Search Tricks for Genealogy Websites
Don’t go online without our essential guide to 10 key websites for genealogy research.
Records roundup
Here’s an overview of which websites have the sources you’ll most often consult in your genealogy search—also the sources I found most useful in researching John H. Pennington:
Searching success strategies
Genealogy research involves a lot of guesswork. What your family has told you about an ancestor may be wrong. Historical records often have misspelled names, incorrect birthplaces and inconsistent dates. In addition, humans or optical character recognition (OCR) software may make mistakes when transcribing records’ information into the index you search. Your ancestor’s name could have been recorded in an unexpected way or transcribed wrong.
Tips by record type
The following search tips for each type of genealogy record will help you find your ancestors on just about any website:
- Ancestry.com
- FamilySearch.org
- Findmypast.com
- Fold3
- GenealogyBank
- Geni.com
- Mocavo
- MyHeritage
- Newspapers.com
- World Vital Records
Tip: Periodically repeat your searches on genealogy websites, as newly added data, another user’s contribution or an altered search algorithm may yield new results.
More Online
• 101 Best Websites for genealogy
• Podcast: Ancestry.com search tips
• Finding unindexed records on FamilySearch.org
• Searching for Ancestry.com databases in the card catalog
• FamilySearch catalog tutorial
• Genealogy cheat sheets
• 1,001 Best Genealogy Websites CD
• Googling Your Genealogy webinar
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