in the day. Whether your ancestors included mayors or maids (or both!), we can help you look forward into your own past. And just as in 2026, you never know who, or what, you might find there. Look into your personal past at NPL!