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LOCATING GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES ON THE WEB

If you are doing genealogy on a shoestring budget, you probably know how frustrating it can be to try to locate free genealogical information on the internet. Websites that offer to perform free searches almost all seem to lead to Ancestry.com, and the search for free, official data may seem hopeless.

But don't give up! I have made it a point of only listing free sites and resources here on this page that are truly free. Most do also offer value-added services for a fee, but they are websites where you can definitely find significant genealogical data for free. There are some resources and services I recommend that cost money, but they are confined to their own special section. If you have other truly free, useful sites you want to see added to the list, then contact me.

Free Genealogy Information

This section consists of selected free information sites that I personally have been able to use without difficulty, despite the fact that I use neither Internet Explorer, Firefox, nor Netscape as a browser.

If you fail to find your ancestors in the major free databases I list below, you may also want to check out Jerry Reed's blog about free genealogy tips and little known databases at http://freegensites.blogspot.com. If you wish to see a more comprehensive, definitive list of genealogy databases, which includes both free and subscription databases, check out Cyndi's List.

United States Immigration and Passenger Lists

Castle Garden Immigrant ships between 1820-1892 (transcription not yet complete)
 
Ellis Island
 
U.S. NARA/AAD Passenger List Transcriptions(1800's) You can search these NARA/AAD databases together, or click on a specific one to search it alone. Each individual has their own record, but you must perform a separate search of what they call the "Manifest Header File", in order to find out the date of the voyage and name of the ship. You can do that by using the "manifest ID" number that you will find on the person's voyage transcription.
 
   http://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-list.jsp?cat=GP44
 

Australian Military and Immigration records

http://www.naa.gov.au/
 
http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch/index.aspx

Passenger Lists, 1865-1922 - Library and Archives Canada

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/passenger/001045-100.01-e.php

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild

This is a major collection of international passenger list transcriptions. Be sure to click on the "Search Tips" link to learn how their search engine's options can improve your searching.

http://immigrantships.net

Census Records

Census for Canada 1881, the British Isles 1881, and the United States 1880

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/census/main_census.asp?indid=&spouse_id=&color=blue

Census for Canada 1901, 1906, 1911

http://automatedgenealogy.com/index.html

Canada Census Records 1851 thru 1911 (search by geographic location, these are not indexed by surname)

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/census/index-e.html

Census for Ireland 1911

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search

Family Search Pilot also has census records for many countries, states, and provinces. The list is long and continues to grow, so if your computer can run Flash, check out the current records available by clicking on the region of interest. and then selecting a database.

http://pilot.familysearch.org

United States Vital Records: Official Governmental Websites

Excellent resource to help find free state and local government vital records websites in the United States - All States (most have just indices, some have copies of actual records online). After selecting a state, be sure to scroll down below the search box (which does not yield free results) to the information about State and County government websites
 
    http://statearchives.us/public

United States Births and Baptisms

The following page is a guide to truly free online resources for birth and baptismal indexes and records in the United States (most have just transcriptions or indices, some have copies of actual records online).
 
     http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thecohens/birthindexes-usa.html

Death Records for the United States

Social Security Death Index
 
   http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com
 
California Death Record Indices - 1905 to 1929 are free (registration required)
 
   http://www.vitalsearch-ca.com/gen/ca/_vitals/cadeathm.htm
 
California Death Index - 1940 to 1997
 
   http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi
 
   http://www.sfgenealogy.net/php/cadiindex.php
 
Recent Obituaries (Selected Newspapers, archived older obituaries do cost)
 
    http://www.legacy.com
 
Joe Beine's Site Lists Online Death Indexes & Databases for Each State and is a fantastic resource. Many of the databases are free, and are clearly marked as such.
 
    http://www.deathindexes.com
 
This next site is a great resource which gives links for each U.S. State and Canadian Province, to obituary and obituary transcription sites, and obituary resources, for both historical and recent obituaries
 
    http://www.obitlinkspage.com

Canadian Genealogy Collection

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html.

