Provides access to historical U.S. and international documents and photos, local narratives, oral histories, indexes and other resources in over 30,000 databases that span from the 1500s to the 2000s. The Library Edition of Ancestry.com has fewer personalized functions and options than the versions available to private subscribers.
ProQuest's Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 provides digital access to more than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 American towns and cities.
Formerly 19th Century Masterfile. Covers scholarly sources from the 12th century to early 20th century. Includes Earl Gregg Swem's Virginia Historical Index; Poole's Index to Periodical Literature; Niles' Register; American Memory; links to images in ArtSTOR; plus many more. Citations to magazine articles, books, newspapers, patents, and US/UK government documents, and images. Coverage: 1106-1930 (varies by source).
Includes expansive indexes for literature (1769-1922), Scientific and Technical Periodicals (1800-1961), Government Documents from England, United States, Britain, British Empire (1066-1961), and legal periodicals (1786-1935).
Fold3 features premier collections of original military records. These records include the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served in the military. Many of the records come from the U.S. National archives, The National Archives of the U.K. and other international records.
Use Social Explorer to visualize and interact with data, create maps, charts, reports and downloads. Explore hundreds of thousands of built-in data indicators related to demography, economy, health, politics, environment, crime and more. Social Explorer is designed to provide quick and easy access to historical census data and demographic information from 1790 to the present.
Freedmen's Bureau records are now available for free on Ancestry. The collection includes more than 3.5 million searchable documents related to the agency's work and provides coverage from 1865 to 1878.
There are a variety of document types in the collection, including employment, hospital, pension, court, school, financial, and marriage records. These records can provide valuable information for genealogists, such as names, ages, and relationships of individuals, as well as information about their former enslavement and their life after emancipation.
The search for enslaved descendants at William and Mary is part of a wider effort to acknowledge and address the legacy of slavery in the United States. There are two ongoing projects in this area:
The Lemon Project Genealogy Research Initiative is conducting specific research on enslaved people with ties to William & Mary. The initiative also provides beginner to advanced family history workshops to our descendant community in Williamsburg and the Greater Tidewater area. The continuing education workshops are free to the public and often held virtually.
The Bray School Lab, a key component of the Williamsburg Bray School Initiative, is a partnership between William & Mary and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation with the shared goal of uncovering, documenting, preserving, and disseminating the history and legacy of the Williamsburg Bray School. This includes the difficult and important work of identifying descendants of Bray School students; the Lab seeks to connect individuals, families, and organizations to their ancestors.
This guide highlights the genealogical resources available at WM Libraries. Supported by the enthusiasm and generosity of the Mary and Dennis Rebman family of Atlanta, our genealogy resources are a mix of online and print materials. While our catalog is accessible to the public, most online resources are only accessible to visitors while they are in Swem Library.
Historically, genealogical resources at W&M haven't been curated for inclusion in our collection; this is a wrong we are actively reconciling here in the Libraries and across campus. As we continue to purchase materials this area of research, we encourage you to stop back frequently to see the new additions.
This link opens in a new window