Research and explore your California genealogy and family history online with these online California databases, indexes and digitized records collections - many of them free!
1. California Death Index 1940-1997
A free searchable index to over 9 million California death records from RootsWeb.com, with available details generally including the individual's full name, birth date, death date, and birthplace. Many records also have the mother's maiden name, the father's surname, and the individual's Social Security number.
Free
2. San Francisco Passenger Lists, 1893-1953
FamilySearch has digitized images of passenger lists of individuals arriving in San Francsico, California, from NARA microfilm publication M1410, available for free online browsing and viewing. A searchable index to these records is available on Ancestry.com (requires a subscription) as part of California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1957.
Free
3. Naturalization Petitions for the Southern District of California, 1887-1940
Search, browse or view online digital records of naturalizations from the Southern District of California, digitized from National Archives microfilm publication M1524 and published online at subscription-based Fold3.com (formerly Footnote.com). Searches are free, but there's a fee to view the record images.
Subscription
4. California Vital Records on Ancestry.com
Subscription-based access to millions of California vital record indexes are available online from Ancestry.com, including the California Birth Index 1905-1995, California Marriage Index 1960-1985, California Death Index 1940-1997, and California Divorce Index 1966-1984. Also notable are the databases of California Voter Registrations 1866-1898 and California Voter Registrations 1900-1968.
Subscription
5. California Digital Newspaper Collection 1846-1922
This free digitized collection of historical California newspapers contains over 50,000 issues from over a dozen different newspapers, available for both searching and browsing. Newspapers are available from Sacramento, San Francisco, Sausalito, Los Angeles, Imperial, Monterey and Jackson, California.
Free
6. Early California Population Project
Explore baptism, marriage, and burial records of each of the California missions from 1769-1850, offering a wealth of information on nearly 110,000 early settlers, Indians and soldiers in California. The information from these records have been transcribed into a database, available online for free. Registration is required.
Free
7. Naturalization Records of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, CA, 1876-1915
Naturalization records from National Archives microfilm publication M1614 documenting naturalizations in the Superior Court of Los Angeles are being digitized and made available online for searching and browsing at Fold3.com (formerly Footnote.com). Searches are free, but there is a fee required to view the digitized documents.
Subscription
8. "California as I Saw It" 1849-1900
Read first-hand accounts reproduced from more than 190 books and journals documenting the formative era of California's history, from the Gold Rush and California statehood to the turn of the century. From the American Memory collection of the Library of Congress.
Free
9. Exploring the California Gold Rush
Browse documents, images and first-hand accounts of the California gold rush in this online collection from the California State Library.
Free
10. VitalSearch: California
Search over 150 million names in California birth, death, marriage, and divorce records, city directories, and phone books through this subscription-based website. Some databases are also available elsewhere, while others such as digitized images of the California State Death Index 1905-1939 are unique to this site.
Subscription
