FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH ON THE WEB
GENERAL RESEARCH AND DATABASE WEBSITES
Access Genealogy – www.accessgenealogy.com
Besides oodles of links, this portal also serves up census, vital, immigration, cemetery and
military records; plus biographies and such Native American essentials as the 1880
Cherokee census and the Final Rolls of the Five Civilized Tribes (aka the Dawes Rolls).
Bible Records Online – www.biblerecords.com
Bible Records Online is a site dedicated to transcribing and digitizing the contents of family
records that were written inside family bible and in other important documents from as
early as the 1500s through today. Often, these were the only written records of births,
marriages and deaths of a family, and these remain solid components to proving a family
genealogy - 1,158 today, covering 3.469 surnames.
Cyndi’s List – www.cyndislist.com
This is the largest, most comprehensive list of links to genealogically related websites in
the world. It is organized by both location (country, state, etc.) and subject. By scanning
the list of available categories, you can usually find exactly what you want, assuming that
it exists somewhere on the internet.
BYU Broadcasting - Ancestors – www.byubroadcasting.org/ancestors
A TU mini-series that was produced by BYU has wonderful instructions for beginners. You
can other the series for home use or can borrow it from any LDS Family History Library.
1930 Census Records for Genealogist – www.1930census.com
The leading online source for all census information (not just 1930 census)! Explore the
many free census resources we provide for the U.S. Federal Census, individual State
Census, and even some lesser-known City Census that were conducted in a similar
fashion. In addition to U.S. census records, they also include details for International
Census resources (Canadian Census, British Census, and Irish Census).
MortalitySchedules.com – www.mortalityschedules.com
If your ancestor died within the 12 months preceding the 1850, 1860, 1870 or 1880
census enumeration, you won't find him or her in the regular census—but you will find the
dearly departed in this free site, which searches those "mortality schedules.
US-Census.org – www.us-census.org
The most comprehensive free set of census transcriptions on the Internet! You can search
by name, state, and year.
DistantCousin.com – www.distantcousin.com
DistantCousin is an online archive of genealogy records and scanned images of historical
documents from a wide variety of sources, such as newspaper obituaries, city directories,
census records, ship lists, school yearbooks, military records, and more. In all there are
more than 6 million genealogy records from over 1,500 sources online. There are no fees
or memberships required to use the records at DistantCousin.
FamilySearch - Record Search – http://pilot.familysearch.org
Record Search is a new pilot website that can help people find their ancestors. The site
provides access to millions of original source documents from many areas of the world,
and more records are being added all the time. The Search section of the Web site
includes a number of record collections you can search to find a specific ancestor. You can
then read a summary of the information found in records about the ancestor and view
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digital images of the records. The Browse section of the Web site includes collections you
can browse to see digital images of records from a specific city, town, or church parish.
The data available through Record Search is transcribed by thousands of volunteers
worldwide who participate in FamilySearch indexing.
Library of Congress – www.loc.gov
This is an outstanding site for anyone conducting genealogy or history research for any
aspect of United States history. (also see link under Maps)
Newspaper Abstracts - http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/
Find your ancestors in the news—without getting ink on your fingers. At last count this
volunteer project included nearly 52,000 pages of abstracts and extracts from historical
newspapers, with an emphasis on items of interest to genealogists such as obituaries.
Legacy.com is an innovative online media company that collaborates with more than 700
newspapers in North America, Europe and Australia, this site is a leading online destination
for obituaries, death notices, and memorial pages.
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness - http://raogk.org/
This website focuses on volunteers performing not-so-random acts of kindness for other
members of the genealogical community. Say, for instance, that you live in Florida and
doubt you’ll ever get to the small town north of Boston where your ancestors lived for
several generations after coming to America. Or, you might need a copy of a vital record,
photograph of a headstone, or an obituary from a small local paper not published online.
You can visit Random Acts website, navigate to the geographic area of interest, and view a
list of volunteers willing to perform various acts of genealogical kindness for you.
