Locating and Using School Records for Genealogical Research

School may be out for summer, but genealogists should still know how to find and use school records! Today’s blog will discuss the ABCs of school records in genealogical research and offer some great online resources.

American schools date back to the earliest days of colonial settlement. The Boston Latin School, established on April 23, 1635, was the first school in what is now the US, and it still operates today. Modeled after the Free Grammar School of Boston, England, it was a boys-only public secondary school, led by schoolmaster Philemon Pormont, a Puritan settler. Courses were strictly for college preparation; they were centered on the humanities and included Latin and Greek. The most famous alumni of the school were John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Benjamin Franklin had to drop out after two years because his father could no longer afford the cost.

When searching for records, consider all schools, public and private. Colleges and universities are excellent sources of genealogical information compared to early primary school records. Records document admission, registration, course of study, and graduation. Additionally, many alumni associations and school archivists have compiled biographies and histories of former students. Many schools have preserved applications for admission containing valuable family information.

Sources of School Records

Fortunately, many sources of school records exist. They include family records, libraries, state and local archives, historical societies, genealogical societies, digital collections, FamilySearch, Internet Archive, and Ancestry, as well as other sources.

Types of School Records

Report Cards

Report cards can often be found among family heirlooms and papers. Depending on the information provided, they can provide the student’s approximate age based on the grade level indicated, what subjects the student studied, and how well the student performed (Fig. 2). There may also be comments about the student written by the teacher. Some schools may also have maintained record books of all grades issued.

Class Registers

Class registers give a day-by-day account of students present and absent. Along with daily attendance, they can list the parent or guardian of each student, teacher’s name, names of the school committee members, and subjects covered. Not all class registers are equally detailed, but they can give very specific information. The register of the common school in Caswell Co., North Carolina for April 1859 includes a teacher noting the hazard of having a wooden chimney in the schoolhouse (Fig. 3).

Admission Registers

Admission registers are found mostly with private and state schools. They often list the parents, residence, age, and, if a state school, the cause of the student’s infirmity. Admission registers of schools for the deaf tend to be very detailed, such as the Ohio Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.

Private and state schools also maintained an admission process, starting with an application. Fig. 5 shows the application of Frances Rebecca Rumsey for admission to the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb.

School Censuses

Many states or counties required school censuses of families with school-age children to help determine public school funding needs. These records are usually found at the local school board, county archives, or state archives. In some areas school censuses were taken almost every year; however, recent years may be restricted for privacy reasons. They typically list each family with school-age children and their ages. Only rarely are school censuses indexed. Check the individual School Records Wiki page on FamilySearch for your state to see what records are available.

Here’s a page from the registers for Mt. Pleasant Indian School,  Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, 1893-1932. It lists students discharged from school between 1894 and 1896 and reason for being discharged.

This is a page from the Historical Record from the same school; it also includes the Native tribe of which the student was a member.

This is a page from Georgia Poor School records, 1826, that are part of Wilkes Co. court records. It includes names of the parents and children, age of child, subjects taught, and number of days.

Annual Reports

Annual reports are essential when you’re researching a student in a state school. They can give information when other sources are closed or otherwise inaccessible. Many of these come from schools for the deaf and/or blind. They may contain student rosters with varying types of information, from very basic to a lot of detail. They may also indicate why a student left or didn’t return.

This is an annual report for the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. It was originally The American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf. It was the oldest permanent school for the deaf in the US, founded on April 15, 1817, and the first school for children with disabilities anywhere in the western hemisphere. Here’s a list of deaf students from Maine:

This is from the 1874 annual report of the Texas Institute for the Blind:

You may also find in these reports some interesting remarks about illnesses, accidents, and deaths, like this remark about the death of a student from pneumonia at the Texas Institute in 1875-1876 (Fig. 11):

Figures 12-13 are from the Annual and Biennial Report of the Maryland School for the Colored Blind and Deaf-mutes, 1885:

Newspapers

Local newspapers are great resources for all kinds of school information, such as lunch menus, sports scores, graduation lists, honor rolls, school activities and photos (Fig. 14). If a newspaper from a larger nearby city is available, it may also include some of these items. For example, North Andover High School students were recognized for scholarship awards in the Boston Globe on December 10, 1961 (Fig. 14). High school wrestlers received their awards in 1922 (Fig. 15), and honor roll students from Baron de Kalb School in Brooklyn were recognized in 1915 (Fig. 16).

School Newspapers

School newspapers (high schools, colleges, universities) can be more difficult to locate. They can include all kinds of school news pertaining to students, faculty, administration, and activities. One place to look is the Internet Archive using the search terms “student newspapers” + place. Brooklyn school newspapers are there under Brooklyn Public Library. There are 925 issues produced by fifty-five schools across the borough, and publication dates span 1853-1994. The highest concentration of papers is from 1958-1964. Below is an example from Brooklyn Girls’ High School, January 1939 (Fig. 17). Another is Google, using “school newspapers” + historical + place as search terms. You can also check the free site TheAncestorHunt.

Libraries and other locations may have listings of local school newspaper holdings, such as the Missouri Valley Room in the Kansas City Public Library (Fig. 18).

Genealogical Periodicals

School information may also be found in PERSI, the PERiodical Source Index, free from the Allen County Public Library, Ft. Wayne, Indiana (Fig. 19). It indexes genealogical periodicals in their collection; you can get photocopies from them or via interlibrary loan from your library. You can do keyword searches but locality-specific brings best results. From the home page, find “Location Search, then select USA > State > County > School records. Then select “School records” from “Category.” A sample search shows that the Benton County (AR) Genealogical Society Quarterly, v. 17, no. 3 (July/Sept. 2005), 115-116 has transcripts of the records of Tennessee School for the Deaf from Benton County, Tennessee from 1872-1930 (Fig. 20). Also, some genealogical societies have tables of contents/indexes of their journals online with directions on how to get copies.  

Yearbooks

Yearbooks are another great source of school information pertaining to a particular year. The Internet Archive has a number of high school and college yearbooks, so it’s worth checking. For example, they have thousands of Massachusetts high school yearbooks from the 1920s to today from about 114 cities and towns..Ancestry.com and Ancestry Library Edition also have school yearbooks from all over the US. Below are two examples (Fig1. 21 and 22):

Alumni Associations

Many alumni associations and school archivists have compiled biographies and histories of former students in directories. Following is a list of the class of 1925, Peabody High School, Peabody, Massachusetts. Several of these associations have pages on Facebook; you can also try a Google search or even check with the school if it still exists.

These resources should give you a good idea about the types of education-related records you might find for your ancestors. Remember to include school records in your research; you may find ancestral photos as well as family information to help you complete your family history. Good luck!