Washington Compiled Genealogies

United States Washington  Washington Genealogy

Most archives, historical societies, and genealogical societies have special collections of previous research and indexes of genealogical value. To begin the search of an ancestor in these collections, you may wish to begin with available published indexes, both on a national level as well as a local level. Many genealogy databases are on line through various websites.

Nationwide Indexes

 * FamilySearch™ Genealogies contains lineages organized into family groups and pedigrees with an every-name index. This was created from a database formerly known as Ancestral File.


 * The Family History Library has an extensive collection of almost 50,000 published U.S. family histories and newsletters. Copies at the library are listed in the Last names Search of the FamilySearch Catalog.


 * Major collections of printed family histories are also found at most of the archives and libraries listed in United States Archives and Libraries. Most large libraries have indexes and catalogs to published family histories. For a list of the indexes and catalogs available at the Family History Library see the Family History section of United States Compiled Genealogies in the Wiki.


 * National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC). "The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, established in 1959, is a cooperative cataloging program in which repositories from all over the United States open to the public report their holdings of manuscript collections to the Library of Congress. Staff members of the Manuscripts Section of the Library's Special Materials Cataloging Division prepare catalog entries for these reports, which are published annually in book form by the Library of Congress"--Index to personal names in the National Union Catalog of manuscript collections, 1959-1984, p. vii. An index is available at the Family History Library


 * Ancestry.com ($) Public and Private member trees.


 * World Connect includes hundreds of thousands of ancestors in pedigrees and family trees with an easy to use index.


 * Periodical Source Index (PERSI). There are more than 126,000 surnames included in the PERSI database which is available on the Internet at HeritageQuestOnline.com as well as at Ancestry.com. Both are subscription websites, but often available at local libraries.

Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)
The most important genealogical collections for Washington have been compiled by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The Family History Library has two sets of DAR compilations microfilmed at the DAR Library in Washington, D.C. They are filed together as one entry in the FamilySearch Catalog. The sets are:


 * Genealogical and Historical Gleanings. Twelve volumes compiled from 1931 to 1959


 * The Family Records of Pioneers. Forty volumes of transcripts of Bible records, cemetery records, church records, marriages, deaths, obituaries, and wills microfilmed in 1970

Indexes

 * Additional volumes compiled since 1970 are at the DAR Library. Volumes 1 through 52 are indexed by Shirley Swart, comp., Index to Washington State Daughters of the American Revolution... (Yakima, Washington: Yakima Valley Genealogical Society, 1983.) The original 52 volumes are in the care of the Yakima Genealogical Society Library.


 * Daughters of the American Revolution (Washington), Compiled by Geraldine Thorpe McCoy; assisted by Karen Rinnert Parsons, Every name index to the Washington State Society Daughters of the American Revolution : Genealogical Records Committee collection (Washington? D.C.:s.n., 2003]

Family History Library

 * To access genealogy records available through the FamilySearch Catalog use the Place-names Search for:


 * WASHINGTON - GENEALOGY
 * WASHINGTON, [COUNTY] - GENEALOGY

Writing and Sharing Your Family History
Sharing your own family history is valuable for several reasons:


 * It helps you see gaps in your own research and raises opportunities to find new information.
 * It helps other researchers progress in researching ancestors you share in common.
 * It draws other researchers to you who already have information about your family that you do not yet possess.
 * It draws together researchers with common interests, sparking collaboration opportunities. For instance, researchers in various localities might choose to do lookups for each other in remote repositories. Your readers may also share photos of your ancestors that you have never seen before.


 * See also:
 * Create a Family History
 * Writing Your Family and Personal History
 * A Guide to Printing Your Family History

Web Sites

 * Dar.org


 * Genealogy Today