The Ancestor Hunt regularly adds and updates new collection links, as well as searches for and fixes broken links.
(This page's most recent update is May 2026)
Practical solutions for real genealogy research problems. Explore the new Field Guides
HathiTrust is one of the most powerful and overlooked genealogy tools on the internet. Containing millions of digitized books, journals, government documents, local histories, city directories, school reports, and genealogical society publications, it rivals — and frequently exceeds — Google Books in usefulness for family history research.
What makes HathiTrust exceptional is its focus on:
- academic-quality digitization
- rare local publications from small towns, counties, and organizations
- searchable text within the full item, allowing deep discovery
- government publications not available elsewhere
- genealogical society journals and newsletters
This is not a site where you find an ancestor’s profile handed to you. It is a site where you find rich contextual information, and sometimes direct references to ancestors in surprising sources. This Quicksheet shows you how to navigate the site, what to search for, and where genealogists often find “hidden gems” that don’t appear in traditional records.
Download the Quicksheet PDF
To obtain a six-page Quicksheet PDF of this information, download it by clicking on the Download button below:
For all the previously published Quick Reference Guides, click on QuickSheets.
If you use Quicksheets often, the Quicksheet Vault puts 390+ of them in one organized place — clean, printable, and easy to reuse whenever you need them. Whether you keep digital references handy or build your own genealogy binder, the Vault makes research simpler. Learn more about the Quicksheet Vault HERE