Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help.
Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th state on December 11, 1816. Indiana's name means "Land of the Indians" or "Indian Land." This is because the first inhabitants were Paleo-Indians. Some of these indigenous people were expelled by the U.S. government between 1800 and 1836. Indiana is located in the Midwestern part of the United States, and is the 38th largest by area and the 17th most populous of the 50 states.
This guide offers a selection of resources and strategies for Indiana local history and genealogy research. These include the print and digital collections of the Library of Congress, as well as external repositories and web sites key to finding forebears in the Hoosier state.
The Library of Congress has one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogical and local historical publications, numbering more than 50,000 compiled family histories and over 100,000 U.S. local histories. The Library's genealogy collection began as early as 1815 with the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's library.
