Google Books for Genealogy

If you are looking for free online historical books to use, Google Books is the way to go.

What is Google Books?

Google Books is generally a digital archive of books, newspapers, encyclopedias, etc. You can even view most of them for free.

Using Google Books

Go to https://books.google.com/

You can search for a specific family history book, an ancestor, a locality, or a particular place.

In the example below, I searched my 3rd great-grandfather with the location he lived in most of his life. Use quotations around names or variations of them.

I see a few results of my ancestor. In the second result, it says a "Snippet view", which means only a tiny section of the book will be shown highlighted with the keywords you have used to find it.

The 1st result it says "Preview" so, the book is available to read. Some pages of some books might not be in the preview.

When some books aren't available to view you can use WorldCat. WorldCat is mainly an online catalog, of books, DVDs, and biographies that have historical information that you have been looking for.

Type in the name of the book that wasn't available on Google Books.

Enter your zip code in the field. After entering your zip code, the nearest location(s) that carry the book will be shown by the number of miles away from you. You find libraries and/or universities that have the book that you want by doing an interlibrary loan with your local public library.

Google Books is a useful tool to utilize in your genealogy search. You might find something you didn't know before by using Google Books.

Share what you have found on Google Books in the comments below.

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