Genealogical Gophers
An online site, Genealogical Gophers, searches 40,000 genealogy books that have been digitized by FamilySearch. Most are books that were published prior to 1923, so no longer covered by copyright laws. They range from county histories to city directories to family histories. There’s a little bit of everything.
In doing a search, it is easy to use. Start by placing a name — a given name or surname. You can also search for a title during a specific time period with a surname. Once you locate an interesting item, click the title of the book or the thumbnail image. 
One called up, a digital section of the book appears with the ancestor’s name highlighted. The number of selections is listed on the left side. The book can be a family history, a city directory, a history of a town, college books, genealogical journals, business guides, any number of printed sources.
While you’re looking at a book, you can do a search just within that title, using the search box above the image. You can also download to your computer the entire book as a PDF. There might even be a photo of any ancestor in one of these resources.
In the near future more books, some 60,000, will be put into digital form. 
Photos: Bixler in a city directory for Indiana in 1895, Bixler family listing in 1920 and Manchester College 1920.
Related FamilyTree.com genealogy blogs:
Preserving Books and Documents
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