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Records Resources | |
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The 101 Best Family History Web Sites: 2004 Index | |
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August 2004 Issue | |
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Records Resources
Access Genealogy Bible Records Online Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records CanadaGenWeb Canadian Genealogy Centre Census Online City Directories of the USA Civil War Rosters by State Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System Colonial Ancestors FamilySearch Find A Grave Interment.net Local Catholic Church & Family History Genealogical Research Guide National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Newspaper Abstracts Obituary Central Public Record Finder.com The Quaker Corner RootsWeb USGenWeb Where to Write for Vital Records Find news and reviews on more great Web sites in the August 2004 Family Tree Magazine.
Paid Content
www.accessgenealogy.com
A link-filled portal that's also grown into a destination by itself, Access Genealogy is home to biographies and census, immigration, cemetery, military and vital records. Be sure to bookmark this site if you're doing American Indian genealogy; resources include the 1880 Cherokee census and the Dawes Commission Rolls.
Ancestry.com
www.ancestry.com
If you'd really rather do genealogy from the comfort of your computer instead of scrolling through microfilm at a library, you probably can't live without Ancestry.com. Its subscription databases are the closest thing you can buy to genealogy nirvana—more than 3,000 databases in all. Pick from the original US Records Collection ($79.95 a year); the US Federal Census Collection, with images of all censuses from 1790 to 1930 and indexes for all enumerations except 1900 and 1910 ($99.95); the US Immigration Collection of 10 million names ($79.95); Historical Newspapers, with pages from 200 different US, UK and Canadian publications from 1786 on ($79.95); or the UK & Ireland Collection, covering 85 million names ($99.95). Even if you're on a tight budget, Ancestry.com's worth a visit for its message boards and pedigree files, which put a different face on the same info as their counterparts at RootsWeb.
www.biblerecords.com
If you can't find your family Bible, maybe Tracy St. Claire has found it for you. She digitizes the family Bibles she rescues—nearly 1,000 to date, representing more than 3,000 surnames—and puts them on this site, where you can browse them or search by surname.
www.glorecords.blm.gov
If your ancestors claimed federal land in the states of the former Northwest Territory, the "old southwest" of the frontier South, Florida or Missouri, stake your own claim to their land records at this site. More than 2 million federal land titles issued between 1820 and 1908 are online here—many with digitized images—and the powerful search system makes it easy to find your ancestors' paperwork. Records after 1908, including those in western states, are now being added.
www.rootsweb.com/~canwgw
This northern counterpart to the USGenWeb project serves up user-submitted data, pages on every province, Canadian history and tips on starting your Canadian research.
www.genealogy.gc.ca
Bringing together the National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada, this umbrella site makes it easy to access the research tools and services of both institutions. Databases here include scanned images of the 1901 Canadian census and a new file of immigrants naturalized in the early 20th century.
www.census-online.com
Still our favorite gateway to the oodles of free census transcriptions hiding out on the Web, Census Online offers more than 38,000 links to US enumerations, plus lesser collections of census pages for Canada and the British Isles.
uscitydirectories.com
Often overlooked as a genealogy resource, city directories can fill in the blanks between censuses and help trace wandering ancestors. But how to lay your hands on them? This helpful site attempts to identify all printed, microfilmed and online directories for the entire United States—and then tell you the repositories where they're held.
www.geocities.com/area51/lair/3680/cw/cw.html
Not as pretty as some sites, this nonetheless remains your first stop for links to lists of Civil War unit rosters. Not only can you find your ancestors' names on the rolls—you also can begin learning about where and when they fought.
www.itd.nps.gov/cwss
This ambitious project—putting online the names and other basic information from 5.4 million Compiled Military Service Records—now numbers more than 5 million soldier names from more than 30 states and territories, North and South. If you find your ancestor's name, you can click on his regiment for a brief history and a list (in Excel format if you prefer) of all soldiers in the unit.
www.colonialancestors.com
A useful starting place for researching early arrivals to America, Colonial Ancestors includes resources for all 13 original Colonies; a "This Day in Colonial Times" feature; and databases of early Harvard alumni, Valley Forge officers and records submitted by users.
