Date Posted: Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

There’s a new tool now available for online patrons to search the records of the Delaware Public Archives. Known as the Collection Gateway, this new feature searches the databases of nineteen different collections in the Archives. The Collection Gateway will open a treasure trove of information for historians, genealogists, and all citizens who have an interest in finding Delaware information online.  Among the collections now searchable online are Church records, Orphans Court records, Newspapers, Maps, Coroners Reports, Probates Reports, and Apprentice Indentures. The complete list can be found at de.gov/collectiongateway or on the Delaware Public Archives homepage at archives.delaware.gov. Along with having the ability to easily search through these records; users can also integrate what they find and share their discoveries using social media tools such as facebook, twitter and e-mail.

There are nearly half a million records currently available online and the Delaware Public Archives will continue to add databases to more collections. The Gateway will be updated on a quarterly basis.  To make these materials available online, Archives staff extracted pertinent elements from each document to make it easy to identify each record.  Because not all the information was extracted, the Gateway gives only a glimpse into the full record.  Once a detail page for the document has been reached, it will be possible to e-mail a request for the full record to the Delaware Public Archives.  With this request, the Archives staff can pull the record and send a reply with a link to shop.delaware.gov to purchase a copy. To view the original record, it is strongly recommended that patrons visit the Mabel Lloyd Ridgely Research Center at the Delaware Public Archives.  Take some time to check out this exciting new feature!


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