Births, Marriages, and Death Records in Canada

Province of Manitoba | Database Searches
 
    http://web2.gov.mb.ca/cca/vital/Query.php
 
British Columbia Vital Records Archives (index is online; if the first link does not work for you, try the second one)
 
    http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-98915/search
 
    http://www.bcarchives.bc.ca/BC_Our_Collections/BC_Vital_Rrd_Collect.aspx

Births, Marriages, and Deaths in the United Kingdom

Transcription of BMD Indexes for UK and Wales - work in progress (click on "Search FreeBMD", beware of the search boxes across top of the page, which are an advertizement)
 
   http://freebmd.org.uk
 
Legal Noticies including Name Change and Probate notices in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
 
   http://beta.gazettes-online.co.uk

Births, Marriages, and Deaths in Ireland

http://ifhf.brsgenealogy.com/index.php

Births, Marriages, and Deaths in New South Wales

http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/searchHistoricalRecords.htm

Births, Marriages, and Deaths in Poland (including surrounding countries)

http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm

International Births and Baptisms

If the above sites do not meet your needs, the following page is a much longer list of truly free online resources for birth and baptismal indexes, transcriptions and records around the world (most have just transcriptions or indices, some have copies of actual records online).

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thecohens/birthindexes.html

Burial and Gravesite Locaters

All of the burial registry websites listed below are ongoing projects, with new data continually being added to them by volunteer contributors or coordinators. They are especially useful resources for finding the dates of death for people whose dates of death are hard to find because they passed away when or where there were or are no free public records available.

International Grave Records and Memorials
 
   http://findagrave.com
 
International Cemetary Records and Tombstone Inscriptions
 
   http://interment.net
 
International Jewish Cemetary Project
 
   http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery
 
Genpals Jewish Cemetary Project (primarily United Kingdom but includes a few international)
 
   http://www.genpals.com
 
Some Historical Jewish Gravesites in Poland (including surrounding countries)
 
   http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm
 
Canadian Gravemarker Gallery
 
   http://gravemarkers.ca

City Directories

City directories can be a great aid to finding out when your ancestors moved, or to help you find them in census records by telling you what street to search.

Selected Historical City Directories (primarily U.S.)
 
   http://DistantCousin.com/Directories
 
   http://www.evendon.net/PGHLookups/
 
Various San Francisco Bay Area City Directories - put "directory" in site search box for full list
 
   http://www.sfgenealogy.com
 
British Columbia City Directories 1860-1901
 
    http://www.vpl.ca/bccd/index.php

The University of Leicester has put selected directories for 1750 to 1919 from England and Wales online. You must page through the directory images, there is no automated search for specific names.

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/findbykeyword.asp

Internet Archive has many historical city directory images online. The collection is primarily U.S. directories but it is worth checking to see if directories from other countries are available yet. To search Internet Archive's directories, you will need to download each entire directory, the contents of individual directories are not digitally indexed. Perform a search for "city directory" plus the name of the city or state of interest, or browse the entire list of "Americana" city directories by clicking here.

    http://www.archive.org/details/americana

If you find yourself needing to go to a library in person to look for your ancestors in historical city directories because the directories you most need are not yet online, consider making a contribution to the genealogical community by scanning or photographing one or more directories, and submitting them to either or both the Internet Archive and EveNDon.Com.

Find Living People

This section contains just a few of many websites that can help you in your quest to find someone. For a longer discussion about searching the internet for specific people, along with more website urls, see this section of our finding aids page.

Canada and the United States

    http://411.com
 
    http://veromi.net

British Isles

       http://www.thephonebook.bt.com/publisha.content/en/search/residential/search.publisha
 
http://192.com

Australia

      http://www.whitepages.com.au/wp/resSearch.do

Argentina

   http://www.paginasblancas.com.ar/Telefonos.action

Jewish Genealogy

JewishGen is an amazing resource for Jewish genealogical research.
 
JewishGen Home Page

 
JewishGen UK Database

 
If you want to see what Hebrew, Yiddish or other foreign names were equivalent to each other, an excellent comparative name data base is provided by the Belarus Special Interest group at the Belarus Given Names Data Base.
 
If you want to find out about the shtetl, town or village your ancestors came from, perform a search at the Shtetl Seeker.
 
If you have ancestors who perished or fled from various pogroms or the Holocaust, much Jewish history and memorial information is available in the Yizkor Book Translations
 
Jewish Genealogical Publication which includes some interesting history as well as hints and recommended resources for Jewish genealogical research
Nu? What's New? Vol. 6 No. 21

If you have ancestors who came from or went to Israel, the Israel Genealogy Society is an amazing resource for specifically Israeli genealogical information. They have many databases of their own, as well as links to burial society websites, many of which have computerized their interments. Many databases are in Hebrew, so be prepared to visit with or have a translation engine handy.

http://www.isragen.org.il/

Also check out our page of Genealogical Research Tips.

