🔎 Research Guides

The U.S. has counted its population every 10 years since 1790, and the census is the backbone of American research. From 1850 on, it lists every person by name, with ages, birthplaces, occupations, and (later) the year they immigrated. Following one family across several censuses shows children arriving, the household moving, and parents aging.

• Records are released to the public 72 years after they're taken — the 1950 census is the most recent one available.
• Most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a 1921 fire — a famous gap, so don't waste time hunting for it.

These are the official certificates of life's big events, kept by state and county governments. They're prime evidence because they were usually created at the time of the event.

• Statewide record-keeping mostly began in the early 1900s; before that, look to the county — or to church records of baptisms and marriages.
• A death certificate is a genealogist's friend: it often names the person's parents, giving you a bridge back another generation.
• Recent records are restricted for privacy, so expect limits on the last 75–100 years.

When someone died, the local court settled their estate — and those probate files are gold. A will or estate inventory frequently names a spouse, every child, and in-laws, and can reveal relationships no other record spells out.

• Especially valuable before the mid-1800s, when birth and death certificates didn't yet exist.
• Look for wills, estate inventories, and guardianship papers (which appear when minor children were left behind).

If an ancestor served — or was of an age to be called up — the military generated records rich in personal detail.

• Draft registration cards cover huge numbers of men who never served: the WWI draft (1917–1918) registered ~24 million, and a 1942 "old man's draft" registered older WWII-era men.
• Pension files are often the richest of all — to claim a pension, a veteran or widow had to prove marriages, births, and deaths, so the file can read like a family dossier.

For families that came from overseas, the passenger manifest is the record of their arrival — and later manifests can list their age, hometown, and the relative they were joining.

• Ellis Island (New York) processed arrivals from 1892 to 1954; Castle Garden handled New York arrivals from 1855–1890.
• Naturalization records (the "declaration of intention" and the "petition") document the years-long process of becoming a citizen and often give a birth date and town.

Documents give you dates; newspapers give you the story. An obituary can name a spouse, children, siblings, and birthplace in a single paragraph, and old local papers reported marriages, anniversaries, visits, and mishaps in loving detail.

• Chronicling America (from the Library of Congress) is free and covers papers up to the mid-1900s.
• Newspapers.com is a large subscription collection with strong 20th-century coverage.

A DNA test can confirm a paper trail, break through a brick wall, or connect you with living cousins. There are three kinds:

• Autosomal (atDNA) — the common one. Covers all your ancestral lines back about 5–6 generations and is best for finding cousins. Offered by AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritage.
• Y-DNA — follows the direct father's-father line (and the surname). Only men can take it. Great for surname studies. (FamilyTreeDNA.)
• Mitochondrial (mtDNA) — follows the direct mother's-mother line. Anyone can take it.