David A. Gilland, Mayor via HathiTrust

Altoona, Pa. Board of trade. [from old catalog]. Illustrated Altoona: A Complete Pen-picture of the City of Altoona ... [Altoona?, 1896. 

Public Domain in the United States

David A. Gilland  (back, standing right) ~ daughter-in-law's 4th great-uncle 

brother of Emma Jane Gilland Potter ~ daughter-in-law's 3rd great-grandmother

b. September 16, 1841, Pennsylvania

d. March 21, 1906, Pennsylvania

I am a wee bit addicted to genealogy research. Spend every spare moment searching databases, newspapers and Google. Find a new ancestor? Off to the races! Who needs sleep? 

Doing research, sites that I use regularly are Google Books, HathiTrust Digital Library and Internet Archive. We don't always locate our ancestors, but you may find local histories and maps for the regions they resided.

This morning (3:00 a.m.), was looking at my daughter-in-law's family tree. From previous research, knew her 4th great-uncle had been mayor of Altoona. Since he was a prominent figure in the community, hoped to discover more of his story.

First up, HathiTrust Digital Library. Searched for "Altoona"+"David Gilland". Found several articles and the above photograph for David A. Gilland. 

Also, this wonderful biography. So much information! Some facts we didn't know, until locating the online book.

• born in Huntingdon County
• moved to Hollidaysburg
• carpenter
• contracting and building all his life
• served in Civil War - Company I, 137th Pennsylvania Volunteers
• served in Tennessee -Government Construction Corps - built bridges
• moved to Altoona in 1865 
• business man
• served as Mayor March, 1874 to April, 1878
• State Legislature for two years

Check out Google Books, HathiTrust Digital Library and Internet Archives. Never know what you will discover.

Here are a two resources about using HathiTrust Digital Library for family history.

The Massive Free Genealogy Resource You've Probably Never Heard Of - Family History Daily

Researching Family History in Hathi Trust by Gena Philibert-Ortega