Los Angeles County, California Genealogy

United States &gt; California &gt; Los Angeles County

County Courthouse
County Courthouse

Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration 500 W. Temple St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 (county seat)

Parent County
1850--Los Angeles County was created 18 February 1850, one of 30 original counties from the California lands. Prior to the creation of the county, the records were either at city or mission places. County seat: Norwalk

Populated Places

 * Cities: Beverly Hills, Burbank, Compton, Los Angeles, Whittier, more cities...
 * Communities: Hacienda Heights, South Whittier, Topanga, Universal City, East Los Angeles, more...

Neighboring Counties

 * Kern
 * Orange
 * San Bernardino
 * Ventura

Cemeteries
Woodlawn Cemetery in Compton.

I have several relatives burried in Woodlawn and have researched it over the last 20 years. The original records have been distroyed over the years. The State took the cemetery over a few years back and found the records were either gone or altered due to dishonest operators. The LDS church had the records microfilmed in the 1960. That film has the most correct information.

Church
LDS Ward and Branch Records


 * Adams
 * alhambra
 * alta vista
 * Arlington
 * Baldwin Park
 * Bellflower
 * Belvedere
 * Beverly Hills
 * Boyle Heights
 * Brentwood (Santa Monica)
 * Burbank
 * Centinela (Hawthorne)
 * Compton
 * Compton Center
 * Downey
 * El Monte
 * El Segundo
 * El Sereno
 * Elysian Park
 * Firestone Park
 * Fullerton (Long Beach)
 * Garvanza
 * Gate S.
 * Glendale
 * Glendale E.
 * Glendale W.
 * Grant (Bell Gardens)
 * Hollywood
 * Hollywood N.
 * Huntington Beach
 * Huntington Park
 * Inglewood
 * La Brea (Los Angeles)
 * La Cienega
 * La Mirada
 * Lancaster
 * Las Flores (Temple City)
 * Lennox (Hawthorne)
 * Lomita
 * Long Beach
 * Long Beach N.
 * Los Angeles
 * Manchester (Los Angeles)
 * Mar Vista
 * Matthews
 * Maywood
 * Mission Park (Wilmar)
 * Monrovia
 * Montebello
 * North Hollywood
 * Ocean Park
 * Park View (Long Beach)
 * Pasadena
 * Pasadena S.
 * Pomona
 * Redondo Beach
 * Rosemead
 * San Fernando
 * San Pedro
 * Santa Ana (Long Beach)
 * Santa Monica
 * South Gate
 * Studio City (Hollywood)
 * Sunset (Burbank)
 * Torrence
 * Van Nuys
 * Vermont
 * Virginia (Long Beach)
 * Walnut (South Gate)
 * Walteria
 * Whittier
 * Wilmington
 * Wilshire

Newspapers
The Los Angeles Public Library has made available on its website an index to newspaper and periodical articles containing obituary information on renowned actors, authors, journalists, and librarians. You can search the database by name, occupation, date of death, and cause of death. The data fields in the results returned may include full name, including married name, maiden name, and nickname; sex, occupation, death date, age, place of death, and information source.

Obituaries
The Southern California Genealogical Society has created The Los Angeles Times Obituary Indexdatabase searchable by either first name, last name or a combination of the two. If the name is found, the index provides the year of the obituary. If a copy of the obituary is desired, then it is necessary to purchase it from the Society. Currently the Index covers the period 1988 to 2004.

Vital Records
For early marriages see Western States Marriage Index.

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (for Birth, Marriage and Death records going back at least to 1852)

Norwalk RR/CC Building 12400 Imperial Highway Norwalk, CA. 90650 Office Hours: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Monday through Friday (open 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. on the 3rd Thursday of every month)


 * Note: There are several other sites to get birth, marriage and death records in Los Angeles County but Norwalk is the only facility that you can view records personally.

Viewing Vital Records:

The following will provide you with the procedure for viewing vital records. Certificates and indexes of birth, death and marriage records not exempt from public inspections may be examined at the Office of the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. In addition to certificates on file, there are indexes of birth, death and marriages available for public inspection as follows: Births prior to 1905 and from 1964 to the present; Deaths from 1877 to the present; and Marriages from 1852 to the present. Records of confidential marriages performed pursuant to Family Code Section 500 are not available for public review. Certificates and indexes may be examined at no charge unless a deputy is requested search and/or retrieve more than five records. Random searches of the indexes or the certificates are not allowed. An application is required for each record searched. Information sufficient to identify the requested record must be provided.

Societies and Libraries

 * Los Angeles Regional Family History Center 10741 Santa Monica Blvd West Los Angeles, CA 90025 Phone: 310-474-9990 Hours: T-Th 10 am-9 pm; Fri-Sat 9 am-5 pm; Closed Sun &amp; Mon


 * Questing Heirs Genealogical Society P.O. Box 15102 Long Beach, CA 90815-0102

417 Irving Dr. Burbank, CA ~ 91504 818-843-7247
 * Southern California Genealogical Society and Family Research Library

P.O. Box 4367 Whittier, California 90607-4367
 * Whittier Area Genealogical Society

P..O. Box 8442 Los Angeles, CA 90008-0422 Meetings at Martin Luther King United Methodist Church 6625 4th Avenue Los Angeles, CA
 * California African-American Genealogical Society

1310-B West Magnolia Boulevard Burbank, California P. O. Box 7369 Burbank, California 91510-7369 (818) 848-3122
 * Immigrant Genealogical Society

P.O. Box 307 Buena Park, CA 90621-0307 Meetings: Los Angeles Regional Family History Center 10471 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 310-474-9990
 * Polish Genealogical Society of California

Web Sites

 * The Los Angeles County CAGenWeb Project, a member of The CAGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Los Angeles County.
 * FamilySearch.org Family History Library Catalog for Los Angeles County.
 * The First Los Angeles City and County Directory 1872