RootsWeb – www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
RootsWeb is the oldest and largest free online community for genealogy. The site was
established in 1993 and was acquired by Ancestry (now The Generations Network) in
2000. This is not created by one agency, but is a volunteer-run network of sites,
organized geographically, containing information submitted by users. This information is
not verified for accuracy, so should be used with caution. The RootsWeb database are not
collections of users’ family histories but transcripts or indexes of sets of original records
such as vital registers, church registers, censuses, gravestone inscriptions and the like.
The sources of the original information are usually clearly identified, so that you can verify
the accuracy of the information yourself. Also, most of these data sets are accompanied
by introductory descriptions that can help you understand exactly what the records contain
and how to use them.
USGenWeb – www.usgenweb.org
Organization is by county and state, and this website provides you with links to all the
state genealogy websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties. The USGenWeb
Project also sponsors important Special Projects at the national level and this website
provides an entry point to all of those pages, as well.
Clicking on a State Link (on the left) will take you to the State's website. Clicking on the
tabs above will take you to additional information and links. You can also use the drop
down menu in the upper left hand corner which will also take you to the State's website of
your choice.
Vital.rec – www.vitalrec.com
Vital.rec – Lists address and telephone numbers of state and county records offices.
The WorldGenWeb Project – www.worldgenweb.org
The statement on its website says it best: “The WorldGenWeb Project is a non-profit,
volunteer based organization dedicated to providing genealogical and historical records
and resources for world-wide access!
The WorldGenWeb Project is divided into 11 World Regions. Each region is divided up by
countries and each country is divided into individual provinces, states, or counties (terms
vary depending on administrative divisions).
WeRelate – www.werelate.org
Somewhere between MySpace and Wikipedia, but for genealogists, WeRelate is a
community Website that works on the ‘wiki’ principle, where users generate and update
the content. Created by the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy in partnership with the
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Allen County Public Library, the free site has pages for over 2,000,000 people and families
and is growing. Users can upload GEDCOM files, upload and annotate scanned documents
and photos, share family stories and biographies, and generate maps of ancestor’s life
events.
United Kingdom
FreeBMD – www.freebmd.org.uk
This free volunteer-created site aims to provide an easy-to-search database of the national
indexes to births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales from 1837 to 1919. It is
nearly complete for marriages, especially for the period 1867-1910. Births for the same
period are nearly complete, but for the earlier period (1837-1870) they are only about half
done. Deaths are virtually completed for the periods 1837-1850 and 1870-1910, with
years 1851-1869 about three-quarters done. Progress on this database advances quickly,
so keep checking back if you don’t find the years you need well covered.
UK BMD – www.ukbmd.org.uk
In addition to the national indexes to birth, marriages and deaths, local record offices in
Britain have also kept their original indexes (on which the national ones were based).
Each register office has control over their own local indexes and some are putting indexes
online. This site offers links to all of the available local indexes to birth, marriages, and
deaths (as well as some census records). Most of the links are to free sites. You’ll find
that there is good coverage for Bath, Cheshire, Lancashire, North Wales, Staffordshire,
West Midlands, Wilshire, Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Darlington, Borough, Durham County,
Isle of Wight, Kent, Newcastle, Tees Valley, Warwickshire, Wrexham, Derbyshire and the
North of England.
FEE AND SUBSCRIPTION WEBSITES
Ancestors on Board $– www.ancestorsonboard.com
A partnership between The National Archives of the UK and FindMyPast.com, this site
offers a complete collection of UK outbound passenger lists from 1890 to 1960. Classified
as the BT27 collection, these 24 million records represent all long-distance voyages made
from any British post bound for international destinations including North America, South
America, Australia, and elsewhere. Searching is free, but you’ll need to purchase vouchers
or credits to view the full record transcriptions or full-color digitized passenger manifest.
