Genealogy

Tips for locating books for genealogical research.

Locating Genealogy books in the UNT Libraries

How to find genealogy books in the library
For books on genealogy, including "how-to's", guides, published genealogies, and town and county histories, first consult the online catalog. The online catalog contains materials added to the collection since 1979. For some older materials, you may want to also consult the card catalog located on the first floor of the library. It is possible to search by subject, author, or title in either catalog. Additionally it is possible to search by keyword in the online catalog. Subject headings can be found in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (the red books) located near the reference desk. Entries in the online catalog include basic information about the book (bibliographic information) and a call number that identifies the book's physical location within the library.

If you know the author or title of the book, you should search by the author or title fields.

If you want to find published family histories, you should search the subject field using the last name followed by the word "family" (example: Adams Family). Note: Subject headings usually only list the most prominent names in the book. Other surnames may certainly be found within the book's content.

To locate local histories, you should search the subject field using the name of the locality (town, city, county, or state) followed by the word "history" (example: Denton County Tex history). A list of city and county histories available in the Texana Collection  and at the general reference desk in a notebook.

Books available electronically

Family history related works available on the Web.

UNT also provides access to ProQuest's HeritageQuest Online, (formerly Genealogy and Local History Online), a collection of genealogies, local histories, and genealogical periodicals from all 50 states, Canada, and the British Isles. This collection is often found in microfiche at other libraries. The digitization is not  complete at this time (06/2004) and new content is being added. The images of all available U.S. federal censuses 1790 through 1890 (fragments) and 1900 through 1930 are also available. Only some of the censuses can be searched at this time. Note: If you are not currently affiliated with UNT, you must be on campus to access this database.

The Making of America (MoA) projects at the University of Michigan and Cornell University provide full-text access to books and periodicals that are genealogy and/or history related. Note: The collections at each university are different. The Official Records is available through the Cornell site. These are free Internet resources available to any one on any computer with access to the Internet.

The Library of Congress' American Memory Project also contains many digitized collections that provide access to books and periodicals that are genealogy and/or history related. This is a free Internet resource available to any one on any computer with access to the Internet.

Locating books in other libraries

How can I find out what other libraries have?

There are a variety of ways to locate books and journals in other libraries. If you would like to search a particular library in Texas, there is a list of links to other online catalogs and library home pages. You can also search the WorldCat database. WorldCat catalogs and describes items owned by libraries across the country. It does not include individual articles in journals. Note: If you are not currently affiliated with UNT, you must be on campus to access this database.