Genealogy Research Links
These genealogy research links will, for the most part, have a Washington State or Pacific Northwest focus.
Sites such as Ancestry.com will not be listed under every subject for which they have a collection, but will be listed under the General heading.
Archives
General
How-To
Immigration / Migration
Land Records
To see what land records we have at the State Library, go to our Land Records page.
Libraries
Maps & Gazetteers
Military
- Air Force Historical Research Agency
- American Battle Monuments Commission - burial listings
- Casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan 2001 - current -- hosted by iCasualties.org
- Civil War Soldiers and Sailors -- hosted by the National Park Service
- Coast Guard Historian's Office
- Digital Civil War Collection -- hosted by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- Fallen Heroes -- casualties of the Washington National Guard
- George H. Thomas Post No. 5 roster details -- The Thomas post was based in Olympia, WA. This page and other posts that served Washington, Alaska, and Oregon are discoverable through the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Catalog, which has links to detailed descriptions of Grand Army of the Republic posts and is a valuable resource for tracing ancestral military service as it collects roster information extractacted from GAR records both at the Washington State Library and from repositories nationwide that keep and protect GAR records.
- The Wall of Faces - Names and pictures on Vietnam Memorial in Arlington, VA. Use Advanced Search to search by state, county, or city.
- Merchant Marine at War
- Military Casualty Lists 1950-1981 (National Archives)
- Military Genealogy Holdings at the Washington State Library
- Military Personnel Records (National Archives)
- National Medal of Honor Recipients
- National Registration Graves Database - Union Veterans of the Civil War
- Nationwide Veterans Gravesite Locator
- Northeast Washington Genealogical Society (Stevens, Ferry & Pend Oreille counties) Biographies of local soldiers who died in WWI, WWII, Korea & Vietnam. Iraq & Afghanistan casualties are on the Monument update page.
- Prisoners of War (National Archives) - WW II through Vietnam
- Puget Sound Navy Museum
- Spokane WWI Soldiers Remembered/Washington State Servicemen's Cards
- Vietnam POW & MIA Database (Library of Congress)
- The Virtual Wall - Washington State Vietnam casualties
- WA Military Records - on Digital Archives
- WW II Casualties for Navy, Marine Corps, & Coast Guard Personnel (National Archives)
- WW II Honor List of Dead & Missing Army & Army Air Forces Personnel (National Archives)
- WW II Memorial Registry
Newspapers (Online)
*Click here for information about our print newspaper collection*
- Access World News (Newsbank) - Find global information on topics related to business and economics, education, the environment, health, international issues, jobs and careers, leisure activities, people, politics and government, social issues, sports, STEM, technology and more from a variety of news media featuring newspapers, videos and web-only content. Remote access available to library cardholder.
- America's Historical Newspapers (Newsbank) - Explore early American history to support genealogical and local history research. Remote access available to library cardholder.
- HeritageHub! (Newsbank) - Explore your family history with the premier collection of U.S. obituaries and death notices for in-depth genealogical research from 1704 – today. HeritageHub helps you easily identify relatives, uncover new information and potentially unknown family members. Includes deep coverage from all 50 states, hard-to-find content from the mid 1900’s, and original obituary images. Remote access available to library cardholder
- Chronicling America - Search America's historic newspapers pages from 1836-1922 on the Library of Congress web site. Includes several Washington State newspapers.
- Google News Archive - Dates vary by title. Includes Washington state titles, such as the Allyn Times, Arlington Times, (Palouse) Boomerang, Brewster Herald Reporter, Chehalis Bee Nugget, Cheney Free Press, Deer Park Tribune, Deer Park Union, Eatonville Dispatch, Edmonds Beacon, Ellensburg Daily Record, Ellensburg Dawn, Ellensburg Evening Localizer, Garfield Enterprise, Hartline News & Standard, Kettle River Journal, Marysville Globe, Moscow Pullman Daily News, Mukilteo Beacon, Montesano Vidette, Oroville Gazette, Othello Outlook, Quad City Herald, Ritzville Adams County Journal, Ritzville Journal Times, Shelton Mason County Journal, Spokane Daily Chronicle, Spokesman Review, Tri City Herald, Wahkiakum County Eagle, West Seattle Herald, Woodinville Weekly.
- New York State Historical Newspapers
- Online Historical Newspapers - A work in progress list of all of the old newspapers available online, for the U.S. and other countries as well.
- Oregon Catholic Press - issues online from 1870-2021
- Papers Past - New Zealand newspapers from their National Library.
- PROQUEST - Database of journals & newspapers abstracts, with select full-text access. Strengths in business & news coverage. Remote access available to library cardholder
- Seattle Times Collection (Newsbank) - Search more than 30 years of Seattle area history with The Seattle Times Integrated Collection. With coverage from 1985 – current, the Collection contains full-color newspaper pages, individual full-text articles and content only published online. Remote access available to library cardholders.
- SmallTownPapers - Archives of over 250 small town papers, including over 20 from Washington State.
- Spokesman-Review (Spokane) - Access to digital microfilm of Spokesman-Review issues between 2010- current is available with a Washington State Library card.
- Trove - Austalian newspapers from their National Library.
- University of British Columbia Historical Newspapers
- Washington State Library - Washington Digital Newspapers - many from late 1800s - early 1900s to search by name of keyword.
- Washington State News (Newsbank) - Explore and research people, events and issues across Washington State. This resource contains news sources from across the state including: the Bellingham Herald, Chinook Observer, Chronicle, Columbian, Daily Herald, Daily News, Daily Record, Daily World, Kitsap Sun, News Tribune, The Olympian, Seattle Times, Spokesman-Review, Tri-City Herald, Yakima Herald-Republic and more. Remote access available to library cardholders.
Vital Records
*For information on what vital records are available in Washington State, go to our Vital Records page*
Washington Cities & Counties
Washington State Yearbooks Online