Genealogy

Are you inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about your ances­tors? This sub­ject guide con­tains a small list of the mate­ri­als avail­able at the Library that will help to get you start­ed trac­ing your fam­i­ly his­to­ry. Addi­tion­al­ly, this guide includes links to resources that can assist you in expand­ing your search.

If your fam­i­ly is from the South, make sure to vis­it the 2nd floor of the Decatur Library. There you will find a wealth of resources, some gen­er­al and some spe­cif­ic to coun­ties and fam­i­lies in Geor­gia and sur­round­ing states. Most of these items can be found in the 929 dewey call num­ber range. While there, make sure to check out our micro­film and micro­fiche hold­ings on geneal­o­gy relat­ed resources, includ­ing the Atlanta City Direc­to­ry; the Mar­riage, Divorce, and Death Reg­is­ters for Geor­gia; Geor­gia State Cen­sus; and news­pa­pers includ­ing the DeKalb News Era, the Atlanta Con­stu­tion, the Atlanta Jour­nal, New York Times, and Wash­ing­ton Post.

Resources

Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry Library Edition

An exten­sive resource that includes U.S. fed­er­al cen­sus images and index­es from 1790 to 1930, the Social Secu­ri­ty Death Index, WWI Draft Reg­is­tra­tion Cards, Fed­er­al Slave Nar­ra­tives, and a strong Civ­il War col­lec­tion. Only avail­able inside the library.

Need help using Ancestry Library Edition? Click here!

HeritageQuest

HeritageQuest

With cov­er­age dat­ing back to the late 1700s, Her­itage­Quest com­bines dig­i­tal, search­able images of U.S. fed­er­al cen­sus records with dig­i­tized col­lec­tions of fam­i­ly his­to­ries and oth­er pri­ma­ry source doc­u­ments. The data­base also includes Rev­o­lu­tion­ary War Pen­sion and Boun­ty Land War­rant Appli­ca­tion Files and Freed­man’s Bank Records.

Need help using HeritageQuest? Click here!

HeritageHub (formerly Obituaries and Death Notices)

HeritageHub (formerly Obituaries and Death Notices)

Com­pre­hen­sive cov­er­age of obit­u­ar­ies and death notices from 1704 through today, for geneal­o­gists and fam­i­ly his­to­ri­ans. Search thou­sands of news­pa­pers from all U.S. states and ter­ri­to­ries. Includes orig­i­nal obit­u­ary images from his­tor­i­cal news­pa­pers and dig­i­tized con­tent from the mid-to-late 1900s. New records added daily. 

Books

Web Resources

Ancestry.com Family History Wiki

Ances​try​.com Fam­i­ly His­to­ry Wiki

The Ances​try​.com Wiki is a great place to find a great deal of arti­cles and resources on any top­ic in geneal­o­gy. Dig­i­tized ver­sions of two major ref­er­ence sources, The Red Book and The Source, can be found at this site. This resource is free to access.

Atlanta City Directory

Atlanta City Directory

Emory Uni­ver­si­ty, with the assis­tance of a Lyra­sis Sloan Foun­da­tion Grant, has cre­at­ed dig­i­tal copies of the Atlanta City Direc­to­ry from 18591860 to 1922. A pre­cur­sor to the mod­ern phone book, city direc­to­ries pro­vide researchers with a great deal of infor­ma­tion for indi­vid­u­als includ­ing the name, occu­pa­tion, spouse, and employer.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

Chron­i­cling Amer­i­ca: His­toric Amer­i­can Newspapers

Search America’s his­toric news­pa­pers pages from 1836 – 1922 or use the U.S. News­pa­per Direc­to­ry to find infor­ma­tion about Amer­i­can news­pa­pers pub­lished between 1690-present. Click on the U. S. News­pa­per Direc­to­ry to search for news­pa­pers by date, eth­nic­i­ty, and loca­tion. From the Library of Congress.

Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet

Cyndi’s List of Geneal­o­gy Sites on the Internet

This web­site is an index to more than 250,000 geneal­o­gy relat­ed websites.

DeKalb History Center

DeKalb His­to­ry Center

The DeKalb His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety (DHS), estab­lished in 1947, is the only orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to keep­ing the his­to­ry of DeKalb Coun­ty, Geor­gia through preser­va­tion, edu­ca­tion and doc­u­men­ta­tion. Resources include oral his­to­ries on tape, bio­graph­i­cal files and photographs.

Digital Library of Georgia

Dig­i­tal Library of Georgia

The Dig­i­tal Library of Geor­gia is a gate­way to Georgia’s his­to­ry and cul­ture found in dig­i­tized books, man­u­scripts, pho­tographs, gov­ern­ment doc­u­ments, news­pa­pers, maps, audio, video, and oth­er resources.

FamilySearch

Fam­il­y­Search

This web­site is spon­sored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat­ter-day Saints. Resources include the Inter­na­tion­al Geneal­o­gy Index and the cat­a­log of the Fam­i­ly His­to­ry Library in Utah. Site also has arti­cles on how to research your family’s history.

Georgia Archives

Geor­gia Archives

The Geor­gia Archives iden­ti­fies, col­lects, pro­vides access and pre­serves Georgia’s his­tor­i­cal documents.

The GAGenWeb Project

The GAGen­Web Project

This is the orig­i­nal Geor­gia Gen­Web project. Look here for Geor­gia geneal­o­gy information.

Georgia State Office of Vital Records

Geor­gia State Office of Vital Records

Read the Geogia Vital Records FAQ to see the types of records avail­able and how to obtain them.

Georgia's Virtual Vault

Geor­gia’s Vir­tu­al Vault

This is your por­tal to some of Georgia’s most impor­tant his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments, from 1733 to the present. The Vir­tu­al Vault pro­vides vir­tu­al access to his­toric Geor­gia man­u­scripts, pho­tographs, maps, and gov­ern­ment records housed in the state archives.

Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources

Red Book: Amer­i­can State, Coun­ty, and Town Sources

Red Book is designed to help fam­i­ly his­to­ri­ans learn where to find infor­ma­tion about their ances­tors by tak­ing an approach focused on local­i­ties. Orga­nized by state, the con­tent directs users to resources in areas includ­ing Vital Records, Cen­sus, Land, Tax, Pro­bate, Ceme­tery, Church and Mil­i­tary Records.

Research Sources For Families From Georgia (PDF)

Research Sources For Fam­i­lies From Geor­gia (PDF)

This doc­u­ment, availal­ble at the Brigham Young Uni­veristy web­site, includes an exten­sive list of resources that can be used to research fam­i­lies from Georgia.

Roots Web

Roots Web

This site con­tains a large data­base of sur­names as well as access to gov­ern­ment records, mail­ing lists, and mes­sage boards.

US GenWeb Project

US Gen­Web Project

This is a vol­un­teer project aimed at pro­vid­ing web­sites for geneal­o­gy research for every coun­ty and every state.

Find A Grave

Find A Grave

This site’s mis­sion is to record and list the grave site infor­ma­tion for famous peo­ple, fam­i­ly and friends. Free mem­ber­ship offers the abil­i­ty to post grave site infor­ma­tion, pic­tures and vir­tu­al memorials.