Your Public Library: The Most Underrated Tool in Genealogy
Your library card can unlock paid genealogy databases for free, plus local history collections, interlibrary loan and expert reference help. Here's how to use all of it.
Libraries & Archives
How to get the most from public libraries, genealogy libraries, archives and courthouses, in person and online.
The Family History Library and FamilySearch Centers
The world's largest genealogy library is free and open to everyone, and its thousands of branches and affiliate libraries unlock records you can't see at home. Here's how to use them, in person or online.
America's Great Genealogy Libraries, and What Each Does Best
A handful of libraries hold collections no website can match. Where they are, what makes each one special, and how to use them from home.
Planning an Archive or Courthouse Research Trip
Most records still aren't online. How to find out what an archive or courthouse holds, prepare before you go, follow reading-room rules, and come home with everything you need.
Mastering the FamilySearch Catalog: Records Nobody Has Indexed
A name search covers only a fraction of what FamilySearch holds. The catalog leads you to millions of digitized but unindexed record books, free. Here's how to use it.
Full-Text Search: Finding Ancestors in Handwritten Deeds, Wills and Court Records
Computer handwriting recognition has made millions of unindexed pages searchable for the first time. How FamilySearch's full-text search works, how to search it well, and its limits.
Free Digital Libraries: Internet Archive, HathiTrust, Google Books and More
Millions of county histories, family histories, city directories and old reference books are free online, searchable word for word. Where to find them and how to search them.
County Histories, Published Family Histories and Genealogy Journals
Nineteenth-century county histories, compiled genealogies and scholarly journals can hand you generations of research, if you know how to use them and when not to trust them.
Find the records
Websites and archives for this topic are in our Resource Directory under Libraries, Books & Digital Collections.
Other topics
Getting Started 21Census Records 16Birth, Marriage & Death Records 15Church Records 12Cemeteries & Burials 2Newspapers & Obituaries 3Land & Property Records 7Wills, Probate & Court Records 13Tax Records 3Military Records 5Immigration & Naturalization 12DNA & Genetic Genealogy 9Libraries & Archives 8Research in the Old Country 10African American Research 2Research Methods & Evidence 31Brick Walls 11Organizing Your Research 7Online Sites & Family Trees 11