Author: Reem Awad-Rashmawi

Yearbooks and class photos can be rich sources of information when researching Arab and Arab American family histories. From elementary school through university, these records often include names, portraits, extracurricular activities, hometowns, and even aspirations—providing valuable context for family stories.

In the United States, many yearbooks are available on genealogy sites such as Ancestry.com and school sites such as Classmates.com. But don’t stop there—digitized collections like California Revealed and the Internet Archive also include yearbooks from schools across the country. For local research, try contacting public libraries, historical societies, or more directly, the schools themselves.

Yearbooks aren’t limited to schools the U.S. Institutions such as the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the American University in Cairo (AUC) have published online yearbooks. High schools such as Ramallah Friends School in Palestine and the Abdul Hamid Sharaf School in Jordan offer access to yearbooks for over 30 years online, while other schools have more recent availability and some none at all.  

Class photos, while less formal than yearbooks, may be more commonly found, especially further back in time. They may surface in family photo collections, on social media, or through school or hometown websites. Local historical societies or school archives may hold class photos. These photos are sometimes crowd-sourced on personal or broader platforms—providing an opportunity to recover names, dates, and stories with the help of community knowledge. 

These records can help you:

• Locate relatives at different points in time
• See name spellings and changes
• Trace residence locations or patterns through schools attended
• Find photos of family who were employed as teachers or school administrators
• Build out your family’s social and community networks

Searching online using the location and if known, the school’s name, with the terms such as “class photo” or “yearbook” may turn up surprises.

When searching, try multiple spellings and variations—especially anglicized and Arabic versions of names and even locations. Consider searching for extended family, neighbors, or friends who may appear in yearbooks and class photos, especially if they’re mentioned in family stories or found in other records like censuses.

We’d love to hear what you discover. If you’ve found a family member—or a clue—in a yearbook or class photo, please share your findings with the NSAB community on social media or via email, or if you are a NSAB member, at one of our NSAB Connect discussions or in our Facebook group.