Ancestry.com $ - www.ancestry.com
Ancestry.com is largest of the commercial (subscription-based) genealogy record sites,
containing a wide range of record sets from civil registration records, and censuses to local
histories and historical newspaper indexes. The US is very well covered with indexes to
nearly all the federal censuses and other records for every state. Is coverage of the IK is
getting larger all the time, with the censuses for 1861-1901 complete for England, Wales,
the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and civil registration indexes for 1837-2000.
There is also a new Canadian site (including the 1911 census), and a handful of record
sets for other countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.
Footnote $ - www.footnote.com
This commercial offering is making available digitized National Archives and Records
Administration records that Uncle Sam can't afford to—27.7 million images and counting.
Already online or underway are Confederate service records, naturalizations by state, a
mix of newspapers and old photos, Revolutionary War records and the Pennsylvania
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Archives series. Searching is free—and you can learn a lot from your hits—but viewing
actual records requires a pay-per-view fee or a subscription ($59.95 a year or $7.95 a
month).
GenealogyBank $ - www.genealogybank.com/gbnk
GenealogyBank's exclusive newspaper archive for family history research provides
information on millions of American families from 1690–today. Over 3,800 newspapers
provide first-hand accounts about your ancestors that simply can't be found in other
sources. You'll be fascinated by the stories, names, dates, places and events that have
played a role in your family's history
This growing data trove aims to give Ancestry.com a run for your money, with more than
42 million records added last year alone. Collections cover historical newspapers (108.6
million articles from 2,400 US newspapers, 1690 to 1977), books (more than 11,700,
1801 to 1900), recent obituaries, the Social Security Death Index and a wide range of
documents including Revolutionary and Civil War pension requests, the American State
Papers (1789 to 1838) and genealogical goodies from the US Serial Set (1817 to 1980).
Subscriptions run $19.95 a month or $69.95 a year pr a 3- day trial offer of $9.95.
World Vital Records $ - www.worldvitalrecords.com
Founded by Ancestry.com co-founder Paul Allen and several members of that site's original
team, this site has accumulated more than 1 billion names in 10,00-plus databases to
date. Despite the name, there's more than vital records: You can delve into family history
books, military records, newspapers, yearbooks and more. Some of those records are
available elsewhere online, but here you can search them all under one digital roof.
Membership for the US Collection costs $5.95 a month or $49.95 a year; the World
Collection costs $14.95 for a month or $119.95 per year. Also check out sibling site
FamilyLink, the most research-oriented of the new genealogy social networking sites.
SCOTLAND
ScotlandsPeople $– www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
If your ancestors are from Scotland, you’re a lucky person, as the records are impeccably
kept and accessible online (for a fee, on a pay-per-view basis). This site offers censuses
(1841-1901), church records (1553-1854), civil registration records (1855-1900s), and
wills (1513-1901), as well as some helpful articles and interesting background information
about such topics as archaic weights and measures, handwriting, and old occupations.
United Kingdom
Find My Past $– www.findmypast.com and www.1837online.com
Find My Past is a leading UK-based website offering civil registrations (birth, marriage, and
death from 1837), census records (1841 to 1901), military records, passports, and more.
Searching is free, but you’ll need to purchase vouchers or credits to view complete
transcriptions and digitized images of original records.
CEMETERY WEBSITES
Find a Grave - www.findagrave.com
Who needs to go tromping around graveyards when you have this easy-to-search site,
which makes it easy to, well, dig into graves? You can make quick progress finding not
only ancestors' final resting places but also their birth and death dates, transcribed from
tombstones, among the 22 million records here.
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Cemetery Junction - www.cemeteryjunction.com
Cemetery Junction lists over 38,000 U.S. cemeteries. This site Includes cemetery
addresses and links to records online.
Nationwide Gravesite Locator - http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/j2ee/servlet/NGL_v1
Search for burial locations of veterans and their family members in V.A. National
Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, various other military and Department of Interior
cemeteries, and for veterans buried in private cemeteries when the grave is marked with a
government grave marker.
The Nationwide Gravesite Locator includes burial records from many sources. These
sources provide varied data; some searches may contain less information than others.