Online Public Library Resources

If you can take the time to physically go to a local public library, LDS Family History Center, or genealogical society library, in addition to gaining access to many local records that may not be available online, you can get access to online resources that otherwise would require a subscription to access them, such as http://FindMyPast.com and http://Ancestry.com.

However, if you are not able to go to a local public library or LDS Family History Center, you still can do an amazing amount of genealogical research for free from your own home. Many libraries provide home access to genealogical databases online. Some are publicly accessible, while others are only available to cardholders. So, in addition to utilizing the various free online resources such as those mentioned in the above sections, check out the databases available at your local public library's website. And, if they do not seem to have one, then call and ask their reference librarian about online resources available to you as a local resident.

Many people wonder if there is a way to access http://Ancestry.com from home for free through their public libraries. From everything I have read and heard, I believe that the only free access to http://Ancestry.com from public libraries is in person. However, I recall reading that those people who participate in certain transcription projects and meet certain quotas, are given access from home to specific databases.

I will post more information here when I have researched the question more thoroughly, but I believe these would be projects thru either the LDS or through http://Ancestry.com itself, rather than through public libraries. In the meantime, here are pages about Ancestry's World Archives Project (Windows required for participation) and on Indexing Projects at Family Search (Mac and Windows).

http://learn.ancestry.com/LearnMore/Article.aspx?id=14226
 
http://community.ancestry.com/wap/download.aspx
 
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/indexing/indexing.asp

United States

If you live in the United States, most states have libraries with online access to databases available to cardholders in at least some of their cities. Google for PERSI, Proquest, Newsbank, Gale, or Heritage Quest in your state or province, or call the reference desk at your local public library, to see which libraries can give you access to these great databases. Many libraries have cooperative agreements with other libraries in the same state, so if your local library does not have these resources, you still may be able to gain access from home to the online databases of other libraries in your state. Do contact whatever ones have databases of interest to you if the databases are not available from your nearest library.

Proquest has newspaper databases, including one with the full text of the New York Times going back to 1851, and this includes search engine access to birth, marriage, and death announcements. Historical archives of the Historical San Francisco Chronicle and of the Los Angeles Times are also available from some libraries through Proquest. Proquest also has a separate database containing articles from over 300 other publications, some going back to the 1980's, which may also include some relevant articles.

Newsbank also provides online access to full text newspaper articles. Some people like it better than Proquest as a resource for finding obituaries.

Heritage Quest has a fairly complete collection of census records for the United States, as well as access to a number of other genealogical resources, including PERSI and Freedman's Bank.

A list of public libraries in the United States which carried Heritage Quest for their patrons as of 2006 can be found online. A few additional libraries are mentioned in replies to the forum thread, but the somewhat comprehensive alphabetical list is at:

• Alabama thru Louisiana
   
  http://www.afrigeneas.com/forum/index.cgi?md=read;id=58213
   
  
   
  
• Maine thru Wyoming
   
  http://www.afrigeneas.com/forum/index.cgi?md=read;id=58214

Using Free Search Engines

As time goes on, more and more people are "privatizing" their family trees (i.e., removing private information such as birth information about the living) and putting them up on the web to share with other researchers. Yahoo, Google, and other search engines may find family members and ancestors for you. Just put in the name and country where the the person died or was born. You may need to use the "Advanced Search" feature to filter out unwanted results.

However, I prefer going to genealogy sites to do my searching. Check out the various resources at http://www.rootsweb.com, at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com, and especially the JewishGen Family Tree Database at http://www.jewishgen.org/gedcom and the JewishGen Family Finder at http://www.jewishgen.org/jgff.

The JewishGen gedcom pages may take a long time to load, so be prepared to do something else while you are waiting for them to come up. I can attest to the fact that you will find connections there which will not turn up anywhere else on the web, since it is a private data base which is used by people around the world who are tracing their Jewish ancestry, and a place where people feel more secure.

