LibGuides: Genealogy: Getting Started: Home

Librarian

Debbie Countess

Subjects: Genealogy, Texana

Upcoming Genealogy Classes

Historic San Antonio Cemeteries

Check for alternate spellings. Information included here is as it appears on the cemetery cards and City Sexton's book.

Historic Eastside Cemetery Google Map

Our Hours

Sun Closed
Mon Closed
Tues Closed
Wed Closed
Thur Closed
Fri Closed
Sat Closed

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Texana/Genealogy Room – 6th floor
Central Library
600 Soledad St.
San Antonio, TX 78205
210.207.2500

***The Texana/Genealogy Department and the entire sixth floor of Central Library is currently closed for renovations.***

The department will not provide reference service during this time but will offer interim services out of a location on Central Library’s first floor beginning in July. Please call (210) 207-2500 for information.

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Getting Started

How Do I Begin?
A brief guide that takes you through the first steps on how to begin researching your family's history.
Pedigree Chart - 5 Generation
Record names, places where they lived and dates of birth/marriage/death of your direct ancestors on this chart. Useful tool to see, at a glance, specific information about the lives of your family.
Family Group Sheet
This document allows you to record information on an entire family unit - Parents and all siblings associated with a direct ancestor.

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Internet Sites

FamilySearch FamilySearch is a FREE genealogy website maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For over 100 years they have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records from around the world. Their site does require registration in order to view the over 2 billion records they have digitized.
Bexar County Deed and Marriage Records This site, maintained by the Bexar County Clerk's office, has deed and marriage records back to 1837. Copies of records are currently free but you do have to register with the company maintaining the database in order to download them.
Find-A-Grave From their website: "At Find A Grave you’ll find details about cemeteries and individual memorials for many people buried in those cemeteries. Memorials generally include birth, death and burial information and may include pictures, biographies, family information and more."
Ellis Island Passenger List Search This site contains Passenger Records which may provide information including passenger name, date of arrival, ship of travel, age on arrival, and more. It also has over 900 ship images, along with the history and background of each ship that brought these immigrants to America.
Access Genealogy This collection of free genealogy records continues to grow. The Databases link has information from military records, small-town newspapers, various Southern states and what they consider their specialty, Native American genealogy research materials.
Allen County Public Library This library is based in Indiana but its status as the second-richest genealogy library in the country means that its collections can be of use to researchers from all over. Special focus is given to Native American, African American, family Bible and military records.
Cyndi's List This is a great place for beginning genealogists to start. Cyndi's List is a site devoted to organizing and providing access to OTHER genealogy websites. Every possible family history topic will most likely be found on Cyndi's List. This site doesn't tell you the answer, it tells you where you can go to find the answer.
Library of Congress - Genealogy The Library of Congress has one of the largest collections of U.S. and world-wide genealogical and local historical publications. Their collection began with the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s library in 1815. They also maintain a good photograph collection, some of which has been digitized and is available online.

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Books