California Societies and Archives

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

California Genealogical Archives

 

It is wise to acquaint yourself with any repository which you might visit by writing to the appropriate archive or library in advance. Every repository has published materials that introduce its collections and research policy. State archives and historical agencies also have Internet sites that provide the same information. Some even have downloadable databases for some or parts of their collections.

California Public Libraries - In California, within the entire library system, there is an interlibrary program that can be called upon for many printed materials. The reference librarian at the local library, for a small fee, can request assistance in locating a particular book through this system.

• California State Library, 914 Capitol Mall, Sacramento, CA 95814
  This is the parent organization of the Sutro Library with a fine collection of its own. Microfilms of the federal censuses are housed here as well as a number of state-wide research materials. Some of the important collections include the following:
  • The California Information File: about 640,000 index cards covering 1.2 million items in such things as newspapers, manuscripts, periodicals, and county histories. Microfilmed county histories are available on interlibrary loan.
  • Pioneer Record File: biographical material on Californians who came before 1860—information submitted by the actual pioneers or by their descendants.
  • Biographical files: California artists, authors, actors, and musicians along with material on California political leaders may also be of interest.
  • Directories: a large collection of city, county (from 1850s) and telephone directories (from 1897). See also Nathan C. Parker's Personal Name Index to the 1856 City Directories of California. Vol. 10 of Gale Genealogy and Local History Series. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1980.
• California State Archives, Office of Secretary of State, 1020 O Street, Room 130, Sacramento, CA 95814; Reference Desk: (916) 653-2246; General Information: (916) 653-7715; FAX: (916) 653-7363; E-Mail:ArchivesWeb@sos.ca.gov
  The California State Archives has microfilm of selected county records, 1850–1919.
• Sutro Branch of the California State Library, 480 Winston Drive, San Francisco, CA 94132
  This library is a branch of the California State Library but differs from the main library in Sacramento in its holdings in that its focus is on genealogical research outside of California; although the collection includes many California materials (census, local newspapers, periodicals). The Sutro collection is available to the public either at the library or through interlibrary loan. Both the Genealogy Catalog and Local History Catalog (the index to the bulk of the library's holdings) can be obtained on microfiche and are supplemented on a regular basis by the publication of additional titles as they arrive.
  There are many genealogical and historical societies and institutions catering to people with various research problems. Only a few are listed below. Since the largest portion of California residents active in local history and genealogy may themselves be recent migrants to the state, local organizations focus may be on research problems in other locations.
• Presidio Army Museum, Corner Lincoln and Funston Streets, San Francisco, CA 94129-5502
  Collection: nineteenth century
• University of California and California State University Libraries
  There are excellent special collections at universities throughout the state including the Bancroft collection at the University of California at Berkeley, the Wyles collection of Civil War materials at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Mandeville collection at the University of California at San Diego, the Western Association of Map Libraries at University of California at Santa Cruz, and the California State Library at Chico and Turlock.
• The National Archives-Pacific Region maintain three facilities in California
  • Laguna Niguel (Archival Research Room, Microfilm Research Room)
  • Riverside, CA; (Records Center Research Room - requires originating agency approval)
  • San Francisco; (Archival Research Room, Microfilm Research Room, Records Center Research Room - requires originating agency approval)
    
  These offices work together to preserve and make available the documents created by Federal agencies in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, the Pacific Trust Territory, and American Samoa.
• Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley
• Richard Nixon Library, Yorba Linda
• The Los Angeles Public Library, History and Genealogy Department, 433 South Spring Street (location), 630 West Fifth Street (mailing address), Los Angeles, California 90071, has been reopened to the public and is rebuilding its excellent collection for genealogical research.
• The Glendale Branch of the Family History Library, 1130 East Wilson Avenue, Glendale, California 91206; has a large collection of printed and microfilm source material in addition to access to the extensive collection available by mail service from the Salt Lake City collection.

Historical & Genealogical Societies

 

Because family history research relies greatly upon records found at the county level, many local societies represent counties. Organizations also form around shared interests. Ethnic or religious origins account for many groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). Societies also form around common locales of origin for members’ ancestors; hence, the Palatines to America and Germans from Russia societies. To locate these and other societies, consult Juliana Szucs Smith’s The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. It lists addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of thousands of organizations throughout the United States.