Resources that Cost Money

Ancestry.com's databases are available by subscription, or on a pay-per-image-view basis. If you sign up (at no charge) for their email special offers, initial membership is occasionally on sale at fantastic discounts. Many of their databases are also occasionally available for free if you register at Ancestry.Com Some public libraries also have subscriptions to Ancestry.com, but you must use the terminals at the library to get full access to all of their databases for free.

FindMyPast.com is another subscription only database site that is preferred by many people whose research is focused on ancestors in the United Kingdom. Their range of databases is more limited but of very high quality. They are the only site which will be carrying the 1911 Census for Britain and Wales through their sister site, 1911census.co.uk, and their pay-per-view packages appeal to those of us who cannot afford full subscription packages. They also occasionally offer discounts to new subscribers.

DNA testing is revolutionizing geneological research. Whether you have hit a "brick wall", or just need confirmation that someone else truly is a cousin, DNA testing is the best way to get unequivocal evidence.

While http://dna.ancestry.com has recently started offering DNA testing, the DNA testing at https://www.familytreedna.com already has a much bigger database and well-established reputation for genealogical DNA testing. A description of the various tests available at familytreedna.com is here. If you can join a surname or regional project, all testing is offered at discount. See the Cohen Project and Polish Project special offers as examples. You can browse the list of other surname and regional projects at Family Tree DNA here. They do not seem to have a page with a full list of their projects, probably because there are so many of them, currently about 5,360. Instead, you can either browse the project lists, or enter your surname into the search box, and their site will suggest appropriate projects for you to consider joining.

Family Trees

You don't really need any special software to view or make family trees, unless you want to create or view family trees on your computer without having to go on the Internet to view or modify them.

I prefer entering data offline, but there are many free and paid sites which enable you to use an ordinary browser to construct your own family tree. Two good examples are https://www.myfamily.com/signup/simplereg.aspx, and http://tribalpages.com, which allow you to build your family tree online for free, although they do charge for enhanced features.

If you choose to build your family tree online, make sure the website will allow you to download free backup copies of your tree (called Gedcoms), so that you will have a personal copy in case something untowards happens to the website or your ability to access it.

And read the terms of service carefully. Some companies will let you build or start building your tree online, and either demand payment after a while, or not give you full ownership rights of your tree. Consider their enticing offers carefully, and read what people are saying about their sites in forums and on mailing lists before giving them your data. We believe people should not have pay for buildinng their family trees online, and want you as a reader to be happy with the family tree choices you make.

Also remember that if you want to create your own family tree offline, both free and paid software is available. Some people say the classic software for Windows computers is FamilyTreeMaker. A free one month trial version is available at http://past.familytreemaker.com/download/starter.aspx. If you want to avoid the banners and popup ads and enter more than seven generations, then you may prefer to buy the Family Edition, or try a different software package.

And, there now are many free alternatives available for Windows, Mac, and Linus users. Many people use Legacy, which has a free basic version for Windows (or Mac and Linux systems which have Windows emulation), available at http://legacyfamilytree.com/DownloadLegacy.asp

Excellent free family tree software is also available from the LDS family history site http://www.familysearch.org. It is called "PAF", for Personal Ancestral File. The download page is at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/Welcome/simplePAFRegistration.asp.

The most reasonably priced family tree software for the MacIntosh seems to be IFamily. It is discussed at http://www.macgenealogy.org/ and there seems to be a free trial version available. About.com also has a page reviewing family tree software for MacIntosh computers, and including links for free trial versions of other Mac family tree programs, at http://genealogy.about.com/od/software_mac/Genealogy_Software_Macintosh.htm.

Gramps, short for "Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System" is free family tree making software which is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. Some people find Gramps to be more intuitive than FamilyTreeMaker. However, support for Gramps is via a mailing list so if you want software with live support available, you may be happier with one of the paid software packages.

Gedcom Validator

Another free great piece of software to install if you plan on sharing your gedcom files with others, or uploading it to a family tree site, is the Gedcom Parser by Tim Forsythe. It is only available for Windows computers, but is a wonderful tool that will check your gedcom file for syntax errors. If you are concerned about whether the integrity of your file has been compromised, whether it may use an incompatible format or have become corrupted, this is the tool for you. You can download it for free at:

http://www.rumblefische.com/validator/tgv.html

NOTE: The links below will take you off of our personal family site, to various articles at the Learning Center at http://www.ancestry.com