Palos Verdes California Family History Center/Facility Resources

Databases and Software
FHC Portal This center has access to the Family History Center Portal page which gives free access in the center to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.

Subscription websites
Many family history websites that usually need a paid subscription are available to search and use for free while visiting the center. Below is a list of these websites:

19th Century British Library Newspapers: This is a great database of British newspapers that have birth, marriage, and death information not found on familysearch.org or ancestry.com. It is useful if you have ancestors that lived in England.

American Ancestors: This site is for US research, specifically New England. It is the website of the New England Historical Genealogical society. It has many records and databases that can only be found on this website. One of the most popular of these databases is The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. It is the flagship journal of American genealogy and the oldest in the field. A huge variety of genealogies and source material have been published in the Register for over 160 years, with an emphasis on New England. Authoritative compiled genealogies have always been a primary focus of the Register. It is very useful if you have ancestors that lived in the early American colonies or from New England.

Ancestry - Institution Version: Largest set of worldwide family history databases including vital and civil registration births, marriages, deaths, divorces, passenger lists, census, naturalizations, church, cemetery, military, court, and land records, wills, directories, voting registers, family and local histories.

Arkiv Digital: Over 53 million Swedish Church Records with color images.

Alexander Street Press - American Civil War:


 * Research Data : Contains indexed, searchable information on over 4 million soldiers and thousands of battles, together with 15,000 photographs. http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com/cwdb
 * Letters and Diaries : Contains approximately 100,000 indexed pages of diaries, letters, and memoirs, including 4,000 pages of previously unpublished manuscripts, such as the letters of Amos Wood and his wife and the diary of Maryland planter William Claytor. http://solomon.cwld.alexanderstreet.com
 * Images, Photographs, Posters, and Ephemera : Provides a vivid history of the American Civil War with over 1,400 images. http://cpho.alexanderstreet.com
 * Women and Social Movements in the United States : Organized around the history of women in social movements in the United States between 1600 and 2000 A.D.

FamNet: Online network for New Zealand roots.

Findmypast: Worldwide record sets with emphasis on British and Irish records. Includes PERSI.

Fold3 - formerly Footnote: This site mostly has records from the United States. One thing that sets this site apart from many of its others is the ability for users to contribute even more information. Members may annotate, or "footnote," existing web pages or even create their own web pages about history-related material. The material contributed can include text, pictures, or even video. If you have original source images of your own that you want to share with friends and family, simply upload them to Footnote and use the site's tools to make your information searchable and available to others. It is useful if you have ancestors that lived in the United States.

Geneanet.org: Genealogy website in Continental Europe with 3 billion indexed individuals, 600,000 family trees, a powerful search engine and blog.

Kinpoint - Premium: Kinpoint is designed to make it easier for you to do your family history by letting you see what to work on at a glance; quickly find missing information in your family tree, and discover insights into the lives of your ancestors.

MyHeritage - Library Edition: 5 billion historical records. Helps you research your family history, build your family tree and add photos, and historical records. Includes a private family site for your family only.

Newspapers.com: The largest online newspaper archive with millions of additional pages added every month.

Paper Trail: This site is dedicated to research of pioneers. It has journals, histories, of pioneers headed west from 1800 to 1899. It is very useful if you have ancestors who crossed the plains whether they were Mormon Pioneers or not.

Puzzilla - Premium Services: Find new research opportunities on descendant lines in Family Tree.

Hardware and Equipment
The Center has :

Seven computers, providing Internet access,

one Lexmark Printer/Copier/Scanner

one microfilm reader capable of viewing 35mm and 16mm film, and

one microfiche reader.