Did you know you can use Ancestry for free at any library?
Ancestry.com broke boundaries decades ago as the premier for-profit resource for genealogy and family history. Now, it’s the go-to place when you’re looking to compile government and business records, personal histories, newspapers, and anything else you might come across related to a family’s history. It also has records from other countries, including Mexico! (Be prepared, though: a lot of the older documents are in some form of cursive script; it might be especially hard to read the originals in other languages!)
Ancestry Library Edition, a special product that Ancestry provides for libraries, is easily accessible through the E-Library on our website. The only catch? You’ve gotta come in. But if you’re using one of our library computers or your own device on library wifi, you’re good to go.
Here's what you can find on Ancestry:
- Census records
- Birth, marriage, and death certificates
- Ellis Island and other immigration records
- Military records
- Newspapers
- Personal Histories and private papers
- Maps and almanacs
- Historic directories
- Tons more!
And don't forget; there are millions of records from outside the United States.
Never used Ancestry before? That’s fine; we can help get you started, and there are more guides on the site and on Ancestry’s Youtube channel , opens a new windowto keep you moving. The most important thing to know is that since you can only access these records from within a library, you'll have to either send anything you want to keep to yourself via email or print the records out. The process is pretty easy, and there's a handy video on how to do it right on the Ancestry homepage.
Looking for historical records just from Arizona? You can see those at home! Use the link in the E-Library to Ancestry.com Arizona from Home, opens a new window to get to the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records, which is where you can find information on how to gain access to many records they digitized in partnership with Ancestry. You don't even need a library card to use them! Just follow the steps for logging into Ancestry.com.
So now you know about Ancestry Library Edition.
