Can a Genealogist Find Records That Aren’t on Ancestry or FamilySearch?
Ancestry and FamilySearch have made an extraordinary number of historical records available online. Census records, vital records, military records, passenger lists, probate files, newspapers, and many other sources can now be searched without visiting an archive or courthouse.
But they do not contain every genealogical record.
Some of the most useful evidence about an ancestor may be held by a courthouse, state archive, library, historical society, church, university, government agency, or another repository.
Other records have been digitized but cannot be found through a normal name search.
Understanding what exists beyond the search box can make the difference between reaching a dead end and finding a new source of evidence.
Aren’t Most Genealogy Records Online Now?
No.
The amount of historical material available online is enormous, but only a portion of surviving genealogical records has been digitized.
Digitization takes time and money. Archives and repositories may hold millions of pages of historical material, and some collections have never been scanned.
Other collections may be partially digitized.
A record series covering 1850 through 1950, for example, might have only certain years available online.
Researchers therefore should not assume that failing to find a record online means the record does not exist.
What Kinds of Records Might Not Be on the Major Genealogy Websites?
The answer depends on the location and period, but potentially useful sources include:
Deeds and land records
Probate and estate files
Court records
Tax lists
Guardianship records
Church registers
Cemetery records
School records
Local government records
Historical newspapers
Manuscript collections
Business records
Organizational records
Military and veterans' records
Maps and plats
Family papers
Photograph collections
Local histories
Funeral-home records
Institutional records
Some of these sources may be available online somewhere—just not through the major genealogy databases.
Others may exist only in the repository that holds the original records.
What Does It Mean When a Record Is Digitized but Not Indexed?
This is one of the most important distinctions in online genealogy.
Digitized means images of the records have been created and made available electronically.
Indexed means information from those images has been entered into a searchable database.
A collection can be digitized without being indexed.
Imagine a courthouse deed book containing 600 photographed pages. You may be able to view every page online, but typing your ancestor's name into a search box might produce nothing because nobody has created a searchable name index for those pages.
Finding the record may require using the original handwritten index and then browsing directly to the appropriate volume and page.
The record is online—but a normal search will never find it.
Why Doesn't a Name Search Find Everything?
Even indexed collections have limitations.
Historical handwriting can be difficult to read. Names may be transcribed incorrectly. Pages may be damaged. Original clerks may have misspelled names.
Your ancestor might also appear under:
Initials
A nickname
A maiden name
An alternate surname spelling
A phonetic spelling
A translated or Anglicized name
A transcription error
Search engines are useful tools, but they are not substitutes for understanding the records themselves.
Sometimes finding an ancestor requires browsing a collection manually or searching for relatives, neighbors, locations, or other identifying information.
What Records Are Still Held at Courthouses?
County and local courthouses can hold valuable genealogical records.
Depending on the jurisdiction, these may include:
Deeds
Mortgages
Probate files
Wills
Estate records
Court cases
Marriage records
Guardianships
Tax records
Naturalizations
Property records
Some courthouse collections have been transferred to archives or digitized.
Others remain with the office that originally created them.
Records may also be divided among several offices within the same county.
Knowing which office created the record can be just as important as knowing the ancestor's name.
What Can State Archives Contain?
State archives preserve records created by state governments and, in some cases, records transferred from counties or other jurisdictions.
Collections vary widely but may include:
Military records
Land records
Tax records
Court records
Prison records
State census records
Government correspondence
Institutional records
Vital records
Maps
Photographs
Manuscript collections
Many archives provide online catalogs describing their holdings even when the actual documents are not available online.
A catalog description can therefore identify a promising collection that would never appear in a genealogy website search.
Why Are Library and University Collections Useful?
Libraries and universities often preserve material that falls outside traditional government records.
Special collections may contain:
Personal papers
Diaries
Letters
Family collections
Business records
Church histories
Photographs
Maps
Community records
Local newspapers
Organizational records
Manuscripts
Suppose an ancestor worked for a particular company, belonged to a local organization, or corresponded with a prominent individual.
The surviving records may have eventually been donated to a university archive.
The ancestor's name may never appear in a large commercial genealogy database, yet important information could still survive in that collection.
What Can Historical Societies Provide?
Local historical and genealogical societies can preserve records closely connected to the communities they serve.
Their collections may include:
Family files
Cemetery surveys
Church records
Local newspapers
Photographs
School records
Funeral-home records
Family Bibles
Vertical files
Local maps
Oral histories
Unpublished manuscripts
Some of this material may have been collected decades ago from sources that no longer exist.
Local repositories can therefore be especially valuable when researching families who remained in one area for several generations.
Are All Newspapers on the Major Genealogy Websites?
No.
Historical newspapers are scattered across many different collections and repositories.
