YEARBOOKS IN FAMILY HISTORY

©2020 Donald R. Snow
This page was last updated 2020-04-04.
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ABSTRACT:  Yearbooks, sometimes called directories, are mostly from schools, universities, and military units, but also companies and churches produce them. Websites are collecting and posting yearbooks online. These include free websites such as FamilySearch Digital Library, Internet Archive, and school websites, and many others. This class will discuss and show examples of yearbooks, the kinds of things they contain, and how to find them online. Besides identifying the person, they usually contain photos and information about his or her activities. If you have old yearbooks yourself, there are websites that will scan and post them online for free. The notes for this class and related articles, all with active Internet links, are posted on my website
https://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html ,

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

  1. Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
  2. The notes with active URLs and additional information in other notes and articles is posted at https://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .
  3. Tips:  (1)  To put an icon on your desktop for these notes, or any webpage, just drag the icon from in front of the address in your browser onto your desktop.  (2)  To open a link, but keep your place in these notes, hold down the Control key while clicking the link.
  4. This class will discuss yearbooks (directories) and how to find and use them in family history. 
  5. ABOUT YEARBOOKS

  6. Yearbooks are made to remember a particular school, class, event, or occasion, especially high schoosls, colleges, and military units.
  7. Many churches produce yearbooks or directories for their members and these sometimes contain photos.  For example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produces current yearbooks (directories) online that can members can download from the Church website; older printed church directories are sometimes available in local libraries. 
  8. Military units, such as Army companies and Navy ships, sometimes produce yearbooks and many are online 
  9. Most online yearbooks are OCR'd (Optical Character Recognition), so you can search for any name or word, but if it has an index, check that too, since sometimes the OCR doesn't read everything correctly 
  10. If you, or someone you are interested in, taught at a school or university, check those yearbooks too, since they usually contain more than just students.
  11. Articles about yearbooks and how to find them
    1. Wikipedia article -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yearbook   
    2. Finding yearbooks online -- http://genealogygemspodcast.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-yearbooks-available-online.html   
    3. How to find high school yearbooks online -- Life123 -- https://www.life123.com/web?qo=semQuery&ad=semA&q=high%20school%20yearbooks%20online&o=765444&ag=fw2&an=msn_s&rch=us40
    4. Relatively Curious -- http://relativelycurious.com/finding-yourself-and-others-in-yearbooks-online/

    EXAMPLES OF YEARBOOKS

  12. North Hollywood High School (where I graduated) -- the yearbook was El Camino; a Google search for "north hollywood high school yearbook" found -- http://northhollywoodhighschoolalumni.com/yearbooks.html -- free website, as are most high school websites
  13. University of Southern California (USC) Dental School (where my Dad, Eldon Stafford Snow, got his DDS dental degree) -- the yearbook was El Rodeo -- http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p15799coll104/searchterm/uschist-er*/mode/all/conn/and/display/200/order/datej/ad/asc -- Before they were online I went to the USC Library in Los Angeles and photographed some of the hard copy yearbook page, but now with every-word searches, I find there is more about him that I didn't find in the hard copies.
  14. Stanford Ward 1964 Photo Directory or Yearbook -- was lots of work to produce, but valuable to all of us now
  15. Morningside 7th Ward (St. George, Utah) color photo directories -- produced by Leroi Nelson every year, a valuable tool and historical record 
  16. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stakes in Edgemont area of Provo, Utah, produced stake directories (yearbooks) -- I scanned all I had and donated the hard copies to the BYU Library
  17. SOME MAJOR WEBSITES FOR YEARBOOKS

