Research Guides: History: Genealogy

Key Article Databases

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
EBSCO - leading scholarly index to journal literature of history and culture in U.S. and Canada. Covers some journals back to 1910. Indexes 1,700 journals.

Cyndi's List
An index of genealogical websites, including over 290,000 links.
Online Historical Directories Website
List of online directories, where available and if free or for fee.
Ancestral Findings
State-by-state directory to both free and fee-based genealogical websites; Ancestral Findings also includes articles covering various aspects of research.
Forebears
A genealogy portal with a geographically indexed directory of sources and a dictionary of surname meanings.

Oxford Names Studies Reference Books Online
Oxford University Press
The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy
The Oxford Companion to Family and Local History (2 ed.)
Oxford University Press
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"family and local history of the British Isles... English, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh origins"
The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History
Oxford University Press. Entries on legal and other specialist terms; types of documentation; sources of information; social and religious groups; institutions and organizations; historical and political events; official functions and occupations; and authors and scholars.

FamilySearch
FamilySearch is a window into the genealogical records gathered by the LDS church.
USGen Web
Free genealogical websites organized by county, state, and country. Local information varies widely as all sites are managed by volunteers.
Find a Grave
Crowd sourced collection of cemetery records and tombstone photographs
The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives: Social and Cultural History - The Future of Our Past
Ships, passenger lists, brochures, descriptions
PhotoTree
Brief history of 19th century photography with hints to date family photographs.

Ancestry.com
A large collection of quality original documents, as well as features that allow you to create your own family tree and interact with other researchers. This allows you a 14 day free trial or you can use the library edition at the local public libraries.
fold3
Two levels of service: the first is free, providing access to many records. Full access to online records requires a subscription.
Findmypast
Subscription site for researching British and Irish family history. Has a section of free records.

New York Times Historical with Index This link opens in a new window
ProQuest - (1851-2020) The Historical New York Times with Index - includes full-text & page images.
Nineteenth Century US Newspapers This link opens in a new window
GALE - Full pages and clipped articles for hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers. For each issue, the newspaper is captured from cover-to-cover, providing access to every article, advertisement and illustration.
London Times Digital Archives 1785-2014 This link opens in a new window
GALE - Archive of The Times from London covering two and a half centuries of content. Includes from the earliest issue to five years previous of current year.
Chinese Newspapers Collection: ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
ProQuest - (1832-1953) Historical newspaper provides online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events in China.
American Periodicals (1740-1940) This link opens in a new window
ProQuest - Full text of scientific journals and popular magazines printed between 1740 to 1940. Titles range from general interest magazines, women's journals, children's issues and scholarly publications.
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
Readex -Articles and full-text books published in 17th- and 18th-century America. Subjects include agriculture, foreign affairs, literature, music, and religion.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspapers pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Source: National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress
Washington (State) Historical Newspapers
Washington State Library - Digitized collection of Washington newspapers. (years covered 1852-1922)
Free Historical Newspapers Online from Ancestory Hunt
Historical newspaper articles are available from thousands of links to free newspaper sites. Divided by state and type of sources.
Google News
Includes roughly 2,000 historic newspapers scanned from around the world, including the Spokesman-Review. Articles are searchable by news source, source location, and/or author, and can be limited by date.
Google News browse by newspaper
Online Historical Newspapers Website
Lists of newspaper from US, Canada and a few other areas that are available online with links to individual titles and whether the newspaper is available free or for a fee.