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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 Miriam Robbins Midkiff on July 15, 2009 at 8:38pm
Check out http://www.researchguides.net to find links to online vital, cemetery, and census records for your favorite states.
Permalink Reply by Doug Tallman on July 17, 2009 at 5:00am
Though its value to genealogy is limited, it is a fascinating site, the Political Graveyard.
Permalink Reply by Cindy Neely on July 19, 2009 at 9:56pm
I love findagrave.com., too but a lot of times no one has entered any information on the person you're looking for. I am currently in the process of adding some of my relatives and my husband's relatives. It is a wonderful way to create a memorial for a loved one.
Permalink Reply by Mats-Olof Sander on July 20, 2009 at 11:12am
http://www.slaktdata.org/ for research in Sweden. Mostly in Swedish but some English hints in search form.
Permalink Reply by Mary Hellman on July 20, 2009 at 2:53pm
I really like using usgenweb.com. If you are lucky.......the county areas are full of information including cemetery listings and some biographies as well. I have finally found out where some of my relatives were buried.
Mary
Permalink Reply by Connie Walton Moretti on July 21, 2009 at 9:06am
My absolute favorite site is www.linkpendium.com This site is maintained by the founders of Roots Web. It contains a collection of links for every county in the USA and is now branching out to Great Britain. There is also a huge collection of links to surname sites. GenWeb, Geneaology Trails and others are listed in the "projects" section. In the "cemeteries" section, both Find A Grave and Interment Net are listed along with any local sources. There is a direct link to the relevant parts of the Family History Library Catalog. And that just skims the surface. I've found links to collections of data that I would never have stumbled across otherwise.
Permalink Reply by Cyndi Whitsell-Fraser on July 21, 2009 at 11:20pm
Many good sites have been mentioned that will keep many of us busy for quite some time. I also like Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com, and have met several distant relatives and contacts through this site. Best of all, I have had good luck finding people to take photos of gravestones thousands of miles away!

For those researching in Washington state, you can't over look the following FREE site: Washington State Digital Archives at http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/. A simple surname search will bring up marriage, death, military, land and census records all together on one or more pages and many images can be printed off after downloading a plug-in.

Also, Ask a Librarian, http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/ask_form.aspx, at the Washington State Library will "answer your questions about Washington state government, history, culture, the federal government, and genealogy." They have an email form that you fill out and send along with pertinent information. It may take a few weeks but is well worth the wait and it is FREE. They are only able to do 1 hour of research per question and would like you to submit 1 name at a time except for obituaries for which you can submit up to 3 names per request.

Thanks for starting this discussion, Cyndi
Permalink Reply by Miriam Robbins Midkiff on July 22, 2009 at 12:32am
I LOVE the Washington State Digital Archives, and use it all the time to research my hubby's ancestors. If any of you are interested, we have Jerry Handfield, the Washington State Archivist and Lee Pierce, the Assistant Archivist at the Eastern Regional State Archives/State Digital Archives speaking at the Washington State Genealogical Society's state conference here in Spokane on September 11 - 13. You do not need to be a member of WSGS to attend. For more details, go here.

Oh, yeah, we'll also have Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak giving four presentations...plus Bruce Buzbee talking about RootsMagic...plus many more fantastic presenters!
Permalink Reply by David on July 23, 2009 at 9:38pm
I found myself copying so many of the links posted here, that I thought I'd consolidate them. Here they are, in no particular order:


Mid-Continent Public Library
http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us
[I sent them $20 and got my non-resident library card. What a deal!!!]

FindaGrave.com
http://findagrave.com/

Tennessee Death Certificate Indexes
http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/vital/index.htm
http://register.shelby.tn.us/index.php

RAoGK.com. -- connect with volunteers who are willing to help you out for free.

Northern New York Historical Newspapers
http://news.nnyln.net/

Old Fulton (NY) Postcards -- much more than postcards here
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

Indiana
http://myindianahome.net/

Ohio death certificates
http://pilot.familysearch.org

Bits of Blue and Gray
http://bitsofblueandgray.com/

Norwegian Digital archive
http://www.digitalarkivet.no/

Norwegian gravestones
http://www.disnorge.no/gravminner/index.php


French-Acadian / Louisiana roots
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/cap/acadian/


Missouri State Archives death certificates (over 50 years old) from 1910 through 1958
http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/

Illinois State Archives databases
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html

Inter-Library Loan

Archive.org (Internet archive)
http://www.archive.org

Books at Google
http://books.google.com

Arizona birth certificates (at least 75 years ago) and death certificates (at least 50 years ago).
http://genealogy.az.gov/

Utah death certificates from 1904-1956.
http://archives.utah.gov/digital/81448.htm

Land Patents
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/

SeekingMichigan.org
http://seekingmichigan.org/

New England
newenglandancestors.org

Find a Grave
findagrave.com

More Graves
interment.net


National State & Local Newspaper Archives
http://xooxleanswers.com/newspaperarchives4.aspx

Second Life--There is a great community of Family Researchers that participate in the Chats.

