School Records

Before you start looking for your ancestor’s school records, you should establish a general time frame of when your ancestor might have attended school, what ages they were during grades of school in what years, and where they lived during that time. Keep this information on hand and update it during your research.  The chart below may help as well:

General Ages of Students During School
3 - 5 preschool elementary school
5, 6 kindergarten elementary school
6, 7 1st grade elementary school
7, 8 2nd grade elementary school
8, 9 3rd grade elementary school
9, 10 4th grade elementary school
10, 11 5th grade elementary school
11, 12 6th grade middle school
12, 13 7th grade middle school
13, 14 8th grade middle school
14, 15 9th grade high school freshman
15, 16 10th grade high school sophomore
16, 17 11th grade high school junior
17, 18 12th grade high school senior

Note: In some places “middle school” can start earlier, or a K - 8 school can be considered “elementary” with no middle school. Grades 7 and 8 could also be considered “junior high”.

The next thing you should do is check home sources - and not just your home, but that of your parents, siblings, grandparents, or anyone applicable to your research subject - and while you’re there, ask these relatives for help filling in your knowledge about where your subject went to school, and any other questions you may have for them. 

Things you may find in homes, or home sources, include: yearbooks, diplomas, transcripts, report cards, school photos, senior portraits, high school rings, trophies, fraternity or sorority pins or patches, Letterman jackets, cheer-leading uniforms, school uniforms, awards, and so on.

Still can’t figure out where they went to school? Look at historical maps or town histories to see what schools existed in that area then. Think about their religious affiliations, and if the family could have afforded to send them to private school. Think about the jobs they had, or where their parents worked, how that might have affected their schooling. Did they stay home at a young age to help with the family farm? Consider the events of the time as well - you don’t want to be looking for high school yearbooks when you should be looking for military records. 

Not to fear if you’re still coming up blank - it’s time to check the records you already have, and then start the hunt for new school records. Also research any discoveries you made through your home sources search, such as the name of a school found on a report card or class photograph. In best practice, I would look for records in the order listed below. Since you’ve already checked your home sources, the next place to look would be census records (both federal and school) followed newspaper records.

Types of School Records

  • Home sources: yearbooks, diplomas, transcripts, report cards, school photos, senior portraits, high school rings, trophies, fraternity or sorority pins or patches, Letterman jackets, cheer-leading uniforms, school uniforms, awards

  • Census records can tell you when ancestors attended school, and the highest grade of education. In addition to federal census records, there are also school censuses and student lists kept by the school district, or county clerk office, or state archives. These listed all the school-aged children in a school district, often every year, to determine the need for funding. Many of these collections have not been digitized or if they have, remain not indexed. A few examples of these records:

  • Newspaper records: graduation records, high school honor rolls, school sports, and general stories. Obituaries may also list names of schools attended. See Newspaper Records for help looking up records.

  • Yearbooks can be one of the most valuable sources as they are filled with pictures and may show the hobbies and interests of your ancestor. In addition to home sources, they can be found in online collections, various websites, school libraries, and even local public libraries.

  • Town histories and local history museums, genealogical societies

  • Search online for school histories and memories shared in books, websites, or social media pages (like Facebook groups)

  • Admission records and other records from the school or district’s administration

Gender Separated Schools

When searching for female students, don’t forget to search by their maiden name. It’s also important to remember that for a long time, separate schools existed for females - first common in all forms of education and later mostly in higher education. There’s a good chance your grandmother or great-grandmother went to an all-girls school at some point.

Single-sex education was very common among Catholic schools, as well as the post-segregation South (sadly as a means to prevent interracial marriage by racist conservatives). Many of these schools became co-ed over time, though there are still females-only schools in the U.S. While gender segregation in education exists today, the passage of Title IX and Supreme Court cases like United States v. Virginia continue to help ensure equality.


Racial Segregation in Schools

Racial discrimination existed in education from the very beginning of public schools in America, with no education for Black people and many minorities. After the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, formerly enslaved Black people were segregated to under-funded schools. Jim Crow laws were passed and later reinforced by the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896, which established “separate but equal” schools (though they were not). Few Black people were accepted to Universities that were not Black only. These schools are now referred to as Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU’s).

The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruled that these segregated schools were not in fact equal, and should be desegregated. The process was not immediate and faced many challenges through the 1960’s. While schools are no longer segregated, Black people continue to face inequality in education.

Native American Non-Reservation Boarding Schools

There were almost thirty boarding schools for Native Americans, starting with the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879 - 1918) in Pennsylvania, that attempted to “civilize” and assimilate Native Americans through education, but actually stripped them of their culture. They weren’t allowed to speak their own languages or eat their own kind of food. They had to cut their hair, wear uniforms, and were given new names. Often they had traveled far, away from their families. These places also attempted conversion to Christianity. Other schools included the Chemawa Indian School in Oregon, the Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma, and the Haskell Institute in Kansas.

Boarding schools and day schools continued treating Native Americans like this through the early 20th century. Native Americans were granted citizenship with the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, and reports about the state of their education started to slowly bring reform.

Records unique to these schools may be available in the National Archives.