One of the most valuable genealogical databases in use today, PERSI helps researchers quickly locate information about people and places in over 1.9 million genealogy and local history articles.
Record Type:
Searchable Database
Location:
Primarily U.S. & Canada - Created and maintained by the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, PERSI contains more than 1.9 million citations from more than 6,500 genealogy and local history periodicals (journals, magazines, etc.) published in the United States and Canada (in both French and English), Britain, and Ireland. There are even some from as far as Australia.
Time Period :
1800 to the present (time period covered by the articles ranges from the 1700s to the present)
What is PERSI?:
The Periodical Source Index, or PERSI, is the largest subject index to genealogical and historical periodical articles in the world. Created by the Historical Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, PERSI is widely recognized as being a vital source for genealogical researchers.
What Can I Learn From PERSI?:
The PERSI index lists every article from over 6,500 genealogy and local history publications according to locality, family (surname) and/or research methodology. Each citation includes information about the publisher of the periodical which you can then obtain through the publisher, your local library, or interlibrary loan. You may also contact the Allen County Public Library, which owns a copy of each periodical indexed in PERSI, for photocopies of articles.
Where Can I Acess PERSI?:
You may search the PERSI resource from within any Allen County Public Library facility. Outside of Allen County, the PERSI resource is available from many public libraries on CD-ROM and/or through HeritageQuest Online - a genealogical database available to users (including remote access) of subscribing libraries. For now, an older version of PERSI is also available as a subscription database from Ancestry.com (but not the AncestryPlus library version). Ancestry also sells PERSI on CD-ROM.
What to Expect:
PERSI provides family historians with access to articles, photos, and other material that they may otherwise never locate through traditional search methods. PERSI can be a great way to locate cemetery transcriptions and other records that have only appeared in a serial publication, as well as family histories, and articles on the locations of your ancestors.
It is important to know that while PERSI is very comprehensive, it is not a full-text index. Not every surname included in a given article is included in the index. The main family being researched is listed, while individuals mentioned only in passing usually do not appear in PERSI.
