Here's what you will find in this section:
Getting Started: links to reputable, wide-reaching sources that offer guidance on starting your genealogical journey and may include many types of documents and records from the United States.
Community: major types of organizations that can help connect you to records and information.
Organizing and Preserving: resources for free sources of organizational tools for your family tree and records and reputable resources on preserving photos and documents.
Trouble Spots: common difficulties faced by researchers and resources to help tackle some of these problems.
NARA maintains the records of the U.S. federal government that are deemed so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept. Researchers can access collections in person in Washington, D.C. or access digital collections online. Their records include census, military, immigration (ship passenger lists), naturalization, and land records.
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The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.
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The USCIS Genealogy Program is a fee-for-service program that provides researchers with access to historical immigration and naturalization records of deceased immigrants.
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The National Genealogical Society is a nonprofit organization based in Falls Church, Virginia. While the organization is not a source for records, it offers tools and community resources for people interested in genealogy and family history.
The organization's guides are structured to help you search at every level of expertise: Getting Started, Going to the Next Level, and Building Advanced Skills.
As a reminder, it's smart to be careful about sharing information about yourself and your living family. You should always obtain permission from living family members before making information about them available to other people. You should also read privacy information carefully for any subscription-based service before sharing your personal information.
Ancestry.com, Fold3, and HeritageQuest
See our Family History and Genealogy Resource Guide for details on accessing Ancestry.com, Fold3, and HeritageQuest through the Princeton Public Library.
Ancestry.com is a subscription-based source of both U.S. and international records. Some services and features can be used for free, including tools to create a family tree, but access to most records requires paid membership.
Fold3 is an Ancestry property that focuses on military and military-adjacent records primarily for the U.S. but also includes some international records.
HeritageQuest is an Ancestry property that focuses on U.S. records.
Privacy statement for Ancestry and its properties.
The Princeton Public Library is a FamilySearch affiliate library, which means that additional records are accessible while using the database within the library. No library card is required,
This is a wide-ranging, subscription-based genealogy database run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tools include a family tree builder as well as access to records. Services can also be accessed through local research centers.
Privacy statement for FamilySearch.
Previously the New England Historic Genealogical Society, this is a membership-based online repository for genealogy research. There is an option for a free membership with limited access as well as several tiers of paid membership.
More helpful links:
10 Million Names project for researching enslaved people
Privacy statement for American Ancestors.
This is an open web-based genealogy site that serves as an index to online genealogy sources. No registration is necessary.
Digital Public Library of America
This collection aggregates information from a wide range of partners, including libraries, archives, museums, and other organizations into a searchable database. Results can then link back to the original institution.
This is a crowd-sourced online search tool for finding graves and burial information. No registration is required to search the site, but you must register to add information to the database. This site can also be used to find cemetery information from around the world.
This is an online repository for an international community of research libraries and includes many historical records and genealogy materials that may be of interest to researchers. Some materials on this database are freely available, while others require affiliation with one of the member institutions.
This is an open web-based genealogy site that includes a network of websites and repositories to help genealogists connect to information. No registration is necessary.
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Newspaper Databases
You may need to contact a local library, historical society, or archive for access to locally produced newspapers, and there are also fee-based databases for accessing newspaper archives. See our Family History and Genealogy Resource Guide for details on accessing holdings at the Princeton Public Library. Below are some examples of free online sources of historical newspapers.
American Prison Newspapers, 1800s-present: Voices from the Inside (open access via JSTOR)
Independent Voices (open access via JSTOR)
Internet Archive newspaper archives
Immigration Databases
While immigration records may also be found in other multipurpose databases like Ancestry and FamilySearch, it may also be helpful to search databases that exist for historical ports of entry to the U.S.
Genealogical research can be difficult and painful for people whose ancestors were enslaved. Records may include numerical counts of enslaved people within a household without collecting names or other personal details. Some people changed their names after enslavement or in later generations, or had their names changed during enslavement, which can also cause difficulties for researchers. Below are some databases and resources that may be helpful to researchers facing these challenges.
National Archives, Federal Records that Help Identify Former Enslaved People and Slave Holders
New Jersey Slavery Records: This project from Rutgers University focuses on records for enslaved people and enslavers in the State of New Jersey.
Northeast Slavery Records Index: This project from CUNY offers an online searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and enslavers in the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Slave Voyages: Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the result of research from multiple U.S. universities, this database includes information on various slave trade routes and features databases of both enslaved people and enslavers.
10 Million Names: This project from American Ancestors is focused on recovering the names of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America.
Last Seen: Finding Relatives after Slavery: This project aims to identify, digitize, transcribe, and publish ads placed in newspapers across the United States (and beyond) by formerly enslaved people searching for family members and loved ones after emancipation.
Genealogical research can be of particular interest for people with indigenous ancestors who wish to be tribally enrolled. Records can be found on many of the major genealogy sites, including Ancestry.com, and below are some additional resources to help navigate this process.