California Genealogy & Family Trees

Research and explore your South Carolina family history online with these online databases, indexes and digitized records collections - many of them free!

Learn when births, deaths, and marriages were recorded in California, and how to obtain California birth, death, marriage, divorce, and adoption records. Includes links to California birth certificate, marriage certificate, and death certificate applications.

Browse this alphabetic listing of California towns and cities from 1895, with both state and county maps.

Part of the worldwide Books We Own project, this California genealogy page contains listing of California genealogy and history books with volunteers willing to do free lookups.

First-person narratives of California's early years (1849-1900), which document the formative era of California's history.

Find links to free online census records for California from Mark E. Reed.

Well-maintained list of locality-specific resources, includes links to California genealogy records, mailing lists, organizations, and archives - organized by county.

A listing of the LDS Church local family history centers in California.

Society Hill offers a good listing of genealogical and historical societies in California with phone numbers, addresses, and Web sites (when available).

Headquarted in Oakland, CA, the California Genealogical Society maintains a genealogy library, gathers and preserves vital records, and provides genealogy education through meetings, seminars and workshops.

Learn how to research your California ancestors with this free compilation of California genealogy research strategies and resources. From FamilySearch.org.

Transcriptions of original source material from the state of California, arranged by county.

California genealogy resources on this huge volunteer Web site include census, vital records, queries, surname listings, publications, associations and libraries, lookup volunteers, and more California genealogy resources.

Email-based discussion forums on a variety of genealogical topics relating to California.

Family History Centers, outreaches of the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City,  are located throughout the world to help individuals search the records of their ancestors.

A free message board devoted to California queries.

John Fuller and Christine Gaunt maintain a wonderful list of genealogy mailing lists for California and its counties, plus information on how to subscribe to each.

Historical accounts of those who travelled to the California by ship, including those who never made it due to shipwrecks.

Lists state-wide genealogical indexes that help genealogists and historians to locate source material for their research in California.

Online census data transcribed by hard-working volunteers of this USGenWeb project. Some years and counties are not yet available.  Consider signing up to help!

A registry, by state and county of transcribed cemeteries and of individuals and groups who plan to record cemetery data for the state of California - a special project of USGenWeb.

A guide to obtaining copies of California vital records, such as birth & death certificates, marriage licenses & divorce decrees.