Information on veterans buried in private cemeteries was collected for the purpose of
furnishing government grave markers, and we do not have information available for
burials prior to 1997.
Interment.net – www.Interment.net
A free online library of burial records from thousands of cemeteries across the world, for
historical and genealogy research. You can search 3.9 million records from 8,375
cemeteries worldwide without even putting on your shoes.
Dead Fred – www.deadfred.com
Trace your roots for free with our searchable database containing thousands of identified
and mystery photos for genealogy enthusiasts looking for long-lost family.
Teafor2.com – www.teafor2.com
108,332 cemetery pictures for free.
IMMIGRATION AND PASSENGER WEBSITES
Ellis Island – www.ellisisland.org
This site contains passenger list details through the Port of New York, from 1892 to 1924,
for 24.1 million passenger records. Passengers included immigrants, traveling U.S.
citizens (included several U.S. Presidents), international travelers, and ship crew. An
electronic index of names can connect you with digitized versions of the actual passenger
manifest as well as ship images and other details. Use of the site and access to all images
is free.
Castle Garden - www.castlegarden.org
Before the opening of Ellis Island on January 1, 1892, passengers were already arriving
through the Port of New York. This website has a searchable index from 1820 to 1913,
but no digitized images of passenger manifests.
TheShipsList - www.theshipslist.com
Another passenger-list site, boasting more than 2,000 pages of information, TheShipsList
also stands out for its images of ships, ports, immigration stations and steamship-line ads.
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild – www.immigrantships.net
Established in 1998, the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild website represents the
collective efforts of hundreds of volunteer researchers who have transcribed over 8,000
passenger manifests, many from less famous ports, which you can search by surname,
captain's name, port of arrival or departure, and ship name. In addition to passenger
records, the site also has maritime newspaper articles, ethnic information, and resources
for adoption research.
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MILITARY WEBSITES
American Battle Monuments Commission - www.abmc.gov
Search for almost 125,000 US war dead buried in 24 overseas cemeteries, as well as more
than 94,000 military commemorated on Tablets of the Missing.
CivilWar.com – www.civilwar.com
Zoom in on an interactive map linked to primers on 341 battles, study timelines and 5,470
photos. This is also one of few sites—another being eHistory, —where you can search the
full text of the Official Record ("OR"), which has detailed reports by those who led the
charge.
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System - www.itd.nps.gov/cwss
This website is a comprehensive research tool for searching the records of the soldiers and
sailors who fought in the Civil War. Start your search for Union or Confederate Civil War
ancestors in this database of 6.3 million soldier names from 44 states and territories.
Soldiers' names link to histories of their regiments and the battles they fought.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) -www.archives.gov/genealogy
THE NARA has arranged the Genealogy section of the website by research topics, or types
of records available to search. From the Research Topics pages, you will find links to pages
throughout the web site with articles, finding aids, and other helpful information to help
you prepare for your genealogical research at the National Archives.
The records in their holdings that are most commonly used by genealogists include:
Census Records , Military Records , Immigration Records (Ship Passenger Lists),
Naturalization Records, and Land Records. While you will not find the actual records
online, you will find finding aids online, such as microfilm indexes, and information on how
to conduct research in the different types of records.
Library of Virginia
This site's digitized resources include an index to soldiers mentioned in nearly 30 years of
Confederate Veteran magazine. Military buffs also can tap the Virginia Military Dead
Database of 34,402 names, the fully searchable Index to War of 1812 Pay Rolls and
Muster Rolls, a database of the commonwealth's Mexican War Soldiers, Index to Virginia
Confederate Rosters, an index to Virginians in the Confederate Navy, and 250,000 Virginia
WWII Separation Notices.
Louisiana State Archives
The Confederate Pension Applications Index covers more than 49,000 names included in
Louisiana state pension applications—a tad easier than scrolling the original 152 rolls of
microfilm.
