500 Free Library of Congress Digital Collections

The Library of Congress’s Digital Collections are large and growing. Currently, there are 525 different collections. You should definitely incorporate this massive set of collections into your genealogy research. They are divided into 15 different topics, Click on a link for more information about a topic.

You can see all the specific collections by selecting a topic. You can also drill down by Original Format, Online Format, Date, and Location. There are several other drill-down criteria.

The main original formats are:

There are currently over 6 million items in the collections.  There is plenty of material to search for and discover. The Library of Congress holds another 18 million items yet to be digitized, so there is a lot to discover online in the future.

There are three topics that are quite useful, although many of them might have pertinent information that can assist us.

On the surface, Local History & Folklife, War & Military, and Geography & Places is where I started, to see what might advance my research.

The collections with many different types of maps are quite helpful and extensive.

Take a look at the list of these digital collections. You may find some real gems that can assist you in your research.  

Go to LOC Digital Collections to examine the contents.

Download the Quicksheet PDF

The details and links are included in the Quicksheet available below. To download the Quick Sheet PDF, click on the Download button below:

For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets. 

Genealogy QuickSheets – Frequently Asked Questions