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Websites new to our list for 2021 are indicated by an asterisk (*). Sites marked with a dollar sign ($) require a subscription or other payment to fully take advantage of their content; otherwise free sites that have some sort of premium tier or paid add-on have this noted in the write-ups.
All summaries written by David Fryxell
Let Cora Num jump-start your Australian ancestry research with this site, which since 1997 has been serving as a sort of Cyndi’s List for Aussie records.
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Now boasting 1.2 billion records (many from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada), this subscription offering (49.95 USD/year for full access) covers 18 countries. In addition to census, military and parish records, you’ll find trade directories, probate registers and other less-familiar brick-wall busters.
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Make this your first stop when researching Canadian kin, with its collections of censuses, vital records, land records and military records, plus research guides.
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Packed with helpful guides and records links, this site also has digitized military records, wills, migration records and more.
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Search Irish censuses (1901, 1911 and surviving fragments), marriage license bonds, crew lists, will registers, tithe applotment books, pensioner records, Catholic convert rolls and more.
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The browse-only images of Catholic parish records are a wee bit hidden—you’ll find them at registers.nli.ie. Also don’t miss the newspaper and manuscript catalogs and collections of old photos.
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Explore Ulster with the Historical Maps viewer, search street directories and wills, and use the Name Search to find early family history records.
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With more than 6.4 million posts and 275,000 members, the United Kingdom’s busiest genealogy forum is the place to post your research questions.
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This subscription site (255 USD/year) from the Irish Family History Foundation boasts more than 22 million records, including Griffith’s Valuation (which is free to search) and church records from 34 county genealogy centers.
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Emigration society and 1881 census records, maps, and images are free to access, but most other materials in this National Records of Scotland site are pay per view. (Indexes are free to search, though.) With church registers, other censuses, valuation rolls and more, it’s well worth registering and checking out.
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This collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of partner organizations brings Aussie family history to life with digitized newspapers, maps, photos, books, diaries and letters.
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