Upcoming Events

The Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County (GSSCC) on Tuesday January 7, 2024 at 1 pm live and on Zoom, will present Gail Burk who will give a presentation entitled “Introduction to use of DNA for Genealogy" at their monthly meeting. For additional information please view the GSSCC website at https://scgensoc.org/

The Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County has hybrid meeting presentations that meet in the upstairs meeting room of the Santa Cruz County Public Library, 224 Church Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, phone: 831-427-7707 extension 5794. Meetings are in hybrid format, allowing in person and Zoom attendance. Please support GSSCC and see their calendar (https://scgensoc.org/event-calendar/) for upcoming events.
Make sure to refresh your browser as this website is updated frequently.

Helping Find Your Roots

In 1791, the first Spanish settlers established Mission Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) along the San Lorenzo River mouth on Monterey Bay. Santa Cruz County was created in 1850 as one of the original counties when California was made a state. The name was originally, Branciforte, and in two months was changed to Santa Cruz on April 5, 1850. There are four incorporated cities in the county: Capitola, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Watsonville. The quite-helpful Santa Cruz County Wikipedia page also reports that the 2010 U. S. census showed a population of 262,382.

Are you new to genealogy? Don't know where to start? Try our Beginning page for some basic tips.

Otherwise try the list of Links page to learn about Santa Cruz County.

Try out our list of Cemeteries that may lead to your breaking down a brick wall. Of course, try Findagrave and Billiongraves, the go-to cemetery web sites.

And possibly, begin your local research by using the Santa Cruz County Queries page and post your own query to a message board. You may find others who are researching the same families.

If you would like to contribute information to the web site please contact me by e-mail. Also, do not submit queries to my email address. I can not do research for others.

Another resource you might consider is the Santa Cruz County Genealogical Society. They have both free and paid research assistance. Free help is available at the downtown Santa Cruz Library (see the Staffing Calendar on their web site). Paid assistance is available (an evaluation and 1 hour of research time) for $20. See details on the Research Assistance link on their web site. Joining a local genealogical society is a must for learning how to research.

Enjoy your quest.

California US GenWeb Project

This web site, The Santa Cruz County Genweb Project, is maintained on behalf of the California USGenWeb Project and the US Genweb Project. Although believed to be correct as presented, if you notice any corrections, changes, additions, or broken links, contact County Coordinator, Bill George. If you would like to host a county site of your own please contact the California State Coordinator.