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Contains a huge collections of different kinds of records relevant to local and family history. You can search for people by name across all these record collections, or you can search the different kinds of records in turn. Some of the most important record types are listed below.
Delivers billions of full-text, full-image records in sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more. Unlike individual subscriptions, does not include the option of developing a linked online genealogy.
Includes passenger lists and naturalization records. Though these record collections are not as comprehensive as census records, the naturalization records in particular can contain fascinating information.
The Census is the most comprehensive source for information on U.S. residents. Conducted every ten years, the Census has always been a huge undertaking. Census schedules, the forms on which census enumerators recorded data, are available from 1940 and earlier.
Before there was Google, there were phone books. And before phone books, there were...city directories. These aimed to list residents of a city, sometimes with occupation and other info. The directories on Ancestry can be searched, but also browsed; they often contain maps, images, and statistics on a town.
Scanned city directories can also be found on Google Books, HathiTrust, and Internet Archive.
More than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers, including titles from all 50 states. Coverage: between 1690 and 1998.
Created by Readex through partnerships with the American Antiquarian Society, Library of Congress, Wisconsin Historical Society and others, America's Historical Newspapers enables researchers to explore virtually every aspect of America during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
Newspapers from 1836-1963 (most pre-1925) and a directory of American newspapers published between 1690 and the present.
Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). The site is still a work in progress.
The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy
