Home > Law and Research Library > Collections > Genealogy > Frequently Asked Genealogy Questions

Frequently Asked Genealogy Questions

• How do I get a copy of a Homestead application?
• I was adopted and am trying to find my birth parents. --or-- I gave up my child for adoption and now I would like to locate him or her. Where do I start?
• My great-grandmother died in Arizona in 1913, I don't know exactly when or where. How do I find a death record or an obituary?
• My grandfather said we have Cherokee blood. How can I find out?
• My research has come to a "dead-end." What can I do?
• Where can I find immigration records?
• Where can I find a professional who can do my genealogy for me?

How do I get a copy of a Homestead application?

• The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has an online index to original land patents. These documents show the transfer of land ownership from the federal government to an individual. With the information from the land patent, you can send to the National Archives for the "Land Entry Case File."


• Land Entry Case Files were created when a person claimed land under an act of Congress.   One such act was the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed people to settle up to 160 acres for only the cost of the filing fee if they made improvements on the land for a five-year period.
• The applicant first had to fill out an application and information about marriage, immigration or other documents that may have important genealogical information were sometimes provided. These documents were put in a land entry file.
• Land Entry Case Files are at the National Archives and can be ordered by filling out NATF Form 84, which is the National Archives' order form for copies of land entry case files. These forms can be ordered from the National Archives website or by writing to the National Archives.

top of page

I was adopted and am trying to find my birth parents. --or-- I gave up my child for adoption and now I would like to locate him or her. Where do I start?

• Adoption records are confidential.
• If the adoptee was born or adopted in Arizona, contact the Confidential Intermediary Program (CIP) at the Arizona Supreme Court. Other states have similar programs.
• In the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records' Genealogy Collection, we have a printed bibliography of material for doing adoption research.
• Cyndi's List is also a good place to start adoption research.
• The Law and Research Library has several books on how to locate missing people or how to do the genealogy of adopted people.

top of page

My great-grandmother died in Arizona in 1913, I don't know exactly when or where.   How do I find a death record or an obituary?

• Arizona History and Archives (the State Archives) may have records for Arizona births which occurred 75 years ago or earlier and for Arizona deaths that occurred 50 years ago or earlier. See also: Arizona Dept. of Health Services' Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates.
• If no record is found, check Arizona Death Records (Arizona Collection 929.3 A51 3 Vols.) which has records taken from cemeteries and mortuaries.
• Once a death record is found, a search of newspapers by date can be made for an obituary.
• The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records has all available Arizona newspapers for all years. Historical Arizona newspapers can be found on microfilm in Arizona History and Archives (the State Archives). Current Arizona newspapers can be found in the Law and Research Library.
• There is also a microfiche index of Arizona obituaries from newspapers (mostly central Arizona newspapers) from 1864-1997.
• On the web site RootsWeb, there is a database called Obituary Daily Times.
• This database contains over 8 million current obituaries for all the states and some Canadian provinces.



• More recent Arizona birth and death records are located at the Arizona Dept. of Health Services' Office of Vital Records at 1818 West Adams, Phoenix, AZ. Their phone number is: (602) 364-1300, or, within Arizona (888) 816-5907.

top of page

My grandfather said that we have Cherokee blood. How can I find out?

• Search the Library and Archives' online catalog under "Cherokee genealogy."
• We have several good how-to books on doing Native American genealogy.
• We also have the published Dawes Rolls, a listing of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole Nations of Oklahoma, enrolled during 1899-1906.   This rolls show the degree of Indian blood and is used to prove eligibility for entitlements, e.g., grants for education.
• And we have the Miller, Drennen, Old Settler, and the Chapman rolls.
• Cyndi's List has some good links to Cherokee genealogical research.
• The National Archives web site has some Native American records online.
• The National Archives also has Indian Census Rolls,1885-1940.
• The following useful information about Cherokee research was taken from "Genealogy Bits and Pieces":


In the National Genealogical Society Quarterly for Sept. 2002 (V.90, #3), Lathel F. Duffield, Ph.D. reports that the 1835 Cherokee census omits approximately 1/3 of the Cherokee families who later emigrated to Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears. If you don't find your family on the 1835 census look at these documents:

"List of valuations of Cherokee improvements, under the treaty of December 29, 1835," in Report from the Secretary of War, 18 Feb. 1839, 25th Cong. 3d Sess. (1838-39), S. Doc. 277, p.111-88.