New York State Civil War Soldier Database
More than 360,000 New Yorkers, including three regiments of "Colored Troops," fought in
the Civil War. If you suspect your ancestor was among them, check this database.
Pennsylvania State Archives
Pennsylvania's online archives are unusually rich in military history, with 1.5 million
records of conflicts from the American Revolution to World War I.
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Texas State Library & Archives Commission
Find soldiers from the Lone Star State in the online index of 54,634 Confederate pension
applications and Texas Adjutant General Service Records (1836 to 1935).
LAND and MAP WEBSITES
Bureau of Land Management – www.glorecords.blm.gov
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), General Land Office (GLO) provides live access to
Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States. They also provide image
access to more than three million Federal land title records for Eastern Public Land States,
issued between 1820 and 1908. Currently, they are adding images of Military Land
Warrants. These land patents were issued to individuals as a reward for their military
service. Images related to survey plats and field notes, dating back to 1810, are added to
the site state-by-state as each state's documents are completed. Due to organization of
documents in the GLO collection, this site does not currently contain every Federal title
record issued for the Public Land States.
David Rumsey – www.davidrumsey.com
Cartographic Associates includes 8,000 rare U.S. Maps that are organized by state.
Historic Map Works – www.historicmapworks.com
You can search collection of over 100,000 antique property maps and collection of
contemporaneous directories can be searched by name, occupation, or address from the
past 250 years. It is still a ‘work in progress’.
Genealogy Atlas – Historic Maps of North America – www.genealogyatlas.com
This site has “images of old American” atlases during the years 1750-1900. These are
scanned from the original copies so you can see the states and counties as our ancestors
saw them over 100 years ago. It is also a ‘work in progress’.
Library of Congress American Memory –
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=Maps
The American Memory project provides free online access to a wide range of historic maps,
photographs, documents, audio and video.
Old Maps.Co.UK – www.old-maps.co.uk
Digital scans (zoomable) of late 19th century Ordance Survey (an executive agency of the
United Kingdom government – it is the national mapping agency of Great Britain) maps for
all of England and Wales. These maps are so detailed that you should be able to find even
the most obscure English/Welch place names.
MESSAGE BOARDS
GenForum Message Boards – http://genforum.genealogy.com/
Genealogy.com also hosts a large message board system call GenForum. Here you will
find message boards dedicated to specific surnames, localities and topics. All are
searchable and you can post a reply or start your own topic once you’ve registered (this
does not require a subscription).
Note: Ancestry.com –Although Ancestry.com is a subscription website they do have a
message board that is a good resource for connecting with others searching your
ancestors.
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INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES
• www.google.com
• www.yahoo.com
• www.live.com
• www.ask.com
• www.aol.com
• www.clusty.com
• www.mamma.com
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www.chacha.com
www.dogpile.com
www.lycos.com
www.altavista.com
www.alltheweb.com
www.euroseek.com
www.kartoo.com
NEWSLETTERS, BLOGS, and PODCASTS
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter - www.eogn.com
Dear Myrtle – www.dearmyrtle.com
Ancestry Insider – www.ancestryinsider.blogspot.com
The Genealogy Guys - http://genealogyguys.com/
Genea-Musings - www.geneamusings.com
Genealogy Blog - www.genealogyblog.com
The Practical Archivist - http://practicalarchivist.blogspot.com/
GENEALOGY MAGAZINES
• www.ancestrymagazine.com (Ancestry Magazine)
• www.familychronicle.com (Family Chronicle)
• www.familytreemagazine.com (Family Tree Magazine)
• www.family-tree.co.uk (Family Tree Magazine UK & Practical Family History)
• www.internet-genealogy.com (Internet Genealogy)
DIRECTORIES (FOR LIVING PEOPLE!)
www.infospace.com - Residential and business directories listed by name, category
or location. Maps and directions are included.
www.switchboard.com – same as above
www.yellowpages.com – same as above
www.anywho.com – Includes international listings and maps, in addition to phone
numbers for people and businesses.
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