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Family History & Genealogy

| Major Genealogy Sites | Genealogical Associations & Societies | Databases of Records | Regional Resources |
| Finding Genealogical Resources at the UW Libraries |

For additional web sites useful for family and local history, see Pacific Northwest History and State History.

Major Genealogy Sites

• Ancestors
  PBS website accompanying program. Site includes resource guide, charts and forms and genealogical links.
• Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
  The major site of genealogical links (more than 180,000). The site is comprehensive, well-organized and updated frequently.
• RootsWeb
  Rootsweb provides guides to genealogical research, mailing lists, links to genealogy sites and a searchable surname registry of more than a million names.
• USGENWEB Project
  Site designed to "provide Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States." Also see the WorldGenWeb Project.

Genealogical Associations & Societies

• Federation of Genealogical Societies
  "The Federation of Genealogical Societies, founded in 1976, has three major purposes: serving the needs of its member societies, providing products and services needed by member societies, and marshaling the resources of its member organizations."
• Historical Societies on the Internet
  List of historical society web sites arranged by state maintained by the Indiana Historical Society.
• International Internet Genealogical Society
  "We envision this organization as being key to worldwide genealogy. When we must we will store information, but for the most part we would be an organization helping others to acquire and store information in their own repositories, whether by funding, by sheer volume of volunteer manpower or simply through technical advice. Linking all of this together through the master pages housed in a multi-lingual format in conjunction with new standards, enabling software to access this data - all genealogists worldwide will have interactive access to all the information that has been placed online no matter where it or they might be located."
• The National Genealogical Society
  Home page of the Society. NGS is a national organization with more than 14,000 members.
• Washington State Genealogical Society
  • Eastside Genealogical Society
  • Puget Sount Genealogical Society
  • Seattle Genealogical Society
  • South King County Genealogical Society
  • Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society

Databases of Records

• 1901 Census of England and Wales
  The 1901 census can be searched for free, small charge for actual images of the original documents.
• American Family Immigration History Center
  Searchable database of Ellis Island immigration records. Free but registration required.
• Cemetery Records Online
  Links to worldwide cemetery records includes a search feature allowing you to find records by surname.
• Family Search
  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints massive genealogical database of names searches their Ancestor database as well as the U.S. Social Security Death Index, the 1880 U.S. Census, 1881 British and Canadian censuses.
• Federal Land Patent Records
  Searchable database of land patents issued between 1820 and 1908 in the Eastern Public Land States.
• Social Security Death Index
  Searchable database of "records of deceased persons who possessed Social Security numbers and whose death had been reported to the SSA." This site is offered free by Ancestry.com. Other resources available by subscription.

Regional Resources

• Family History Centers
  A worldwide directory of the LDS affiliated Family History centers provides addresses of centers located in Washington State. The centers provide research help and access to the Family History Library's (located in Salt Lake City) many genealogical resources.
• King County Library System KCLS has a number of Specialized databases useful for family historians: Genealogy & Local History Online, New York Times Historical Backfile, Ancestory Plus (in library use only). You can use these databases within the libraries or access them remotely if you have a KCLS card.
• Kitsap Regional LibraryKPL has a number of Specialized databases useful for family historians: Historical New York Times, Genealogy & Local History Online. You can use these databases within the libraries or access them remotely if you have a KPL card.
• National Archives - Pacific Alaska Region
  This branch of NARA is located in Seattle. It holdings include Federal population censuses from 1790-1930, military, land and naturalization records.
• Seattle Public Library
  SPL has a number of Specialized databases useful for family historians: Digital Sanborn Maps, Heritage Quest, Ancestory Plus (in library use only). You can use these databases within the libraries or access them remotely if you have a SPL card.
• Sno-Isle Regional Library
  Sno-Isle has a number of Specialized databases useful for family historians: Digital Sanborn Maps, Heritage Quest Online, Ancestory Plus (in library use only). You can use these databases within the libraries or access them remotely if you have a Sno-Isle card.
• Tacoma Public Library
  TPL has created a number of local databases useful for family historians researching Pierce County: Washington Place Names, Photography Archive, Obituary Index.
• Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Regional Branch
  The Archives branch located in Bellevue has a number of records of interest to genealogists including the territorial census, marriage license records, voter listings and property records.

Portrait of a family ca. 1920-1940, courtesy of American Memory.