U.S. State and Territory Guides

For local history and genealogy research, it is critical to become familiar with the context of the community: geography, legal jurisdictions, population, private and public archives, and more. Visit or contact repositories at the city, county, and state level.

Explore the individual state guides, inventories of city and telephone directories, maps, and additional resources compiled by Library of Congress subject specialists to determine what records exist for your community and where you can find them.

Research Guides Organized by Subject

U.S. Local History: A Resource Guide
Local history is the study of history in a geographically bounded area such as a region, a state, a county, a city, a town, a village, or a neighborhood. This guide focuses on resources available at the Library of Congress and online.

State List:

Fire Insurance Maps at the Library of Congress: A Resource Guide
The Geography and Map Division holds extensive fire insurance map collections useful in genealogy research, environmental studies, urban planning, and more. This guide assists researchers in both discovering and navigating these primary source materials.
Native American Spaces: Cartographic Resources at the Library of Congress
This guide provides access to digitized primary sources, print bibliographies, and related online resources for the study of Indian and Alaska native people of the United States.

Directories By Address: Inventories of Library Collections
There are directories that organize alphabetically and there are directories that organize by street address. The Library has both types, but this guide is primarily an inventory of directory collections where the directories are organized by address.
United States: City and Telephone Directories
City and telephone directories are used to identify people and businesses from a specific time and place. This guide provides an index to the extensive collection of United States city and telephone directories available at the Library of Congress.

Local History and Genealogy Research Guides

Local History & Genealogy: Ask a Librarian

U.S. State and Territory Guides

Research Guides Organized by Subject

State List: