County and Local Collections

The majority of the available U.S. materials are copies of documents from more than 2,600 county courthouses, such as: land deeds and mortgages, probate and estate files, naturalization applications, marriage records, birth and death registers. Many of these records were indexed by local clerks.

Other records available for a town might include newspaper transcripts, cemetery lists, funeral home files, school censuses, and church records. The records represent all time periods of American history, with some post 1930 records which are not restricted. As the FHL has few materials from the 13,000 local historical and genealogical societies in the U.S. and Canada, researchers should also visit the area where their ancestors lived.