Capt. John Page, "Muster Roll of Cherokees to Emigrate West of the Mississippi River," 31 Dec. 1838, Emigration Rolls, 1817-1838, item 46; Cherokee Removal Records, entry 220; Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; National Archives, Washington.

"A List of Cherokees with amt. of Property Sold by direction of the U.S. Comm. under the Treaty of 1835... Rec. 28 May 1844," Cherokee Agency, 1836-1880, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs 1824-1881, microfilm M234 (Washington NARA, n.d.), roll 88, frames 142-66.

And for 1,220 Cherokees that did not emigrate and remained in South Carolina, Annual Report of the Office of Indian Affairs, 1845, 29th Cong. 1st Sess. (1845-46), S. Doc. 1, pp. 459-60, for "Census No. 1," note E.

top of page

My research has come to a "dead-end." What can I do?

• Write to state and local libraries in places where your ancestors lived.
• State archives often hold original, unpublished school, court, voting, land, marriage, birth, death and probate documents.
• Local libraries and historical societies often have vertical file materials, local publications, local card indexes, and other unpublished or locally published materials.
• Addresses for libraries can be found in the American Library Directory (Law and Research Library Ready Reference 027.073 A51).



• See what is available on microfilm in the National Archives.
• There is a searchable index of microfilmed record groups.
• Some lesser-known federal records can give a fresh start to anyone's research:
• passport applications, 1791-1925
• homestead files, 1862-1908
• Civil War income tax records, 1862-1872
• federal court records, 1789-1911
• World War I draft registration cards, 1917-19. This includes 28 million records for males age 18-35 even if they never were in the war.



• These films can be purchased from the National Archives. Or, material microfilmed by the National Archives can be borrowed from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT through a local Family History Center.

top of page

Where can I find immigration records?

• The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records' Genealogy Collection has a subscription order for P. William Filby's Passenger and Immigration List Index (PILI) (Genealogy Collection 325.73 F47) which contains a listing of over 4.5 million immigrants who came to the New World between 1538 and 1940.
• There are currently 32 volumes in the set with several volumes added each year.
• Remember that these are only indexes to "published" immigration records and represent only a portion of what is available at the National Archives.
• For unpublished passenger ship lists, request information using the NATF Form 81  from the National Archives or order their microfilm through your local Family History Center.



• We have an easy to use CD-ROM of this index that covers volumes published up to 1999.
• In addition to books in our collection, we have many periodical articles, in forty large three-ring binders, of the sources that Filby used to create his index. Volunteers are helping us obtain additional periodical sources through Inter-Library Loan.



• We also have the published series Germans to America, Italians to America, and Migration from the Russian Empire, as well as publications on the Irish famine and Czechoslovakian, Dutch and Jewish immigration records.
• Some Ellis Island records are available online from the Ellis Island Foundation for 1892 to 1924 for people coming into the Port of New York.
• Also, Castle Garden: America's First Immigration Center offers free access to information on 10 million immigrants from 1830 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. Over 73 million Americans can trace their ancestors to this early immigration period.

top of page

Where can I find a professional who can do my genealogy for me?

• At the State Library we have a list of professional genealogists in the state that will do research for a fee.
• The Association of Professional Genealogists, P.O. Box 350998, Westminster, CO 80035-0998, publishes an annual directory that lists professional genealogists throughout the country. Some are willing to do research in foreign countries.

top of page