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101 Best Family History Web Sites
By Melanie Rigney
Special Interest
www.catholic.org/uschs www.terraworld.net/mlwinton www.aal.org/LutheransOnline/Gene_Ex shamash.org/trb/judaism.html istg.rootsweb.com www.ccharity.com www.prairiebluff.com/aacemetery www.afrigeneas.com/slavedata hometown.aol.com/bbbenge/front.html www.bawue.de/%7Ehanacek/info/edatbase.htm www.rootsweb.com/~irlwgw/ members.xoom.com/agadadm/ nordicnotes.com www.islandnet.com/~jveinot/cghl/cghl.html www.rootsweb.com/~ote www.genuki.org.uk/ab www.mtu-net.ru/rrr www.worldgenweb.org www.cimorelli.com/pie/piehome.htm
The US Catholic Historical Society doesn't share any diocesan records, but there's good information for those looking to learn about the history of Catholicism, which in turn could be helpful in checking local church archives.
A significant number of Americans who had ancestors in the New World by 1800 will find Quakers in their past. The National Society of Descendants of Early Quakers promotes preservation and appreciation of early Society of Friends family records. There are links to good database searches for Quaker meetings and other information.
The Lutheran Roots Genealogy Exchange provides a place for those with Lutheran ancestors to register their families and share general genealogy research tips.
The Judaism and Jewish Resources site provides links to Jewish genealogy and history as well as information about today's political and religious issues facing the nation of Israel and Jews elsewhere.
These folks are dedicated. If you've ever looked through the books of immigrant passenger ships, your eyes probably gave out before you exhausted the volumes and the spellings of your ancestors' names. This volunteer group is patiently inputting ships' passenger lists into a form that can be read online.
Christine Charity's site is an especially helpful one for researching African-American ancestors. She's got good links and information about the post-Civil War Freedmen's Bureau records, African genealogy and related articles and databases.
Several African-American researchers and organizations have teamed up to form the Millennium Project Coalition, which is working to expand this online database of African-American resources.
Finding data on African-Americans prior to the 1870 census ("The Wall," as researchers call it) can be difficult, but this site proves it's not impossible. Information within tax records, diaries, plantation records and data on runaway slaves that may be helpful is indexed by last name, state and year.
Native American genealogy is made somewhat easier by this site, which already features histories of the Cherokee, Lakota and Choctaw tribes. Besides tribal information and personal genealogies, there's information about Native Americans in more recent times.
One of the most common US ancestries is German, and this site offers an exhaustive list of links, from databases to maps of Germany through the ages to antiquarian booksellers.
The 1840s potato famine fueled the migration of thousands of Irish to the US. The Ireland GenWeb Project shares the usual surname and map links along with links to tips specific to Irish research.
Don't let this site about Poland's Central Archives of Historical Records fool you: While the Polish titles appear first, there are English translations of nearly everything, including an explanation of what civil and church records are available in Poland and how to go about getting them. Forms help you prepare your requests.
From Finland to Iceland (and let's not forget Sweden, Denmark and Norway), this attractive site provides plenty of history about the Nordic region as well as emigration patterns, places to visit in the US and surname searches.
Complete links for Canada, including listings for each province as well as sites with cemetery and military information.
Lorine McGinnis Schulze's Olive Tree Genealogy site is particularly strong on information and links for the Dutch, both in the Netherlands and the US, but it's also worth checking for information on Mennonites, Germany's Palatines, ship lists and more.
The site's focus is UK and Irish genealogy, with plenty of tips and links on those topics. There's also good information on getting started on regional research from abroad and links to databases for Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
If you've got Russian roots to research, this is the place to start. There's a good rundown of records available in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and helpful suggestions on how to start researching information from this part of the world.
The goal of the WorldGenWeb Project is to have every country represented by a Web site hosted by researchers based in that country or familiar with its resources. To date, there are 15 geographic regions that are then divided into individual countries. The not-for-profit group shares all data collected free of charge.
A good place to start if your roots go back to Italy. The FAQ for searching for Italian roots is great, plus there's plenty of information on Italian heroes, the country's history and more. PIE stands for POINTers In E-mail, named for the owner's mailing list for those interested in Italian genealogy; POINT stands for Pursuing Our Italian Names Together.
Melanie Rigney is the editor of Writer's Digest magazine www.writersdigest.com and a long-time family history researcher.
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