Purpose

The purpose of this study is to respond to the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing special issue call for discussions that can assist advertising and marketing history researchers locate primary sources of interest to their research by describing the resources available through the online family history websites Ancestry.com and FindMyPast.com.

Design/methodology/approach

Brief histories of Ancestry and FindMyPast are presented, based on publicly available records and secondary sources. This paper explains the types of data researchers can access via Ancestry.com and FindMypast.com, the costs of access and then provides some examples of how these resources have been used in past research by marketing and advertising historians.

Findings

Family history websites such as Ancestry and FindMyPast can provide researchers with access to a wide variety of data sources, such as census and voting records; immigration records; city directories; birth, marriage and death records; military records; and almanacs and gazetteers, but at a cost. In some cases, paying for digital access to records is more convenient, timely and can cost less than travelling to access these same documents in physical form. Depending on the researcher’s geographical location and the country from which records are sought, this can add up to quite a cost savings. When using these sources, it is wise to determine which database contains more of the records you are searching for; Ancestry tends to have better US and Canadian resources, while FindMyPast covers the UK better.

Originality/value

Researchers interested in conducting advertising and marketing history research need access to primary data sources. Given restricted travel budgets and, indeed, restricted travel under COVID-19 conditions, gaining access to primary sources in digital form can allow researchers to continue their work. At any time, gaining access to digital records without having to travel can speed up the research process. Researchers new to the field, and those with many years of experience, can benefit from learning more about family history databases as primary data sources.

中文翻译：

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从家族史网站访问营销和广告史研究的主要来源

目的

本研究的目的是响应《营销历史研究杂志》特刊号召，通过描述在线家族史网站 Ancestry 提供的资源，帮助广告和营销历史研究人员找到他们研究的主要兴趣来源。 com 和 FindMyPast.com。

设计/方法/方法

根据公开可用的记录和二手资料，介绍了 Ancestry 和 FindMyPast 的简要历史。本文解释了研究人员可以通过 Ancestry.com 和 FindMypast.com 访问的数据类型、访问成本，然后提供了一些示例，说明营销和广告历史学家在过去的研究中如何使用这些资源。

发现

Ancestry 和 FindMyPast 等家族史网站可以为研究人员提供访问各种数据源的途径，例如人口普查和投票记录；移民记录；城市名录；出生、婚姻和死亡记录；军事记录；和历书和地名录，但要付出代价。在某些情况下，支付对记录的数字访问更方便、更及时，并且比以物理形式访问这些相同文件的成本更低。根据研究人员的地理位置和寻求记录的国家/地区，这可以节省相当多的成本。使用这些来源时，明智的做法是确定哪个数据库包含您要搜索的更多记录；Ancestry 往往拥有更好的美国和加拿大资源，而 FindMyPast 更好地覆盖英国。

原创性/价值

有兴趣进行广告和营销历史研究的研究人员需要访问原始数据源。鉴于旅行预算有限，并且实际上在 COVID-19 条件下旅行受到限制，以数字形式获得主要资源可以让研究人员继续他们的工作。在任何时候，无需旅行即可访问数字记录可以加快研究过程。刚接触该领域的研究人员和具有多年经验的研究人员可以从了解更多有关家族史数据库作为主要数据源的信息中受益。