Searching PERSI in Heritage Quest

What is PERSI (Periodical Source Index)?

PERSI is an index of all the genealogical newsletters and magazines held by the Allen County

Public Library in Fort Wayne Indiana. It is estimated that ACPL owns 80% of all national

genealogical periodicals published in the United States.

What Kind of Information Might I Find in Genealogical Society Periodicals?

• Transcribed or Abstracted Records

• Indexes to Vital Records

• Indexes to Historical Books

• Census Indexes

• Genealogical Queries

• Family Histories

• Pedigree Charts

• Graduation Lists

• Marriage and Obituary Abstracts

• Transcribed Directories

• Abstracted Diaries

• Biographical Sketches

• Naturalization Lists

• Transcribed Bible Records

• Transcribed Probate Court Records

• Scrapbook Transcriptions

How is PERSI Searchable?

By SURNAME

By Country

By State

By County

By Locale

By Subject (Record Type)

By Article Title (Keyword Search)

By Periodical Title

What Will I Find in PERSI?

Article Titles

Name of Publication

Date of Publication

Issue and Volume Numbers

Publisher

Where Available

What Won’t I Find in PERSI?

• Full Text Articles – PERSI gives citations only. To read the article, visit a holding

library or request the article through Interlibrary Loan.

• Abstracts or Summaries – Beyond the title and indexing there is no further description

about the contents of the article.

• In-Depth Indexing – Indexing does not include every place or name mentioned in an

article.

People Searches in PERSI

Use this search to look for articles about a family. This search function will have limited use,

though, because unless your family is the main focus of the article, their names won’t be

indexed. Remember, PERSI does not have an everyname index to genealogy periodicals. If

your ancestor was simply in an article listing individuals buried in a certain cemetery, for

example, their name is not going to show up in the index.

* Place Searches in PERSI

Genealogists will find this the most useful search in PERSI. Use a place search to locate

genealogical records covering a town, county, state, or country. Limit your search by record

type for best results. For example, you can search to see if Vital Records were ever published in

a periodical covering McHenry County. Once you have the citation for this article, you can

request the article via Interlibrary Loan to see if your ancestor is mentioned.

“How To” Searches in PERSI

Find an article citation about how to research a certain topic.

Periodical Search in PERSI

• Browse Periodical Citations by Year and Issue

• View All Articles From a Periodical by Date

• Locate a Periodical’s Publisher and Subscribing Institutions

*Note: The list of subscribing institutions provided in Periodical Search is only a small selection

of libraries. For a more complete listing of library holdings, see www.worldcat.org.