Genealogy Trails
http://www.genealogytrails.com/

Live Roots
http://www.genealogytoday.com/

For African-American research:

Afrigeneas
http://www.afrigeneas.com/

AfriQuest
http://www.afriquest.com/

USF Africana Heritage Project
http://www.africanaheritage.com/

Low Country Africana
http://www.lowcountryafricana.net/


Library & Archives Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/search-recherche/anc.php...

Automated Genealogy--1851, 1901, 1906 and 1911 Canadian censuses
http://www.automatedgenealogy.com/

USGenWeb sites

DeadFred--A huge collection of old photos
http://www.deadfred.com/


West Virginia Vital Records Search

RB Hayes Obituary Index

Olddeathrecords.org

Dutch/Netherlands resources
http://www.zeeuwengezocht.nl/default_E.htm

Wisconsin Vital Records
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/vitalrecords/

The Home of Jewish Genealogy
http://www.jewishgen.org/

also: Central Database of Shoah (Holocaust) Victims' Names
http://www.yadvashem.org/

Castle Garden
http://www.castlegarden.org/

Facebook!
www.Facebook.com

GenCircles
http://www.gencircles.com/

UK records
http://www.freebmd.org.uk

For Ireland - the 1911 census
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

Rootsweb.com




Texas State Library and Archives
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/index.html

South Carolina Department of Archives and History
http://scdah.sc.gov/

Illinois State Archives
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html

Alabama Department of Archives and History
http://www.archives.state.al.us/

Arkansas History Commission and State Archives
http://www.ark-ives.com/


Georgia's Virtual Vault
http://content.sos.state.ga.us/

North Carolina State Archives
http://www.archives.ncdcr.gov/

Archives of Maryland Online
http://aomol.net/html/index.html

Virginia Gazette, 1736-1780 at Colonial Williamsburg's site
http://research.history.org/DigitalLibrary/BrowseVG.cfm

Eastern North Carolina Digital Library
http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/

Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/

Univ. of Okla.'s Western History Digital Collections
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/WHC/

Duke Collection of American Indian Oral History
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/WHC/duke/

Indian-Pioneer Papers oral history
http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/WHC/pioneer/

Cook County Assessors Office
http://www.cookcountyassessor.com/Property_Search/Property_Search.aspx

Google maps
http://maps.google.com/

Texas Death Certificates
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start

Dutch Door Genealogy --New Netherlands families and Rockland County, N.Y.
http://www.dutchdoorgenealogy.com/

Pickards Pink Pages for Warwickshire England

Northamptonshire Stray Marriages website

Virginia between 1736-1803, The Geography of Slavery
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/exist/runaways/xquery.xsp

Digitized Collections at the Springfield-Greene County Library--19th cent. Missouri
http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/collections.cfm

Genesreunited is a great resource for British information

Warwickshire page
http://www.genealogywise.com/group/warwickshire

www.genforum.com

Genealogywise is fast becoming a free favorite for me (and for us all, I might add!)

http://opengen.net/

West Virginia
http://www.wvculture.org/history/archivesindex.aspx

Oklahoma'
www.odcr.com
www.oscn.net/,

For UK resources this is a useful site:
http://ukfamilyhistory.bravehost.com/

Scottish Genneolgy
scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Free Newspaper Archives in the UK
http://quezi.com/7870

Free Newspaper Archives in Canada
http://quezi.com/9493

UK for the county of Cheshire
http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~cprdb/

Lancashire On-line Parish Clerk
http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/

PAGenWeb for my Pennsylvania research
http://www.resourceguides.net to find access to online vital and census records

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness
http://www.raogk.org/

Jackson County, MO Department of Records
http://records.co.jackson.mo.us/localization/menu.asp

old newspaper articles from the South
http://freenewspaperarchives.us/south.aspx

newspaper archives from Western States
http://freenewspaperarchives.us/west.aspx

Though its value to genealogy is limited, it is a fascinating site, the Political Graveyard.
http://politicalgraveyard.com/

Sweden
http://www.slaktdata.org/

Links for every county in the USA
www.linkpendium.com
Permalink Reply by Miriam Robbins Midkiff on July 23, 2009 at 10:03pm
Great list, David! I hope you'll add my site, Online City, County, and Rural Directories, to it! ;-)
Permalink Reply by Mary Hellman on August 3, 2009 at 7:03pm
Yes - Great list. I was starting to freak out writing down every link not wanting to forget them and then you came along with a wonderful list.
THanks for doing this!
Mary
Permalink Reply by Toni Carrier on July 23, 2009 at 11:17pm
Miriam, thank you so much foir this forum and David, thank you for the compilation. This is wonderful! I love the opportunity GWise gives us to network, learn and share Many hands make light work!

Best and Cheers,
Toni

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