Women's History Month 2018: Yearbooks

Since we discussed alumni directories yesterday, I thought it would be a good idea to briefly discuss yearbooks. Yearbooks provide a directory-type listing of students who are part of a small community (school) for a specific place in time. While they don't provide a person's physical residential address, they provide a regional location which can be helpful. And if you're really lucky, a few photos as well as grade level, interests, and hobbies.

From Internet Archive

From Internet Archive

You can read more about yearbooks in an article I wrote for GenealogyBank as part of my Genealogy 101 series here.

Ancestry.com has a large collection of yearbooks spanning 1900-1990. I would suggest taking some time to search on various female family members/ancestors to see what you can find. Remember to search by her maiden name unless she was married in high school or college. You can browse the collection to see what yearbooks they have. Please note that Ancestry does accept yearbook donations. Consult their website for copyright restrictions and other information.

Other yearbooks can be found on digitized book websites and in library collections. A search on the keyword "yearbook" revealed over 35,000 results on Internet Archive but it's important to remember that other organizations, besides schools, also published yearbooks.