Genealogy Researchers Should Search EBay for Lost Family Artifacts and Information

A friend of mine was recently looking up his family name on Google when a link to an eBay auction appeared. Someone had a scrapbook for sale that my friend's mother had made in 1949. It was full of cards, letters and newspaper articles about my friend's father who was in the military and stationed far away. The album turned up in a distant state where neither my friend nor his parents had lived.

Never before has it been possible to recover such family items from points across the country as it is today, thanks to the internet, and more specifically to eBay. The numbers of people using internet sources to trace their ancestral histories has skyrocketed. For such researchers, eBay is a treasure trove of lost genealogy information.

Perhaps the most efficient way to find information pertaining to your family on eBay is to do a keyword search of your family name. Go to eBay's Advance Search, type your family name into the box and check the little box which let's you search for title and description. Then go to the list of categories that show on the left of the screen and choose those that will be relevant to your search.

Most of the items that may contain information about ancestors will be listed in the following eBay categories: Antiquarian Books; Antiques: Books and Manuscripts; Collectibles: Photographic Images, Paper, and Historical Memorabilia. Its also particularly good to know about the subcategory entitled Genealogy-- which is full of pertinent subcategories for all kinds of family documents. The genealogy category is tucked away under the eBay category called : Everything Else.

What kinds of Ebay items are regularly sold that can reveal information about ancestors and relatives?

Photographs and Photograph Albums: eBay is the best online site to see and purchase antique and vintage photographs. Dealers know that may buyers are looking for specific family names and thus when photos and albums contain names this fact is most often stated.

Scrapbooks: A great source for Christmas and other holiday cards; all kinds of family information about birthdays, weddings, graduations, military excursions and the like.

Books: Look for books written about and by family members, as well as those with inscriptions by and for family members.

Regional Documents and Family Paper and Records: The eBay Genealogy category contains the following indispensable kinds of family and ancestral documents: The Genealogy category contains Births, Marriages, Deaths, Census Records, City, State Directories, Coat of Arms, County, State History, Family Trees, Immigration, Passenger Lists, Maps, Military Records.

It is a shame that more people don't realize how much of a central repository eBay has become for genealogical paper. It will be a pleasant surprise to many that much of this material can be purchased at a very low cost.