Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Collection Information

Tracing your family history is a continuous learning experience. In order to find our ancestors, we must learn about many record types—why they were kept, what they contain, and where to find them. We learn history, geography, legal, medical and antiquated terms; and possibly even a foreign language or two. We learn about libraries, archives, courthouses, online resources, and anyplace that may house the slightest clue to our ancestry. Fortunately, the information age has been good to family historians. Collections like those in this category bring a huge variety of reference materials to our computer screen.

Dictionaries and encyclopedias are available to assist you in your research. In this collection. They include everything from dictionaries of surnames giving their history and meaning, to topographical dictionaries that give historical and statistical descriptions of specific areas.

Depending on the dictionary or encyclopedia you are interested in, you can find information like a list of all the names a town has gone by, short biographies of long gone celebrities, or descriptions of living conditions in a certain country.