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Your Favorite Free (or Low-Cost) Genealogy Resources

Tell about your favorite free or low-cost genealogy resources, online and off. Explain why it's a favorite and how it's been helpful in your research.

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Permalink Reply by Co Ordinator on July 10, 2009 at 7:18am
You my friend have just made my day WHY well a fair while ago I stumbled upon the site of ref and then lost it but now it appears again thanks to you . this site has all the death certs that one needs if your ancestors lived here as mine did now beat that.


Casidy Andersen said:
%3Cbr%20/"">http://archives.utah.gov/digital/81448.htm
Permalink Reply by J. Moore on July 10, 2009 at 7:51am
Its been mentioned, but it bears repeating and repeating and repeating: Google Books. Its a source that gets better and better all the time. I've made a number of pretty astoundingly cool little finds that just would not have been possible in the past, no matter how much money had been spent, how many archives visited, and how much film pored over.
Permalink Reply by Linda K. on July 10, 2009 at 9:43am
I enjoy using several resources. Rootsweb.com has been a tremendous help to me recently. I have been researching the lineage of my Great Grandmother Mary Rose (Sutherland) Farmer and could go no further, through Ancestry.com. On Rootsweb I found members that had traced the family to the 1700's.

The other site I find very helpful is Findagrave.com. They list cemetery information. What is very interesting is the ability to leave messages and virtual flowers at their grave. I have linked with other researchers in this way.
Permalink Reply by Amir Dekel on July 10, 2009 at 1:07pm
http://jewishgen.org/ - The Home of Jewish Genealogy - Free Jewish Genealogy databases (no searchable free within Ancestry.com but for some reason I don't like their display as much)

http://www.yadvashem.org/ - Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority - The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names has pages of testimony and information you can't find anywhere else.
Permalink Reply by Greta Koehl on July 10, 2009 at 6:58pm
Permalink Reply by Tonia Kendrick on July 16, 2009 at 12:28pm
Permalink Reply by J. Moore on July 10, 2009 at 9:31pm
Indexed and digitized issues of (various incarnations of) the Virginia Gazette, 1736-1780 at Colonial Williamsburg's site

If you have 18th cent. ancestors in Virginia, particularly of some property, this is VERY worth your time.

Binns & Co have put together a pretty amazing set of "1790" and "1800" Virginia tax lists at Binn's Genealogy. These are fully indexed (and very well indexed in my experience) and they replaced the old scans with larger ones last year so even if you've visited them in the past you might check and see if you can snag a bit higher quality image now.

The Library of Virginia is also a real treasure of course, particularly for their digitized 17th to 19th cent. patents.

The Eastern North Carolina Digital Library is wonderful for those with ancestors from, well, Eastern North Carolina. Also note the complete Colonial and State Records of North Carolina now online at UNC.
Permalink Reply by Terri O'Connell on July 10, 2009 at 10:29pm
There is a lot of great sites mentioned here. My favorite free is the Gen Web site. I have found so much information from the Jefferson County, NY site.
Permalink Reply by Shannon Stokes Sheppard on July 10, 2009 at 11:12pm
Family Search, by Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints
GenForum
Permalink Reply by J. Moore on July 11, 2009 at 1:22am
The Univ. of Okla.'s Western History Digital Collections includes, fully digitized and searchable, two collections that are exceedingly valuable for anyone with IT or pre/near-statehood OK ancestors:

The Doris Duke Collection>:
The Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History online provides access to typescripts of interviews (1967 -1972) conducted with hundreds of Indians in Oklahoma regarding the histories and cultures of their respective nations and tribes. Related are accounts of Indian ceremonies, customs, social conditions, philosophies, and standards of living. Members of every tribe resident in Oklahoma were interviewed. The collection includes the original tapes on which the interviews were recorded, as well as microfiche copies of the typescripts. The digital representation of the typescripts are organized by tribe but may be searched by interviewee, by interviewer, by tape number, or by keyword searching of the full-text of the transcript.
Among them is my own g-grandmother's interview, occupying one full side of an audio tape, running 12 pp in transcript, and filled with things that would've otherwise been lost forever.

Indian-Pioneer Papers Collection
The Indian-Pioneer Papers oral history collection spans from 1861 to 1936. It includes typescripts of interviews conducted during the 1930s by government workers with thousands of Oklahomans regarding the settlement of Oklahoma and Indian territories, as well as the condition and conduct of life there. Consisting of approximately 80,000 entries, the index to this collection may be accessed via personal name, place name, or subject.
These were gathered from White, Black, & Nat. Am. folks alike.
Permalink Reply by Douglas Noblehorse on July 24, 2009 at 2:00pm
Thank you so much for suggesting this link! I had no idea this material existed. I stumbled on a gold mine - several interviews with my great-grandfather, who died 15 years before I was born.

But of course, while these interviews cleared up a couple points of family history - and even reached back a couple generations before my great-grandfather - more mysteries cropped up!

All in all, his words are like a voice from the past, bringing his life into a sharper focus!

Thank you so much again!

Douglas Noblehorse
Permalink Reply by Nikki Trow on July 11, 2009 at 3:51am
One of my favourite free genealogy resources is FreeBMD. It's an on-going project in which the birth, marriage and death indexes of England & Wales are being transcribed. While the whole index hasn't yet been transcribed, there is still a lot of information there, especially pre-1930.

You can search for all types or just birth, marriage or death, along with surname and/or first name. Other details such as spouse or mother's surname, along with date range and district or county can be included in your search information (the more information you put, the more relevent the result should be... although sometimes you need to only put a little information... It needs to be remembered that because the indexes are being transcribed human errors can occurr (and there may have been an error in the index anyway).

The results you are supplied with will give you the details with which (assuming you think you may have found the right person) you can go to the GRO (General Register Office) with and apply for the relevent certificate.

Over the years, I have found FreeBMD very useful... You can even select the district name and type in the volume & page to see who else was on that page of the register... Very useful if you suspect a twin or to see who else was married in the quarter.

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