  18. FamilySearch Digital Library -- https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/ -- has more than 400,000 digital books, including more than 28,000 yearbooks; search for "yearbook" (without the quotes and singular since the title would contain "yearbook", not "yearbooks"; these are from schools and universities all over the world, not just Utah, since they have partner libraries in other locations
  19. FamilySearch Catalog -- https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog -- Most books in FS Digital Library are also listed in the FS Catalog, but not all yet; there are also a few yearbooks in the Catalog that are not in the FS Digital Library yet 
  20. FHC Portal in FHCs has links to premium websites, some with yearbooks -- for info see  https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Family_History_Center_Portal
  21. Mountain West Digital Library -- https://mwdl.org/ -- search for terms like "yearbooks" or "school yearbooks" or "salt lake city yearbooks" (without the quotes)
  22. Digital Public Library of America -- https://dp.la/search?q=yearbooks  
  23. Ancestry.com has major collections of directories and yearbooks -- https://www.ancestry.com/
    1. Ancestry's Support Center -- https://support.ancestry.com/s/ -- https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Searching-City-and-Area-Directories -- many helpful tips and articles 
    2. U.S. School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 -- https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1265
    3. School Lists and Yearbooks -- https://search.ancestry.com/search/category.aspx?cat=138  
    4. Schools, Directories, and Church Histories -- https://search.ancestry.com/search/category.aspx?cat=37
  24. MyHeritage -- https://www.myheritage.com -- large collection of yearbooks -- MyHeritage Yearbook Collection --
    U.S. Yearbooks Name Index, 1890-1979 on MyHeritage has over 289 million names -- https://www.myheritage.com/research/catalog?s=195946641 -- you need a MyHeritage membership, free to LDS members since it is a FamilySearch Partner website
  25. SOME YEARBOOK WEBSITES FOR UTAH

  26. BYU Banyan yearbooks -- best copies are on FamilySearch Digital Library and on Internet Archive -- a href="https://archive.org/">https://archive.org/ ; Example of 1956 Banyan -- https://archive.org/details/banyan1956brig -- these are every-word searchable and entire book can be downloaded in several formats, including as searchable pdf
  27. University of Utah Utonian yearbooks -- best copies are on FamilySearch Digital Library; opies are also on U of U Marriott Library, but not downloadable nor as good quality
  28. Utah State University Buzzer yearbooks -- http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/buzzer  
  29. Many Utah high schools -- http://www.skalooza.com/
  30. Washington County Utah schools -- https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Washington_County,_Utah_Genealogy  
  31. Utah County schools -- https://ldsgenealogy.com/UT/Utah-County-School-Records.htm -- Provo High School -- https://provohigh.provo.edu/yearbook-archive/ -- see also Special Collections at Provo Public Library -- https://provo.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/pl/search/results/?qu=yearbooks&x=0&y=0 -(not onlin)   
  32. Utah Archives -- https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Utah_Archives_and_Libraries -- many libraries have local yearbooks online /li>

    OTHER WEBSITES FOR YEARBOOKS

  33. Linkpendium -- http://www.linkpendium.com/ -- see both state and county school resources for links to yearbooks  
  34. U.S. School Records -- https://ldsgenealogy.com/school-records/ 
  35. Los Angeles County School records with many yearbooks -- https://ldsgenealogy.com/CA/Los-Angeles-County-School-Records.htm
  36. Dead Fred website -- http://www.deadfred.com/annuals_05.php  
  37. Genealogy Today -- http://data.genealogytoday.com/contents/School_Records_and_Yearbooks.html  
  38. Newberry Library (Chicago) -- https://www.newberry.org/sources-school-yearbooks
  39. Cyndi's List -- https://www.cyndislist.com/schools/yearbooks/      
  40. Navy cruise books -- https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/  
  41. Military Yearbook Project -- https://militaryyearbookproject.com/   
  42. Commercial websites with many yearbooks
    1. Classmates -- https://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/   
    2. e-Yearbooks -- http://www.e-yearbook.com/ 
    3. Old Yearbooks -- https://www.old-yearbooks.com/
    4. Yearbook-Finder -- http://yearbook-finder.com/rp1/ 

    CONCLUSIONS

  43. Yearbooks are very useful in family history to help identify people, find pictures of them, and learn more about their background.    
  44. Many yearbooks are available online and can be searched and/or downloaded for free.
  45. You might want to check for yearbooks for your own life and those of family members.

  46. Return to the Events Page or the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's Class Listings Page .