PERSI – The PERiodical Source Index
What is Persie?:
The Periodical Source Index, or Persia, is the largest subject index to genealogical and historical periodical articles in the world. Created by the Historical Genealogy Department of Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is Persie widely recognized as a vital source for genealogical researchers.
What can I learn of Persia?:
The exhibit index lists every article from more than 6,500 genealogy and local history publications by locality, family (surname) and / or research methodology. Each citation includes information about the publisher of the journal, which you can then get through the publishing house, your local library or interlibrary loan. You can also contact the Allen County Public Library, which owns one copy of each periodical indexed in Persia, for photocopies of articles.
Where can I Acess Persie?:
You can search in Persia resource inside every Allen County Public Library facility. Outside of Allen County, is the Persie resource available from many public libraries on CD-ROM and / or through Heritage Quest Online – a genealogical database available to users (including remote access) to subscribing libraries. For now, an older version of Persia also available as a subscription database from Ancestry.com (but not AncestryPlus library version). Ancestry also sell Persie on CD-ROM.
What to expect:
Persie gives family historians with access to articles, photographs and other material that they otherwise might never locate through traditional search methods. Persie can be a good way to locate cemetery transcripts and other records that have only appeared in a serial publication, as well as family stories and articles about the location of your ancestors.
It is important to know that while Persie is comprehensive, it is not a full-text index. Not every surname included in any article included in the index. The main family is researching is listed, while individuals mentioned only in passing does not normally appear in Persia.
