Every once in a while, I find a record online, which came from a family history book or similar publication which references a source always abbreviated as the AGBI.

Many researchers have likely also come across the same reference description, but most of us don’t look further. I didn’t for many years and then decided I wanted to know exactly what AGBI stood for.

It’s the American Genealogical Biographical Index, which is it is an every-name project index to over 800 printed genealogically related sources housed at the Godfrey Memorial Library in Middletown, Connecticut.

It is sometimes called Rider’s Index, named for Fremont Rider, who created the index.

The FamilySearch research wiki of course has an article with links pertaining to the AGBI.

The AGBI is somewhat viewable online. HathiTrust has a list of partner organizations who have limited access to parts of the index.

American Ancestors has an article that touches on the AGBI.

All sources cited within AGBI are available at Godfrey Memorial Library. Researchers can access these cited sources by making an AGBI search request by email with the form available on the library website.

The American Genealogical Biographical Index contains mostly New England titles of books and manuscripts with some items from the Middle Atlantic states. If you have family lines that originated in the northeastern part of the United States, it is worthwhile to investigate the AGBI.

Keep in mind that the AGBI was created a long time ago. Many of the books cited in it might be out of copyright and available to view through FamilySearch, Internet Archive, Google Books or other online book repository. The Index is an easy way to check for clues to your family history.