Genealogy Research: Planting Your Family Tree

The Library of Congress has one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogical and local historical publications. The Library's genealogy collection began as early as 1815 with the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's library.

Government provided guide on starting your family research.

Military records can often provide valuable information on the veteran, as well as on all members of the family.

There are a number of free websites where you can search for passenger arrival records (manifests). Some are very general and some can be very specific. Here are some that we have found particularly helpful- and they are totally free.

Learn more about your family history from census records. The National Archives released the 1940 census on April 2, 2012 (personally identifiable information collected for a decennial census is released to the public after 72 years). Although censuses are a source of genealogical information, the Census Bureau is not able to locate missing persons, or provide recent information on individuals.