U.S. County Research Using The Family History Guide

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From Bob Taylor:

When you’re looking for information on your ancestors in the United States, remember to take advantage of resources at the county level. These may include vital records, directories, census records, military records, newspapers, and more.

The Family History Guide can be a great asset for your research. Here are four items to explore when you are looking into doing county research. Each item has a corresponding link in The Family History Guide for reference.

Maps (United States, Goal A2)

Seeing a historic map or county borders that match the time your ancestor may have lived in that location can be very helpful in your research.

1. Go to Choice B: Use Maps Effectively.
2. In step 8, there is a link to a collection of historic maps for most states on the Genealogy Hound site.
3. In step 9, you can see how county borders changed over time, using the Newberry or Randy Majors websites. There is a lot to explore here!

Directories  (United States, Goal A2)

Directories commonly provide street addresses, church and cemetery information, etc., which can help you pin down the location of that elusive ancestor.

1. Go to Choice D: Use City, Town, and County Directories.
2. Watch the videos and read the articles in the Choice to learn more about directories and how to use them.
3. In particular, read the article in step 3 to learn about county directories.

Histories and Timelines  (United States, Goal A2)

These resources help you capture historical information that can provide clues in your research.

1. Go to Choice E: Use Histories and Timelines Effectively.
2. In step 2, watch the video on using county histories in your research.
3. Read the articles in step 3 to learn more about using timelines.

QUIKLinks to County Records  (United States, California Counties)

Note: This example uses California counties, but there are also QUIKLinks to counties in all 50 U.S. states in The Family History Guide.

1. Go to the U.S. state page of interest (California in this example). You can find the states listed under the large picture in the United States page.
2. Click “CA Counties” in the QUIKLinks section under the picture.
3. In the Counties section (bottom of the page), you’ll see a map of current counties as well as links to county resources.
4. Click the county name to access FamilySearch county resources; or the “A” for Ancestry resources; or the “L” for Linkpendium resources. (If you haven’t tried Linkpendium, you are in for a treat!)

In the Vault 

Here are a few resources for county research from our Vault page that you may also find helpful:

• City and County Directories
• Getting Around Burned County Records
• County Records and Genealogy

Happy county researching with The Family History Guide!