You're online, hoping to get lucky and find information on your Civil War-era Arizona ancestor, but all you get is a bunch of pop-up ads. Your search for Illinois pioneer progenitors produces only a vast frontier of worthless hits. Sound familiar? Don't give up just yet: Our alphabetical state-by-state links list is full of America's best lesser-known genealogical gold mines — 222 altogether, and all free.

To compile this compendium, we scoured the Web for state-specific sites where you can find actual ancestral data. We gave a nod to sites featuring indexes, record transcriptions and state-specific how-to tips over links-laden destinations and state pages that are part of national or regional "umbrella" sites. You'll find handpicked research resources for every US state from Alabama to Wyoming. So stop wasting time sorting the cream of the crop from the worst of the Web — just log on and start digging.