How to find out-of-print family histories without spending a dime.

If you are researching ancestors from the 19th or early 20th centuries, there is a good chance someone has already written about them in a county history book or an early genealogical volume. Finding physical copies of these rare, out-of-print books can be expensive—but finding them digitally is completely free.

Welcome to your new digital bookshelf: The Internet Archive (Archive.org), HathiTrust, and Google Books.

These massive repositories have scanned millions of public-domain books, directories, and documents. HathiTrust is especially valuable; while it is managed by academic libraries, anyone can create a free guest account. Over 40% of their collection is in the public domain and fully readable online.

When searching these sites, put your target county or family name in quotation marks (e.g., “Brouette family history” or “Pennington County history”). You can also use these platforms to track down old legal records, legislative journals, or historical newspapers to map out how specific events or legal cases were reported at the time.

Cost Savings Tip: Purchasing a rare, out-of-print county history from an antiquarian bookseller can cost $50 to $150. Reading it on HathiTrust costs $0.