Online County Histories, Biographies & Indexes - USA

A Genealogy Guide

General USA

Ancestry's Family and Local Histories Collection (Indexed) (requires payment) includes more than 20,000 books - part of Ancestry's US genealogy records collection
Family History Archives at BYU includes more than 25,000 digitized histories of families, county and local histories, and more
GenealogyBank has many online scanned Genealogy and Historical Books (1801-1900) (requires subscription fee)
Google Books has some digitized county histories online
The Internet Archive has some digitized county histories and other items
- Internet Archive: Free Downloads: Genealogy

Alabama

WPA Index to Alabama Biography (about 28,000 entries)
Index to A History of Birmingham and Its Environs by George M. Cruikshank, 1920 (volume two)

Arkansas

Catalog of Arkansas Resources and Archival Treasures includes various indexes of biographical records and other genealogy material

Colorado

59ers Directory - Colorado Argonauts miners in the Pikes Peak region
Old Ladies' Relief Society of Denver Index of Residents 1897-1980
Portrait and Biographical Record of Denver and Vicinity, Colorado - 1898 includes biographies of prominent citizens

Florida

Florida Heritage Collection - Florida Counties

Idaho

Idaho Biographical Index downloadable PDF files

Illinois

Illinois County and Local Histories digitized books for various counties

Indiana

Indiana Biography Index pre-1990 - has about 250,000 entries
19th Century Indiana Physicians

Iowa

Assorted Iowa County Histories be sure to scroll down to the county table
Iowa Biographies Project

Kansas

Kansas Book Transcriptions On-Line includes state & county histories with name indexes
Kansas Biographical Name Index
Cutler's History of the State of Kansas 1883 includes counties
Wyandotte County: Kansas City Regional Histories Index

Louisiana

Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index 1804-1972 (a work in progress) mostly from newspapers

Massachusetts

Massachusetts Archives Collection Index 1629-1799

Michigan

Michigan County Histories 1866-1926 for many counties; searchable online
Wayne County: The Book Of Detroiters - A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Detroit, 1908

Mississippi

Mississippi Biographical Index

Missouri

Index to the History of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis
St. Louis, the fourth city, 1764-1909, 1911 text of the books online - various volumes (downloadable)
- Name Index to St. Louis: the Fourth City, 1764-1909
History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men (1883) text of the book online (downloadable)
- Also at: History of Saint Louis City and County, published 1883
Missouri History Museum - Genealogy and Local History Index mostly for St. Louis, but "the index includes a small percentage of individuals who did not reside in St. Louis"
University of Missouri Digital Library includes county histories or other material for the following Missouri counties: Boone, Chariton, Clay, Harrison, Henry, Johnson, Linn, Marion, Monroe (Civil War era), Nodaway & Saline. There are a few small resources for St. Louis.
Missouri Valley/Kansas City Special Collections includes a local history index to 36,000 records

Montana

Progressive Men of the State of Montana has 2500 biographies of people who were prominent in Montana history from the 1850's to 1900

Nebraska

Nebraska GenWeb Project Resource Center - Online Library includes county and state histories
History of the State of Nebraska 1882 in progress; includes counties

New York

History of the City of Buffalo and Erie County 1620-1884 from the Niagara University Library
Monroe County: Rochester History 1939-present a journal that covers the history of Rochester and western New York

North Carolina

North Carolina History & Fiction Digital Library includes histories for 29 counties in eastern NC
North Carolina Collection Biographical Index

North Dakota

The North Dakota Biography Index (has about 192,000 entries)

Ohio

Cleveland Biographical Sketch Name Index also has other Cleveland genealogy indexes

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Archives Series...
- Pennsylvania Archives Series at Footnote scanned searchable pages from the books
- Pennsylvania Archives Series assorted transcriptions from this series - includes church records, marriages, naturalizations, muster rolls and more - no search engine is available - you must browse the individual files
Historic Pittsburgh contains the full text of over 1200 books from the 19th and early 20th centuries

Washington

Eastern Washington Biographical Sketches for Adams County, Chelan County, Douglas County, Ferry County, Franklin County, Lincoln County, Okanogan County & Stevens County

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Historical Society Online Collections includes 80 County Histories plus Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles (16,000 historical newspaper articles on Wisconsin people & communities)
The State of Wisconsin Collection from the University of Wisconsin includes some county and local histories

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