Follow Your Family Through America's History

Climb beyond the names and dates on your family tree to the recorded details of their daily lives. Find the facts in four centuries of fragile, rare newspapers, books and documents.

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examples: 1804 - 1849 | June 1804 - August 1849

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Historical Collections

Historical Newspapers (1690 - 1980 - All 50 States)

Search over 133 million historical newspaper articles and find obituaries, marriage notices and often surprising facts about your ancestors. With more than 2,500 historical newspapers, you’ll find not only names, dates, places and events, but also learn about the everyday challenges and moments of triumph that defined the lives of your ancestors. Newspapers added monthly! view title list

Historical Books (1801 - 1900)

A unique source that provides you with complete text of more than 11,700 books, pamphlets and printed items including: genealogies, biographies, funeral sermons, local histories, cards, charts and more - all published in the U.S. prior to 1900. view title list

Historical Documents (1789 - 1980)

Find military records, casualty lists, Revolutionary and Civil War pension requests, widow's claims, orphan petitions, land grants and much more including all of the American State Papers (1789-1838) and all genealogical content carefully selected from the U.S. Serial Set (1817-1980). More than 229,700 reports, lists and documents. Now digitizing August 1957. New content added monthly! view title list

Modern Collections

America's Obituaries (1977 to current)

Obituaries contain helpful information such as names, dates, places of birth, death, marriage and family information. Over 29.3 million obituaries make this the most complete collection from the 20th and 21st centuries - includes over 1,144 U.S. newspapers. New content added daily! view title list

FREE! Social Security Death Index (1937 to current)

Search over 83.1 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!

New content added for 63 titles from 24 states this month!

• Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA) 6/13/1838 to 11/12/1855
• Virginia Argus (Richmond, VA) 12/29/1797 to 10/19/1816
• Evening Sun (Jonesboro, AR) 6/8/1905 to 12/21/1921
• Boston Journal (Boston, MA) 7/1/1807 to 12/31/1898
• Cincinnati Commercial Tribune (Cincinnati, OH) 5/1/1871 to 9/30/1890
• And much more! View entire list