Santa Clara County, California Genealogy

United States California  Santa Clara County

Guide to Santa Clara County, California ancestry, family history, and genealogy birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

County Courthouse
Santa Clara County Courthouse 70 W Hedding St 1st Floor San Jose, CA 95110-1768 Phone: 408.299.2481 

County Recorder has birth and death records from 1873 Recorder has birth and death records from 1873, marriage records from 1850, land records from 1846 and military records from1920  County Clerk has divorce, probate and naturalization records 

Parent County
18 February 1850: Santa Clara County was created as an original county. County seat: San Jose

Boundary Changes
For animated maps illustrating California county boundary changes, "Rotating Formation California County Boundary Maps" (1850-1925) may be viewed for free at the MapofUS.org website.

Records Loss
May 18, 1931: Courthouse burned and many records were damaged. For a list of record loss in California counties see: California Counties with Burned Courthouses

For further information on researching in burned counties, see the following:


 * Burned Counties Research
 * http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=2424

Populated Places
San Jose

Neighboring Counties

 * Alameda
 * Merced
 * Monterey
 * San Benito
 * San Joaquin
 * San Mateo
 * Santa Cruz
 * Stanislaus

Cemeteries

 * Santa Clara County list of cemeteries

Invididual Cemeteries:

BillionGraves:


 * Alta Mesa Cemetery, Palo Alto
 * Madronia Cemetery, Saratoga
 * Santa Clara Cemetery, Santa Clara
 * Santa Clara Mission Cemetery, San Jose

Please refer to populated places for individual cemetery information.

Church History and Records
LDS Ward and Branch Records: Gilroy, Los Gatos, Naglee (San Jose), Palo Alto, San Jose and Willow Glen (San Jose).

Maps

 * Maps of California (1850-1925)



Civil War

 * - 1st Battalion, California Native Cavalry (Union), Company A
 * - 1st Regiment, California Infantry (Union), Company D
 * - 1st Regiment, California Cavalry (Union), New Company E
 * - 8th Regiment, California Infantry (Union), Company C

Family History Centers

 * Introduction to LDS Family History Centers
 * Los Altos California Family History Center
 * Milpitas California Family History Center (San Jose)
 * San Jose California Family History Center
 * Santa Clara California Family History Center

Vital Records
See also How to order California Vital Records

Birth
The website for the Office of the Clerk-Recorder for Santa Clara County has information about how to request birth records. They have births after 1873.

Marriage
The website for the Office of the Clerk-Recorder for Santa Clara County has information about how to request marriage records. They have marriages after 1851.

A considerable number of early marriages are listed on the Western States Marriage Index.

Death
The website for the Office of the Clerk-Recorder for Santa Clara County has information about how to request death records. They have deaths after 1873.

Genealogy Societies, Archives and Libraries

 * List of California Archives, Libraries, Publications, Historical & Genealogical Societies

Web Sites

 * Santa Clara County, CA History, Records, Facts and Genealogy
 * California Genealogy Network Community on Google+
 * California Genealogy Network Group on Facebook
 * Santa Clara County CAGenWeb
 * Linkpendium
 * USGenWeb Archives
 * USGenWeb Archives backup site