Index to Marquis Who's Who Publications. Marquis Who's Who, Inc., New Providence, New Jersey, 1976-1996.

Who's Who biographical directories can provide helpful genealogical information about a persons birth, family, occupation, education, achievements, and residence. These biographies generally contain well-known or successful people.

You've probably seen volumes of these Who's Who editions in the reference section of your library. They cover many fields including Who's Who in American Law, American Women, American Education, Emerging Leaders in America, Entertainment, American Nursing, Finance and Industry, Science and Engineering, Religion, America, South and Southwest, East, Midwest, West, and World.

But searching through these voluminous directories can be rather time-consuming without an index. If you plan on using these directories, look for the indexes to all directories covering the period from 1976 to 1995. There is an index for each year, but these indexes are not cumulative so you will have to look through each annual index. The 1995 index for instance contains over 330,000 names.

The names are listed in alphabetical order by surname, followed by the abbreviated directory name and edition number. A typical entry looks like this:

Smith, John Edwin WE15.

The "WE" refers to "Who's Who in the West" and the "15" refers to "15th Edition." There are many editions for each directory, so make note of the edition number when searching these volumes. Be aware that some libraries may have the Who's Who directories but not the indexes for them.

Some California libraries that have the above item:

• Palo Alto, Palo Alto Main Library, R920 W628ai 1976-1996
• Pomona, California State Polytechnic University Library, Z530.M37 1994-1996 ref
• San Luis Obispo, California Polytechnic State University Library, CT103.138 1994-1996 ref, circ oversize

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