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 databases and web 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. 

Also visit our Special Collections Room on the 3rd floor of the Decatur Library.  Here you will find genealogy information for families from the Southeastern region of the United States.  Materials include the Georgia Genealogical Magazine, the United Daughters of the Confederacy Magazine, the Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, and Everton's Family History Magazine.  The materials in the Special Collections Room are reference materials and must be used in the library.

Databases

• HeritageQuest Online

  This database includes digital, searchable images of U.S. federal census records, Freedman's Bank Records, and full text family and local history books.  Use HeritageQuest to access PERSI, the Periodical Source Index that covers more than 6,600 genealogy and local history periodical citations written in English and Canadian French since 1800. Make sure to visit the Learning Center to access a collection of webinars on various genealogy related topics.

  
• Obituaries & Death Notices

  This database offers a large and comprehensive collection of newspaper obituaries and death notices from around the United States.

Catalog Links

• Genealogy for the First Time: Research Your Family History
  

  Here's everything you need to know to start researching your family ancestry. Designed to inspire and encourage anyone interested in learning about their family background, this comprehensive guide offers a basic introduction to the primary methods and sources used in genealogy work.

  
  
  
• Tracing Your Family History: the Complete Guide to Locating Your Ancestors and Finding Out Where You Came From
  

  This guide will help you discover your roots and in the process enable you to learn more about yourself. The book is divided into five parts with each section identifying common problems and solutions, Quick Tips, and checklists. 

  
  
  
• Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-selling Basic Guide to Genealogy
  

  Unpuzzling Your Past provides all the tools and information needed to jump into this great hobby by focusing on fundamental strategies for success, questions to ask, places for research, and examples of each step along the way. This guide also offers charts, illustrations, a glossary, and reproducible forms.

  
  
  
• The Weekend Genealogist: Timesaving Techniques for Effective Research
  

  Researching family history takes time - time that many people just don't have. This book shows researchers how to maximize their research efficiency by saving time and utilizing what little they have in the best way possible. The author teaches how to make every minute count through step-by-step instruction and sidebars highlighting important tips and procedures. 

  
  
  
• The Everything Guide to Online Genealogy
  

  Use this book to help you trace and record your family history online. Expert genealogist Kimberly Powell helps you to effectively search various websites, decipher census data and other online records,  and choose the best way to share your data both on and offline.  

  
  
  
• Social Networking for Genealogists
  

  This book outlines different social networking services and how genealogists can use them to share information, photos, and videos with family, friends, and other researchers. Topics covered include blogs, wikis, Facebook, message boards , podcasts, RSS feeds, social bookmarking, and tags. 

  
  
  
• The Family Tree Problem Solver
  

  Learn to break through those research brick walls with The Family Tree Problem Solver. This book dissects researcher's common problems in case studies with straightforward solutions. 

  
  
  
• The Genealogist's Question & Answer Book
  

  Get answers to your genealogy questions! This book provides answers to more than 150 commonly asked genealogy questions in an easy-to-browse format. Questions are grouped according to the different resources, including census records, oral histories, and electronic resources.

  
  
  
• Organizing Your Family History Search: Efficient & Effective Ways to Gather and Protect Your Genealogical Research
  

  Tackle the process of organizing  family research, from filing to stream-lining the process as a whole, with this informative guide.

  
  
  
• Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Geneaology
  

  A resource for both the beginning and advanced researcher.  This is a reference title and must be used in the library.

  
  
  
• Blacks Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree
  

  This book explains everything you need to get started tracing your family history.  It also addresses circumstances faced by researchers tracing African American family history.  Complete with real case histories and photographs of actual documents and records, this book is a must for African American genealogists and researchers tracing African American family history.

  
  
  
• Past Imperfect: How Tracing Your Family Medical History Can Save Your Life
  

  In this simple-to-follow guide, Carol Daus takes you step by step through the process of tracing your family medical history. Daus uses easy-to-understand terms and provides tons of resources for learning more about inheritable conditions.

  
  
  
• Scrapbooking Your Family History
  

  This volume is dedicated to techniques for preserving ancestral memories through scrapbooking. Use those vintage photos, uncovered documents, and newly-found family stories to create scrapbooked family trees and pedigree charts, and histories of family homesteads. 

  
  
  
• Your Guide to Cemetery Research
  

  Your Guide to Cemetery Research is a comprehensive, in-depth resource that's perfect for genealogists, researchers and historians that covers everything from cemetery and death-related terminology to clues offered by headstone art, and cemeteries' role in our culture and history. This is a reference book which must be used in the library.

  
  
  

Web Links

• Ancestors

  The companion web site to the PBS family history and genealogy television series. Site includes a state-by-state research guide, a glossary of genealogy terms, and articles and videos clips on genealogy related topics.

• Ancestry.com Family History Wiki

  The Ancestry.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

  Emory University, with the assistance of a Lyrasis Sloan Foundation Grant, has created digital copies of the Atlanta City Directory from 1859/1860 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

  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.

• 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

  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

  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.

• 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. 

• Family Search

  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 GenWeb Project

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

• 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.

• Research Sources For Families From Georgia

  A comprehensive list of resources that can be used to research families from Georgia.

• Roots Web

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

• U.S. GenWeb Project

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