Repositories & resources
A name search is only one way in. Choose the institution that might have kept the evidence, then check what survives for your place and period.
Start with a collection.
Use catalogs to discover records by place and subject. Check coverage and access notes before assuming every item is digitized or name-searchable.
- FamilySearch Catalog ↗ — collections arranged by places, subjects and more.
- How to work through the catalog
Follow a federal connection.
For a U.S. federal research question, begin with a guide to the relevant record type. The guide can help identify the series, facility and access route.
Go where the records began.
Find the official website for the historical county or state. Identify the clerk, recorder, court or archive responsible for the record series; names and responsibilities vary.
Find the title, then the story.
Identify newspapers for the right place and years, then locate surviving issues. Searchable text and digitized coverage are only part of the picture.
Look in someone else’s collection.
A family may appear in an employer’s ledger, a minister’s papers or a local-history file. Search community institutions and associates alongside surnames.
- Library of Congress guide to genealogy resources ↗ — includes archival discovery tools.
- Explore local libraries
- Search university special collections
Ask who remembers—and who kept it.
Trace the custodian of old registers and collections. A congregation, society, cemetery or successor business may hold the next useful record.
Before you travel or request a copy
Confirm the collection, surviving dates, access restrictions, appointment requirements and copying fees directly with the repository. Keep its reference number and your research question together.
These starting points focus on U.S. research. The method—identify the record creator, locate the custodian, examine the original—also travels well. External resources are independently operated.