Finding yourself (and others…) in yearbooks online

My brain is in “Yearbook” mode, after my previous post about the clippings I’d found in an old yearbook, and I realized that I hadn’t shared any wonderful links to sites where y’all can actually look for yearbooks! So here’s how you can go about finding yourself (and others…) in yearbooks online !

Yearbooks

I’m going to start out with the best site I’ve found, because it took some hunting to find one that I could actually recommend. Classmates.com(r), while they do offer subscription services, you can look through all of their online digitized yearbooks for free (although you will get bombarded with ads).  They have a huge collection, of 250,000 yearbooks from over 200,000 schools. Sign up for a free account, or sign in using Facebook, then click the “Browse Yearbooks” button along the bottom of the page. Once you narrow down your choices to a yearbook you’d like to look at, you’ll be able to scroll through full color, full page images.

Another site that I liked, based on the fact that it is completely free and well organized, is Skalooza.com .  The downside is that they don’t have a huge selection of yearbooks. But hey, if they do have the one you are looking for, that’s all that counts! You need to register and sign in, but you can either create a new (and free) account, or sign in using Facebook or G+. Easy peasy. The next page gives you the option to look through “Featured Schools”, or click on “Browse by State”.  While the “Browse by State” option lists hundreds of schools broken down by every possible city, not all of them have yearbooks available online. You will, however, be taken to an information page about that school, with its address and basic statistics.  It appears that all it takes is a call

I found my high school freshman pic!

from a school administrator to have their school’s yearbook included.  The site looks promising, and hopefully will continue to add more yearbooks and remain free.


AccessGenealogy.com has a nice collection of yearbooks, and they are completely free to search and to view. They aren’t really easy to find however. You may simply search “Yearbook” and peruse the 227+ results, or add other keywords to your search (i.e., college, high school, Arizona) to narrow it down.

CyndisList.com has 167 links in the category of Schools > Yearbooks and Annuals.

One private, but free, website is National Yearbook Project.  A list of US states runs down the left side, which, when clicked, will take you to that state’s page, listing school yearbooks available online, by county.

My second favorite is the ever-amazing Internet Archive site.  Just type “yearbook” in the search bar to pull up 21,000+ results.  Narrowing the search to “high school yearbook” still brings up 4,327 results.  You may further winnow your search down by locale or school name.

Hathi Trust Digital Library has currently 610 items that show up under the search “school yearbook.” Always worth checking out to find yours.

And another rather ambitious project is over at The Ancestor Hunt, where they are making a list of US and Canada colleges, universities and high schools with direct links to their online yearbooks if available.

SOME FREE, SOME SUBSCRIPTION/PAY RESULTS:

Linkpendium.com is always one of my first go-to sites, and of course they don’t disappoint this time either.  You’ll need to go through their directory-style index, choosing State, then County, and then look under “School Records and Histories” for available yearbooks listed. Some may link to pay sites, but many link to free sites as well.

yearbook

1945 Wichita Falls, TX – Amazon.com

Ancestry.com has a collection of 51,000 yearbooks from 1880 to 2012, scanned, indexed, and searchable online. Search for free, but, as is usually the case, you need a membership to peruse the results.  One more item to remember to search when you’re at your library or Family History Center.  I searched for my own name, and the only one I found was from a college that I’d almost forgotten I’d gone to for one semester (and of course didn’t buy a yearbook).

GenealogyToday has a good-sized collection of school records and yearbooks cataloged and indexed in their Subscription Database collection. Searching is free, but access to the detailed information requires a paid subscription to the site (currently a bargain at $32.95/year).

MyHeritage has a over 250,000 high school and college yearbooks. You can easily search to see if one you are interested in is there.

E-yearbook.com looks promising –  It is a subscription site, but only $19.95/year. It is a family owned and operated company, and not yet another Ancestry offspring. Additionally, 20% of revenue generated goes back to the schools in their yearbook digitization program. Searching is free, and the search results will actually show you the full color yearbook pages, so you know what kind of information you may have available to you.

Old-Yearbooks.com is another free searchable site and although the name sounded very promising, it was no surprise to discover that searches ultimately lead back to Ancestry.com.

Don’t get lost on memory lane, now 🙂

Browse over 300,000 high school yearbooks online – find yours here!   (#ad)

brad HS

and I found my husband’s pic too, on the other side of the country!

1941 Woodrow Wilson High, Dallas TX is just one of the Yearbook reprints available on Amazon.com.

Disclaimer:
This page contains affiliate links which help support this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As always, however, I only include products or services that I personally find of value and use.

