Guides
Guides
Practical help for finding a relative in an old yearbook, and for keeping the books themselves.
- How to scan and preserve an old yearbook
Check whether your yearbook is already online, then handle, scan, store and share it safely: settings, supplies and the mistakes to avoid. - How to find old yearbooks online (free)
Where free scanned yearbooks live, how to search them by name, and what to do when the Internet Archive text search finds nothing. - Are old yearbooks public domain?
Which US yearbooks are public domain, how notice and renewal work for 1931 to 1963 books, and what is safe to copy or post. - Do high schools keep old yearbooks?
Where old high school yearbooks end up, who to ask for a look or a scan, and what to do when the school has closed. - How to cite a high school yearbook in your family tree
Copy-and-paste yearbook citations for Evidence Explained style, FamilySearch and WikiTree, built from the school, year, page and Internet Archive item. - How to find a grandparent in a 1920s yearbook
Work out the school and year, search by name and by class list, and read the entry once you find it. What to try when a grandparent does not turn up. - Free Massachusetts yearbooks online, by town
The Massachusetts towns whose school yearbooks we have read, with the years, and where to look for the towns and years that are not here. - How to tell who is in an old class photo
Use the caption, row labels, senior portraits and the rest of the yearbook to name the people in an old class or team photograph, and when to stop guessing. - What a 1930s-40s yearbook entry tells you
Course, nickname, plans, activities and address: what each part of a 1930s or 1940s senior yearbook entry says about a person, and how to use each clue. - How to use a city directory with a yearbook address
Take the home address from a yearbook entry to a city directory to see the household, the occupations and the years, and what the match does not prove. - How to read a yearbook scan on the Internet Archive
Find the right page of a yearbook scan, read small print, understand the page number in the link, and download the full-resolution page image. - Where to look when your relative's yearbook is not online
Find the physical copy through libraries, schools and societies, and find the person through graduation lists, the census and city directories.