For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both. In addition to their own work, state-level groups sometimes help coordinate the efforts of local societies within the state. Their publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those produced by the local societies.

• California State Genealogical Alliance, 19765 Grand Avenue, Lake Elsinore, CA 92330
  One way to access many local and county genealogical and historical societies is through the Alliance, which publishes its own newsletter.
• California Genealogical Society, 2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland, CA 94612-3031; 510-663-1358 fax: 510-663-1596
• Southern California Genealogical Society, 417 Irving Drive, Burbank, CA. 91504; Phone: (818) 843-7247 or (818) THE-SCGS; FAX: 818-843-7262; E-Mail: scgs@scgsgenealogy.com
• The California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco, California 94105; 415-357-1848 — voice; 415-357-1850 — fax; info@calhist.org — e-mail
• Historical Society of Southern California, 200 East Avenue 43, Los Angeles, CA 90031
  Mailing Address: P.O. Box 93487, Pasadena, CA 91109
• California Heritage Council, P.O. Box 475046, San Francisco, CA 94147; Ph: (415) 474-0780; E-Mail: info@californiaheritagecouncil.org
• California Society of Colonial Pioneers, 456 McAlister Street, San Francisco, CA 94102; Collection: 1783 to 1918
• Chinese Historical Society, 965 Clay Street, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA; Phone: (415) 391-1188; Fax: (415) 391-1150 ; Collection: 1865 to the present
• California Society of Daughters of the American Revolution
• National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution,
• California Society of Sons of the American Revolution,
• National Society of Sons of the American Revolution, 1000 South Fourth Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40203; (502) 589-1776

California Genealogical Publications

See specific county page for Individual County List

Nearly every local genealogical society in the state has some form of publication, although no state-wide guide exists which includes them all. Many contain how-to articles (pertaining to California research), query columns, and book reviews. The Sutro Branch of the California State Library has a large collection of California periodicals.

California Historical Society's Index to California Historical Society Quarterly (1922–61; 1962–75), available from Channing Books in Marion, Massachusetts, cross-indexes fifty-four volumes of the periodical. The California Genealogical Society publishes a newsletter six times a year.

• Search The PERiodical Source Index

California Newspapers

 

While records of birth, marriage, and death are the most commonly sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in supplying clues about historical events, local history, probate court and legal notices, real estate transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.

Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.

Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.

The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).

Among the older newspapers in the state are San Diego Union (1868); San Francisco Chronicle (1865); and Los Angeles Times (1881). The most extensive collection of California newspapers is in the California Room of the State Library in Sacramento. Some have been microfilmed and are available on interlibrary loan.

Besides the California Information File index in the California Room, which covers some newspaper items, there is also an index of about 922,000 cards with over 1,800,000 citations of San Francisco newspaper items from 1904 to the present. A published index to the San Francisco Call covers that newspaper back to 1894.

The Sutro Branch of the California State Library has California newspapers from 1846 on microfilm and available on interlibrary loan. Their newspaper index contains approximately three million entries from 1850 to the present. Many other California libraries have access to microfilm editions of newspapers on interlibrary loan.

• California Digital Newspaper Collection - The California Digital Newspaper Collection offers over 200,000 pages of California newspapers spanning the years 1849-1911: the Alta California, 1849-1891; the San Francisco Call, 1893-1910; the Amador Ledger, 1900-1911; the Imperial Valley Press, 1901-1911; the Sacramento Record-Union, 1859-1890; and the Los Angeles Herald, 1905-1907. Additional years are forthcoming, as are other early California newspapers: the Californian; the California Star; the California Star and Californian; the Sacramento Transcript; the Placer Times; and the Pacific Rural Press.
• California Newspaper Project
• Links to California Newspapers
• Search Historical Newspapers at Ancestry.com
• Find your family history In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive! Find News, Births and Deaths - Find tens of millions of historical newspaper articles, dating back to 1759. Search for newspaper articles about a deadly earthquake or one that mentions a past relative. Newspaper articles are easily accessible with online research tools.
• Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers throughout the world.
• Search Historical Newspapers (1690 - 1980) - Quickly find names and keywords in over 450 million articles, obituaries, marriage notices, birth announcements and other items published in over 2,800 historical U.S. newspapers. New content added monthly!