After speaking with relatives and doing background research, Internet research is the next step in Iranian genealogy. In the absence of traditional records, other resources such as periodicals, books (such as memoirs, almanacs (سالنامه), and travelogues (سفرنامه)), and photographs are helpful. Increasingly, these types of resources are being digitized and put online. This page has links to the various online resources that may assist you in Iranian genealogy. Please use the Contact Form if you find new ones that should be added!
Record Collections
(Persian, English)
An unparalleled collection of documents and photos from the Qajar Era. Collections are submitted by users and participating institutions.
(Persian, English)
Enormous online index of Iranian library holdings. Search results are only abstracts, but the abstracts contain a lot of information (e.g., date, topics and people mentioned, physical description of the source).
(Persian, English)
A museum in Tehran, Iran that has digitized its collection of art, documents, and photographs.
(Arabic, English)
Contains British government documents about Iran. Of particular value are the several editions of “Gazetteer of Persia” and “Who’s Who in Persia” written in the early 1900s.
(English)
Online collection of government-related Iranian documents.
(Persian, English)
Online database of over 1000 Persian royal decrees, official correspondence, and sharia court documents from the 13th century to the 20th century.
(Persian)
Expansive online database on Iran’s parliament from 1906 to 1979. Includes lists of representatives, laws, minutes, articles, biographies, and works of literature.
(Persian, English)
Documents, photos, and articles from the Qajar Era and, to a greater extent, the Pahlavi Era.
(Persian)
Iranian government-affiliated website that has articles and documents pertaining to the Pahlavi Era and the early Islamic Republic.
(Persian, Arabic, English)
Collection of documents and recollections about the Iranian Revolution of 1979
(Persian, English)
Unparalleled resource for the history of Iranian Jews. The link here goes to the website’s genealogy page, which is only in Persian, but other pages are in English and have valuable information.
(Persian)
A collection of mainly government-related documents from the Pahlavi and Islamic Republic Eras.
(English)
Digital collection of photos, documents, letters, etc. related to the Iranian-American community of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Digital Libraries
(Persian, Arabic, English)
The best text-searchable online library of Persian and Arabic books. This source should be a first stop for researchers. A paid membership is required to get full access to page images, but you can search for free and view a couple pages for free per day.
(Persian)
Tarikhema’s digital library has various downloadable books and documents organized by topic.
(Persian)
Links to three digital libraries: Soha Library, eLiteratureBook, and the Specialized Library of Literature
(Persian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, English)
Text-searchable online library of over 16,000 books.
(Persian)
Large text-searchable online library. Because it is difficult to navigate, it is better to search for specific words or phrases in the following format: site:https://kakheaseman.ir/ “word or phrase to be searched“
(Persian)
The only institution in Iran that has discussed family history at length. See Family History Studies (Farsi).
(Persian)
Repository of Iranian academic literature across various disciplines.
(English)
An independent Bahai studies portal containing historical and biographical documents.
(Arabic)
Large digital library of Arabic and Persian books. It is not text-searchable, so you must search by author or title. The books are free to download, but the files download as a zip folder containing JPGs of each page. You will need a PDF software to convert the JPGs into PDFs and then combine them into a single PDF.
(Persian)
Claims to be the “first and largest” rare book and old periodical sale website in Iran. The “دانلود رایگان کتاب” section of the website menu has books that are free for download.
Digital library and online bookstore organized by genre and author.
Allows free download of books of many different genres that pertain to Shia Islam.
Periodicals
(Persian, Arabic, English)
Online library of modern Persian newspaper/magazine articles. A paid membership is required to view articles, but the abstracts of articles have a lot of information.
(English)
Collection of Iranian newspapers from the Mossadegh Era (1950-1953), the Iranian Revolution (1979), and the Khatami Reform Era (late 1990s-early 2000s).
Forthcoming project to create a digital archive of all Iranian periodicals from the Qajar Era until the present. It will be a groundbreaking resource in Iranian genealogy if and when it is completed.
(Persian, English, Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish)
The first text-searchable and completely free-to-view database of Iranian newspapers/magazines. Currently, it only has seven periodicals from 1978 and 1979, but it shows promise of expanding in the future.
(Persian)
Contains periodicals from the Qajar, Pahlavi, and Islamic Republic eras. Users must make an account to download the files.
(English, Persian, German)
Free online repository of 27 Iranian periodicals, most of which are from the Qajar era and some of which are from the Pahlavi era.
(English)
Contains many periodicals from the Qajar, Pahlavi, and Islamic Republic eras. It is a rare example of a completely free resource for Islamic Republic era periodicals.
Cemetery Indexes
Iran is undergoing the process of making many government services electronic. Fortunately for Iranian genealogy, this process includes the creation of websites for locating graves in Iran’s many cemeteries.
Entries in these grave indexes usually consist of the deceased’s forename, surname, father’s name, date of birth, date of death, and the section, row, and number of their grave.
Unfortunately, this website creation process is far from complete and far from perfect. Most municipalities have not yet set up a grave search website. For municipalities that have set up grave search websites, many links to them do not work because the website is not functional, is undergoing maintenance, or is inaccessible from certain countries.
Several Iranian grave search websites are linked below. Many of the links worked at one time, but do not presently work; nonetheless, they are included here in case they are ever functional again. As of writing, the links are functioning for Ahvaz, Babol, Baghestan, Esfahan: Bagh Rezvan Cemetery, Mashhad: Astan Qods-e Razavi, Neyshabur, Qazvin, Semnan, Shiraz, Yazd Zoroastrian Cemetery, Garmdareh, Borujerd, and Tonekabon. More links will be added as they are found or submitted to the website via the Contact Form.
Photographs
A collection of over 1,100 photographs by Antoin Sevruguin and other Iranian photographers dating from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.
Features many collections of photographs taken in Iran between the late nineteenth century and the mid twentieth century. There are many photographs related to Iranian ethnoreligious minorities.
Almost thirty thousand photographs of Shiite clerics and the locations associated with them.
Over three thousand photographs from the Qajar era. These photographs are primarily in private collections and usually depict women and family scenes.
Website dedicated to “collecting, documenting, and presenting visual material from Iranian daily life and culture” during the last 150 years.
Index that includes photographs in Iranian library holdings. Search results are only abstracts and descriptions.
The Malek National Library and Museum holds over fifty albums/individual photos. It is still in the process of digitizing its photographs. Non-digitized photographs are still indexed and described on the website.
Website with thousands of photographs related to Iranian politics during the Pahlavi and Islamic Republic eras.
Iranian Genealogy 