Genealogy Resources
Explore your family history with our free online genealogy tools. You can use Ancestry Library Edition for free at any Library location. You can access our other free genealogy tools anywhere with an internet connection when you sign in with your Library account. For more information about our genealogy services, see our Genealogy program page.
Discover your ancestry
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Access nearly 249 million U.S. genealogical records from 1690 to the present, including obituaries, marriage and birth announcements, military records and other government documents.
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Interested in genealogy? We partnered with Ancestry.com to help you search billions of historical documents, photos, oral histories and more, from the 1500s to the present. This resource is available only in Library locations.
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Find biographical information about millions of people, both living and dead, from all over the world.
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Explore thousands of detailed maps chart the growth and development of Seattle, other Puget Sound communities and more than 12,000 cities and towns across the United States.
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Explore these searchable and printable genealogy resources, including local and family histories, research guides and the complete U.S. Federal Census, 1790-1940. Powered by Ancestry.
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Curious about the past? Find full-text and full-image content from The New York Times, including articles, headlines, ads, obituaries and more.
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Now you can easily search fully digitized editions of The Seattle Times, and download and print full-text articles. The Seattle Times Historical Archive (1895-1984) is made possible through a generous grant from The Seattle Public Library Foundation.