The state of Washington is known as “The Evergreen State”. Are you searching for more information about your ancestors who once lived in Washington? There are plenty of resources out there that can help you. Start by checking out some of the ones that are in this blog.
GeneaLinks has a search engine at the top of their page. Put the first name, and the last name, of your ancestor into it. Choose which record type you want to search: vital, birth, death, marriage, divorce, or “Genealogy”. GeneaLinks also has helpful information for genealogists who are new to Washington genealogy. Did you know that all vital records in Washington are considered public domain? That should make your search a little bit easier!
Ancestry.com has a page that is filled with links to all of their collections of Washington records. In order to access the majority of these records, you will need to have an Ancestry.com membership. Once in a while, a collection might be offered for free. Return to their page often. Ancestry.com does a great job of making it clear when a collection is new, has been updated, or is currently being offered for free access.
Interment.net has cemetery records online. Start by putting your ancestor’s first and last name into the search engine that is at the top of their website. Or, you can start by selecting a county in Washington to browse through. Every county has a link that will take you to more information about records from cemeteries within that particular county.
FamilySearch has a Wiki page about the state of Washington. You can find links to more FamilySearch Wiki pages about each county within the state. Towards the bottom of the page, you will find links to more FamilySearch Wiki pages about individual FamilySearch collections of Washington records.
Facebook has a Community Page for FamilySearch Washington State Genealogy. This is a great resource for genealogists who want to connect with other genealogists who are also working on Washington genealogy right now. You can also find links to FamilySearch collections of Washington records, and relevant links to Washington related resources that are outside of FamilySearch.
Cyndi’s List is probably the most comprehensive collections of online genealogy resources. If it exists, somewhere, on the internet, Cyndi’s List very likely has a link to it. They have a page called “United States – Washington”. Choose from their many categories to start with. Some categories include: “Birth, Marriage, Death”, “Census”, “Counties”, “Military”, “Newspapers”, and more!
Image by Cyndy Sims Parr on Flickr