32 Responses

  1. james clark says:

    Do you have 1981 OU Law School Advocate annual/yearbook for sale?

    • Sorry James, I don’t have any yearbooks for sale. The article does mention some sites that may have the images online though.

      • Tracy Cousins says:

        Do you have baker elementary(1985-87), Crawford high school(1995-96), Kennedy Elementary(1984-85), wilson middle school(1989-91), Roosevelt middle school (1991-92) year books.

  2. Kevin says:

    South city

  3. Roana says:

    Do you know where I can find elementary school yearbooks at?

  4. hannah says:

    I’m looking for someone specific, from 2015. But the yearbooks don’t go that far, and I only know the first name of the person which makes everything hard

    • Gavin says:

      I think I might be that person, my name’s gavin. From adams elamentary school, eugiun, oregon. Sound familiar? If not, I suggest that I’m not the person your looking for.

    • Gavin says:

      Or scarlet. Depending on if your the hannah I knew.

  5. Gallagher says:

    Classmates keeps “improving” their site and are really damaging their brand. Their latest change is on the actual yearbook sites where they’ve eliminated the option to type in a page # so you can get there instantly, and they’ve removed the option to zoom incrementally. Now you have a single zoom option and the single page ou are viewing is still barely readable.
    The layout used to be two pages which you could scroll back and forth and up and down. Now you can drag A SINGLE PAGE somewhat, but a full third of the page display is taken up by options (search, zoom +/-, Grid view (four page grid (can read much), Page view (single). I don’t believe I will be renewing.

  6. Looking for someone

  7. Jayla says:

    Trying to find my old elementary school yearbook with me and my friends in it

  8. Fred says:

    Some components of Classmates have gotten better. Many have gotten worse. One biggie is the maximum number of choices when searching on a name, 500. If you search for a name with, say, 2000 choices, only 500 of those can be accessed. You are presented with ten options per page, but only 50 pages. Now that may sound like a lot, but what becomes of the additional 1500 inaccessible names? I realize there must be a limit, but 500 is unrealistic.

    Another problem is its display. For some reason, the print is so small on some pages, a magnifying glass is almost essential. Unfortunately there may be no good solution for this problem except, perhaps, providing more than a single “zoom out” option. There’s more, but that’s for a another time.

  9. Emmaline says:

    Do u have argentine middle school yearbooks 2018

  10. Dorychewyoung says:

    Trying to find my old elementary yearbook from Elihu Beard elementary school in Modesto California, I moved away from Modesto California, and I lost my yearbook 😥 I graduated in 2002

  11. Pat brown says:

    P.s.151 knickerbocker str bklyn ny Patricia brown 2nd grade teacher Mrs Turner 1977thanks

  12. i want to find my girlfriend from 2018

  13. Catarino Najera III says:

    Yeah I went to AccessGeaneology.com and tapped on the menu button and nowhere on that menu does it have “Yearbook”

  14. Charles Tubaugh says:

    Do you where I can find a 1973 class yearbook Mifflin High School Columbus, Ohio For Sale /or download

  15. Jasmin Marin says:

    I want to find my elementary yearbook pictures and im in 8th grade now. im lost on where to go

  16. kary says:

    do you guys have norris middle school yearbooks?im looking for my boyfriend that’s why 😂

  17. Carol Vallone says:

    Looking for St Mary’s Business School in Buffalo, New York. I graduated in 1969.

  18. Lavonte montgomery says:

    Lynwood high school yearbook
    2004-2007

  19. Johnny kimmel says:

    I lived in the pines an Michigan city Ind in the 90s as played basketball in school. My name Johnny j Kimmel. Just throwing this out here in hopes someone knows me or has any pics or info.

  20. Barbara Van horn says:

    Looking for Donald James van horn
    Warwick high school…… Class of 1988 Warwick.n.y. 10990. Looking for a picture believe he is a step son

  21. genesis says:

    anyone know where i can find elemntry yearbook plz

  22. Jeremiah says:

    I need year book of Newnan high school from 2018- 2019 pls help if you can

  23. Johnsonville middle school 2020-2021 in south carolina not class of 2021 but the year book of that year I am looking for Juliana owens

  24. Flo Thomas says:

    I am looking for my class picture from Powderly Elementary School, B’ham, Al. Class of 1965. Can you help me find it?

  25. destiny evans says:

    i’m trying to find my photo from franklin middle school 2021-2022

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