Some are available through commercial newspaper databases. Others are hosted by state libraries, universities, historical societies, government digitization projects, or individual newspaper archives.
Still others remain available only on microfilm.
Searching one newspaper website and finding nothing does not necessarily mean an ancestor was never mentioned in the press.
It may simply mean that the relevant newspaper has not been included in that particular collection.
What About Church Records?
Church records can be extremely important, particularly in places or periods where government vital records are incomplete.
Depending on the denomination, records may include:
Baptisms
Marriages
Burials
Confirmations
Membership lists
Communicant lists
Vestry minutes
Church disciplinary proceedings
Financial records
These records may remain with the congregation, denominational archives, regional repositories, libraries, or historical societies.
Some have been digitized, but many have not.
Researchers may first need to determine which church the family attended before identifying where its historical records are held.
Can Records Be Online Without Appearing in Google?
Yes.
Archives and libraries often use specialized catalog systems and digital collections that are not easily discovered through a general web search.
A repository's catalog may describe a collection without displaying individual names contained within it.
For example, a collection might be titled:
Smith County Probate Files, 1820–1895
Your ancestor's name may appear inside one of those files, but a Google search for the ancestor may never lead you to the collection.
Researchers often search record collections and repositories, not simply names.
What Is a Finding Aid?
A finding aid is a guide describing an archival collection.
It may explain:
Who created the records
What the collection contains
Dates covered
Geographic areas represented
How the material is organized
Box and folder numbers
Restrictions on access
Related collections
Finding aids are particularly important when working with manuscript and archival collections.
Instead of searching for one person's name, the researcher identifies a collection likely to contain information about the family, organization, business, community, or event being studied.
What If the Records Are Only Available in Person?
That does not necessarily end the research.
Depending on the repository, several options may exist.
The archive may provide copying or research services.
Records may be available through interlibrary loan or microfilm.
A local researcher may be able to retrieve the material.
Some repositories accept requests for specific files or documents.
In other situations, an onsite visit may ultimately be necessary.
The first step is determining that the relevant record exists and identifying where it is held.
Why Do Record Jurisdictions Matter?
Historical records were created by governments, churches, courts, and institutions with specific geographic responsibilities.
County boundaries changed. New counties were created. Towns changed names. Churches merged or closed.
An ancestor who lived in the same house for forty years might appear in records associated with two different counties simply because the boundary changed.
Likewise, records created by a courthouse may later have been transferred to a state archive.
Understanding historical jurisdictions helps determine which institution created the record and where that record may be today.
Can a Genealogist Find Records That Have Been Destroyed?
A record that was truly destroyed cannot be recovered simply by searching harder.
But the information it contained may survive elsewhere.
Suppose a courthouse fire destroyed early marriage records.
Evidence of the marriage might still appear in:
Church records
Newspapers
Probate files
Deeds
Pension applications
Family Bibles
Court records
Later vital records
Genealogists often call these substitute sources.
The original record may be gone, but another record created for a different purpose may preserve the information needed.
Why Does Knowing the Record Type Matter?
Searching effectively requires understanding why records were created.
If you are trying to identify an ancestor's children, you might search probate records because an estate could name heirs.
If you are trying to determine where someone lived before moving to a new state, a deed might identify their previous residence.
If you need a woman's maiden name, land, probate, church, marriage, or children's records might provide evidence.
The research question determines which records are most useful.
That is very different from simply searching every database for the ancestor's name.
Does a Professional Genealogist Have Access to Secret Records?
No.
Professional genealogists do not have a hidden database containing everyone's family history.
The advantage is research experience: knowing what types of records may exist, how they were created, where they may be held, how to locate them, and how to evaluate what they say.
Sometimes the answer is sitting in an online collection anyone could access—but finding it requires knowing how the collection is organized.
Other times, the research leads outside the major genealogy websites entirely.
Should I Stop Using Ancestry and FamilySearch?
Absolutely not.
Major genealogy websites are extraordinarily useful research tools and often provide the fastest way to locate important historical records.
The mistake is assuming they represent the entire universe of genealogical evidence.
They should be part of the research process rather than the boundary of it.
When an online search stops producing answers, the next question should not necessarily be:
“Does the record exist?”
It may be:
“Where else would this record have been created or preserved?”
Ready to Search Beyond the Major Genealogy Websites?
If you have searched Ancestry, FamilySearch, and other genealogy websites without finding the records you need, that does not necessarily mean the trail has ended.
KB Family History's Historical Record Deep Search service is designed to investigate harder-to-find records and sources that may require research beyond standard online searches.
Research may involve archival catalogs, courthouse records, historical societies, libraries, newspapers, land and probate collections, church records, military sources, and other specialized repositories.
You can begin with the person, family, event, or document you are trying to locate.
You do not need to know which archive, courthouse, database, or record collection might contain the answer before getting started.