Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources

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Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources is a reference book published by Ancestry Publishing. The first edition, called Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources was published in 1989 and was edited by Alice Eichholz, Ph.D., CG. A revised edition was published in 1992. The current edition, the third, was published in 2004 when the title was changed to simply Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.

About the content

A sample of a county map for Vermont included in Red Book: American State, County, and Town Resources.

Red Book is designed to help family historians learn where to find information about their ancestors by taking an approach focused on localities. It is an expansive guide to the most useful resources in each of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia. Organized by state, the content easily directs the user to information-rich resources in areas including:

  • Vital Records
  • Census Records
  • Internet Resources
  • County Resources
  • Background Sources
  • Land Records
  • Probate Records
  • Court Records
  • Tax Records
  • Cemetery Records
  • Church Records
  • Military Records
  • Periodicals, Newspapers, and Manuscript Collections
  • Archives, Libraries, and Societies

Major highlights of the content are the county resources published in table format for each state. Information in these tables often include county name, when the county was formed, which counties the new county was created from, and dates for when each county started recording information such as birth, marriage, and death records or land, probate and court records. Each state also has a county, town, or parish map.

About the contributors

With Alice Eichholz, Ph.D., CG at the helm of this massive undertaking as the editor, the Red Book is a result of the collective effort of renowned professional researchers and state archivists. Their expertise set the standard for resource identification.

Here you can find a list of contributors to the third edition of Red Book.

Red Book Online

In 2010, Ancestry.com digitized the content of Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources along with The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy and made it available in wiki format as one of the foundational sources for the Ancestry.com Wiki. Each chapter has been broken into one or more series of articles, links to which are found below:

Third Edition Table of Contents

Introduction to Red Book

Alabama Family History Research

Alaska Family History Research

Arizona Family History Research

Arkansas Family History Research

California Family History Research

Colorado Family History Research

Connecticut Family History Research

Delaware Family History Research

District of Columbia Family History Research

Florida Family History Research

Georgia Family History Research

Hawaii Family History Research

Idaho Family History Research

Illinois Family History Research

Indiana Family History Research

Iowa Family History Research

Kansas Family History Research

Kentucky Family History Research

Louisiana Family History Research

Maine Family History Research

Maryland Family History Research

Massachusetts Family History Research

Michigan Family History Research

Minnesota Family History Research

Mississippi Family History Research

Missouri Family History Research

Montana Family History Research

Nebraska Family History Research

Nevada Family History Research

New Hampshire Family History Research

New Jersey Family History Research

New Mexico Family History Research

New York Family History Research

North Carolina Family History Research

North Dakota Family History Research

Ohio Family History Research

Oklahoma Family History Research

Oregon Family History Research

Pennsylvania Family History Research

Rhode Island Family History Research

South Carolina Family History Research

South Dakota Family History Research

Tennessee Family History Research

Texas Family History Research

Utah Family History Research

Vermont Family History Research

Virginia Family History Research

Washington Family History Research

West Virginia Family History Research

Wisconsin Family History Research

Wyoming Family History Research


An index to content in Red Book: American State, County, and Town Resources is also available.

External Links