www.familysearch.org
Genealogists were thrilled when the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattter-day Saints put online the International Genealogical Index of vital-record data, and the Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File databases of user-submitted family trees. But that's turned out to be only the beginning of the free resources at FamilySearch, which has since added the US Social Security Death Index, vital-records indexes for Scandinavia and Mexico, the 1880 US census (now linked to images from Ancestry.com), the 1881 Canadian census and the 1881 British census. This also is the place to search the Family History Library catalog, find your nearest Family History Center, tap a trove of research guides and download free Personal Ancestral File software.
findagrave.com
Locate a cemetery or search 5.4 million user-submitted grave records at this popular site, where you also can create virtual memorials or add "virtual flowers" and a note to a loved one's grave.
Genealogy.com
www.genealogy.com
Now owned by the same genealogical behemoth as erstwhile rival Ancestry.com, this site continues to grow as a subscription database must-see and to expand beyond its origins as a home for Family Tree Maker software users. The collections here now include the unique resources of the Genealogy Library of digitized books ($49.99 a year) and the Family and Local Histories collection ($79.99), plus World Family Tree pedigree files ($49.99), the International and Passenger Records ($79.99) and the US Census Collection ($99.99), which has grown to cover all years and includes the 1900 and 1910 indexes that Ancestry.com's census collection lacks. This also is home to the free GenForum, an old (by Web genealogy standards) and thus gigantic collection of message boards, grouped by surname and locality.
www.interment.net
Search more than 3.7 million records from 7,800-plus cemeteries worldwide. Can't find what you're after? Sign up for the e-mail alert service, which notifies you when new data goes online.
home.att.net/~local_catholic
Church records can be the answer to your research prayers, but getting started can be, well, hell—unless you have some guidance. This link-filled site is heaven-sent help for finding your Catholic ancestors.
www.archives.gov
Besides guides to researching at the main archives in Washington, DC, and its regional branches nationwide, NARA's Web incarnation offers the Archival Research Catalog of the vast holdings at the "nation's attic," including almost 58,000 digitized images and 15,000 documents. And the Access to Archival Databases system makes clickable nearly 50 million wide-ranging historical records created by more than 20 federal agencies.
www.newspaperabstracts.com
Sort of the newspaper counterpart to USGenWeb (right)—and organized by county like that site—this volunteer project has ballooned to more than 12,000 pages from papers published prior to 1923.
www.obitcentral.com
Billed as the "headquarters for researching obits on the Web," Obituary Central collects links, obituary searches and related tools all under one roof.
www.publicrecordfinder.com
Was your ancestor a dentist in Louisiana? You might never discover that his records are online (via the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry) without this useful library of links to public records of all sorts—not just vital records—organized by state and county, as well as by type.
www.rootsweb.com/~quakers
You don't have to be a member of the Society of Friends to have a Quaker ancestor. They were important settlers in the American Colonies and kept marvelous records, which this site and its related mailing list can help you discover.
www.rootsweb.com
This sprawling volunteer effort can be a bit confusing to master, with more ways to search and more paths to explore than you may have patience for. But it's one of online genealogy's great bargains—it's all free. User-submitted databases include death records, obituaries, military records and cemetery information, as well as the WorldConnect pedigree files and message boards whose data you also can find on Ancestry.com (but many users prefer RootsWeb's setup).
www.usgenweb.com
It's no dollarcidence that we've compared so many of this list's honorees to USGenWeb. The voluminous volunteer effort, with pages for every state and most counties, is an essential tool for researching your family history from coast to coast. Besides the links, queries and tips found on each state and county page, you can search the user-submitted data nationwide or by state. USGenWeb also houses a gigantic collection of free census transcriptions and a growing tombstone-transcription project.
www.cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/w2welcom.htm
Sorry, sometimes the answers you need can't be found online, and you have to resort to the old-fashioned technique of writing for them. At least there's this online guide to tell you where to write and, if there's a fee, how much.
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