Santa Clara County Genealogy

Lookup Help

GUIDELINES FOR REQUESTING LOOKUPS

Feel free to request a look-up from the generous volunteers listed in this section.

These wonderful helpers provide their time and effort for free.

However, they can reasonably expect that you reimburse them for costs

they incur for such things as photocopying or postage.

Please use the following guidelines when making your request:

Please DON'T ask the volunteer to do more than they have offered to do.
Limit your request to one or two items or names. Be considerate of the volunteer's time.
Put the words "Santa Clara County LOOKUP" in the subject line of your request to insure the message is not overlooked.
In the first line of the message please put the name of the book or type of record from which you are requesting the lookup.
If you have a spam filter, either turn it off or add the volunteer's email address to accept your email!
Be sure to thank the volunteer for their time!
Please DON'T ask the volunteer for a lookup that would violate copyright laws.

Volunteers are wanted and appreciated!!

If you own or have access to records and books relating to Santa Clara County and are willing to do look-ups, please let us know. Any source relating to Santa Clara County history or families is wanted! Look in the attic, the basement, in the corner of your closet. Do you have:

Books on Santa Clara County history or residents?

Old school yearbooks or class pictures with names?

An old family Bible with Santa Clara County names and dates?

Old club membership rosters?

Back issues of old monthly neighborhood newsletters?

Diaries, letters, journals, scrapbooks?

Old phone books or directories?

? ? ? ? ?

Dust them off!

Please share them with us by offering to look up a name for someone. Just imagine the interesting records we would all have "access" to if we each volunteered to do lookups in just one item we may have laying around the house! Tell us about the Santa Clara County resource you'd like to share!

(We will be happy to list any type of limits to what you would be willing to do next to your name. For example, if you only want to do lookups on the third Tuesday of every other month, that's fine! We wouldn't want to have any volunteer feel overburdened.)

Please join this growing list of wonderful volunteers! Thank you to every one of you!

Index of Santa Clara County Lookup Offers

Cemeteries

Census

City and Telephone Directories

County History & Genealogy Related Books

Naturalization

Newspaper Obituary

School Yearbooks

Vital Records Indices

Voter Records

The local library is always an excellent place for research. Now you can contact librarians through the internet:

For other possible help with lookups, consider "trading" lookup offers with other researchers looking for help in YOUR geographic area or in books/records YOU own. If you are willing to help other genealogists, in exchange for the help you receive, consider some of these wonderful resources:

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness is another group of lookup volunteers who provide help all over the country. In return for this help, you are asked to do one lookup per month in your own area for another researcher.
Books We Own is a list of resources owned or accessible by people willing to look up genealogical information for others.
NORCAL Library has many lookup offers for numerous Northern California resources, all offered by generous volunteers.

There are also specific mailing lists that have volunteers for that specific resource:

CASCLARA-L for researchers with a specific interest in Santa Clara County.
CA-CENSUS-LOOKUP-L for researchers who will look up census records for California. (Note: Santa Clara County census for 1850 is not available.)
CA-DEATH-INDEX-L for researchers who will lookup dates of death in the California Death Index (CADI) as well as obits and certificate transcriptions.

Before you take advantage of any volunteer resources, please be willing to return the favor. Remember that every one of these wonderful volunteers are taking time from their OWN research to do YOU a favor. We will all benefit if we're all willing to pass those favors along to somone else.

Books

Santa Clara County

Guinn History of Coast Counties: Santa Clara County, 1904 includes some biographies— dennyduz
History of Santa Clara County, Eugene T. Sawyer, 1922— Donna Fornari—dennyduz
Santa Clara County and It's Resources" Historical, Descriptive, Statistical...A souvenir of The San Jose Mercury..1895—Samuella Sprouse

Cupertino

A Centenial History of the Sainte Claire Club, 1888-1988, by James D. Houston, California History Center foundation, Cupertino, California—bbacronico@aol.com

Los Gatos

The History of Los Gatos, Gem of the foothills, by George G. Bruntz, Valley Publishers, 1971—bbacronico@aol.com

Palo Alto

Palo Alto Community Book-Guy C. Miller, Editor in Chief, 1952. This book has historical information and numerous biographies of noted citizens—Carolyn Feroben
"History of Palo Alto, The Early Years" by Pamela Guillard and Nancy Lund, Scotwall Associates, San Francisco, 1989—Pamela Storm

San Jose

San Jose and other famous places, The Lore and Lure of the South Bay, by Harry Farrell, Smith and McKay Printing Company, 1983—bbacronico@aol.com
Historical Sketch of the State Normal School at San Jose, 1889. Includes listing of all graduates up until that time.—dennyduz

Saratoga

Saratoga Story, by R.V. Garrod, 1962—bbacronico@aol.com

Santa Clara County Census Records

1850 - 1920 Federal Census for California (other years and states on request)—Donna

Note: 1850 and 1890 federal census records are not available for Santa Clara.
If you have a spam filter, either turn it off or add my email address to accept your email!

City & Telephone Directories

Directory of Palo Alto, Mayfield, Runnymede and Stanford University,1921-22—Carolyn Feroben
Palo Alto City Directory 1944—Carolyn Feroben
Polk's Palo Alto Directory, 1927. It also includes East Palo Alto, Ravenswood, Stanford( includes students) and Menlo Park—Carolyn Feroben
San Jose City Directory 1882-83 and 1870—dennyduz

Naturalization

"Declarations of Intention For Naturalization, Santa Clara County, California, Complied by Christine Rose, C.G., F.A.S.G. It contains information from Volumes A, B, and E (1850 to 1870)— Cathy Kesseler

Obituaries

Schools

1910 The Stanford (University) Quad 1910, Vol. XVI: The Yearbook of the Junior Class— Jeanne Rudy
1921 - 1923 San Jose State College ("La Torre") — Jeanne Rudy
1931 Stanford University Yearbook and History of Santa Clara County, Eugene Sawyer, 1922 — Sally Morello
1936 - 1940 San Jose State University ("La Torre") — Jeanne Rudy
1945 - 1948 San Jose State University ("La Torre") — Jeanne Rudy
1959 - 1961 Santa Clara High School Yearbooks ("Toscin") — Jim Gallagher
Stanford University Alumni Directory — Marcia Wright

California Vital Records Indices

Some of these indices are available online for free.

Voter Records

1890 Great Register of Voters — Colleen Norby