History & Genealogy

The Alberta Online Encyclopedia is a multi-media encyclopedia that showcases all aspects of the historical, cultural, natural, scientific and technological heritage of Alberta. Note: Red Deer Public Library does not subscribe to Alberta Online Encyclopedia. This is just a link to the freely available version on the Internet.

The Alberta Research Portal provides free access to the following resources:

• 19th Century North American Newspapers
• 19th Century U.K. Periodicals
• American Fiction 1774-1920
• Archives of Human Sexuality & Gender
• Associated Press Collections Online
• Brazilian & Portuguese History & Culture
• British Literary Manuscripts Online
• British Newspapers I-V
• Burney Collection of 17th/18th Century Newspapers
• Chatham House Online Archive
• China-From Empire to Republic
• Crime Punishment and Popular Culture 1790-1920
• Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2004
• Early Arabic Printed Books
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online
• Financial Times Historical Archives 1888-2010
• Gale World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean
• Indigenous Peoples of North America
• Liberty Magazine Historical Archive 1924-1950
• Making of the Modern World
• Nineteenth Century Collections Online
• Picture Post Historical Archive 1938-1957
• Punch Historical Archive 1841-1992
• Sabin Americana
• Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive
• Smithsonian Collections Online
• State Papers Online 1509-1714
• State Papers Online 18th Century 1714-1782
• The Economist Historical Archive
• The Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003
• The Independent Digital Archive 1986-2012
• The Listener Historical Archive 1929-1991
• The Sunday Times Digital Archive 1822-2006
• The Telegraph Historical Archive 1855-2000
• The Times Digital Archive 1785-2008
• The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive 1902-2009

This resource is provided by The Alberta Library.

Important: Ancestry: Library Edition is only available for use while on site at the library. Remote access ended Dec. 31, 2021.

Ancestry® Library Edition delivers billions of records from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and more. You can unlock the story of you with sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more. 

Need help? Try their YouTube channel for step-by-step guides or see helpful resources here.

Please note that Ancestry Library Edition has different features than private subscriptions of Ancestry.com. Certain personalized functions, options, databases, and collections may not be available.

Explore more than 125 years of Canadian news coverage. You now have cover-to-cover searchable access of Alberta's largest and oldest daily newspaper, the Calgary Herald.

This database offers unparalleled access to the full text of over 400 Canadian news sources from Canada's leading publishers. This full text database includes the complete available electronic backfile for most newspapers, providing full access to the articles, columns, editorials and features published in each. Most titles are updated daily and some backfiles date as far back as the late 1970s.

This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.

A good starting point for all research. Includes the complete encyclopedia, as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, Britannica Student Encyclopedia, and the Britannica Book of the Year. Note: Red Deer Public Library does not subscribe to Encyclopedia Britannica. This is just a link to the freely available version on the Internet.