Business and Employment Records
- apprentice and indenture records
- doctors’ and midwives’ journals
- insurance records
- merchants’ account books
- railroad, mining and factory records
Cemetery and Funeral Home Records
- burial records
- grave-relocation records
- tombstone inscriptions
Censuses
- agriculture schedules (1840 to 1880)
- American Indian (special censuses)
- Civil War veterans schedules (1890)
- defective, dependent and delinquent schedules (1880)
- federal population schedules (1790 to 1930)
- manufacturing/industry schedules (1810, 1820, 1850 to 1880)
- mortality schedules (1850 to 1880)
- school censuses
- slave schedules (1850, 1860)
- social statistics schedules (1850 to 1880)
- state and local censuses
Church Records
- baptism and christening records
- confirmation records
- meeting minutes
- membership, admission and removal records
- ministers’ journals
Court Records
- adoption records
- civil records
- coroners’ files
- criminal records
- custody papers
- estate inventories
- insanity/commitment orders
- licenses and permits
- marriage bonds, licenses and certificates
- military discharges
- minute books
- name changes
- property foreclosures
- wills
Directories
- biographical
- city
- professional/occupational
- telephone
Home Sources
- baptism and confirmation certificates
- birth certificates and baby books
- checkbooks and bank statements
- death records and prayer cards
- diaries and journals
- family Bibles
- funeral/memorial cards
- heirlooms and artifacts
- letters and postcards
- marriage certificates and wedding albums
- medical records
- photographs
- recipe books
- school report cards, yearbooks and scrapbooks
- wills
Immigration Records
- alien registration cards
- citizenship papers
- passenger lists
- passports
Institutional Records
- almshouse
- hospital
- orphanage
- police
- prison
- school
- work-farm
Land and Property Records
- deeds
- grants and patents
- homestead records
- mortgages and leases
- surveys
- tax rolls
- warrants
Military Records
- Colonial wars
- Revolutionary War and frontier conflicts (War of 1812, Indian wars and Mexican War)
- Civil War
- Spanish-American War
- World War I
- World War II
- Korean War
- Vietnam War
- draft records
- pension applications
- records of relocations and internment camps for Japanese-Americans, German-Americans and Italian-Americans during World War II
Newspapers
- birth announcements
- classified advertisements
- engagement, marriage and anniversary announcements
- ethnic newspapers
- family reunion announcements
- gossip and advice columns
- legal notices
- local news
- obituaries
- runaway notices (slaves, indentured servants, wives)
- unclaimed-mail notices
Published Sources
- compiled genealogies
- genealogical periodicals
- local and county histories
- record abstracts and transcriptions
Vital Records
- birth
- death
- divorce/annulment
- marriage
From the July 2008 Family Tree Magazine
