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Genealogy Research on the Internet
contributed by Ed Swan edswan@thurston.com

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought" --Albert Szent-Gyorg i (1893-1986).

 

    Search Engines
  1. Fast - http://www.alltheweb.com
  2. Dogpile - http://www.dogpile.com
  3. Google - http://www.google.com/

    4.  

    Data bases of genealogical sites, may have their own search engine
  4. Cyndi Howells - http://www.cyndislist.com/
  5. Another Source list for genealogical sites:
    http://www.ukans.edu/heritage/research/dbd.html
  6. Linkpendium is an attempt at building a directory of everything relevant to genealogy on the Web. About 146,000 pages are now categorized. The directory will cover 300 - 500,000 pages as it matures over the next year or so. This is by the same people that started RootsWeb.:
    http://www.linkpendium.com/

    7.  

    E-mail newsletters:   you subscribe and the newsletters come by e-mail
  7. Ancestry Daily News : http://www.ancestry.com
  8. Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter : To subscribe to this free newsletter, there is a paid plus edition also, to cancel an existing subscription or to modify an existing subscription in any way, go to: http://www.eogn.com
  9. Roots Web Review : TO SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the e-mail body to: Rootsweb-Review-L-request@rootsweb.com

    http://newsletters.rootsweb.com/ is a link to the archives for RootsWeb Review. There is a lot of good information available here for those willing to dig through it.

     

    Research sites
  10. Roots Web Co-operative - http://www.rootsweb.com
  11. World connect - http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
  12. FamilySearch LDS Genealogy Site – http://www.familysearch.org
  13. Ancestry – http://www.Ancestry.com (General information)
    ( http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/usersub/worldtree/main.htm )
    (Genealogical Gedcom database, can be found at the above URL also)
  14. Ellis Island - http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/
  15. Family Tree Maker – http://www.FamilyTreeMaker.com
  16. The Public Record Office's online 1901 Census for England and Wales is at: http://www.pro.gov.uk
  17. Olympia Genealogical Society and your gateway to other societies:
    http://www.rootsweb.com/~waogs
  18. USGenweb - http://www.usgenweb.org
  19. WorldGenWeb - http://www.worldgenweb.org
  20. International Internet Genealogical Society (IIGS) - http://www.iigs.org
  21. The Surname Web at http://www.surnameweb.com. This is a registry of web sites DEDICATED to a particular surname, and these sites can have a great deal of information available.
  22. Genhelp - was created by five experienced genealogists that are willing to help others by posting articles and other information. Just found it but it looks good. http://www.genhelp.org
  23. Heritage Quest's census information is available to those with a valid Timberland Library card. It includes all census' from 1790 to 1930. Four of these are indexed and are searchable by name, census, and area. These are 1790, 1800, 1810, and 1870. The other census' are browsable, by entering census, state, county, and enumeration district. Click on the following link, http://rpa.timberland.lib.wa.us/rpa/webauth?rs=glh&lb=trl then enter your library card number and click on "log in". Have fun.
  24. When you are traveling it can be very helpful to know where the nearest Family History Center is located. The following URL will enable you to find a center: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp
  25. Washington State Archives. The Secretary of States Office is putting an amazing amount of information online, including the early Assessors Censuses. http://www.secstate.wa.gov/archives/
  26. Free New England genealogical books online. These books have been made available for online reading. Remember some early books are not considered reliable as there is much speculation. http://www.usigs.org/library/books/ma/books.html

    27.  

    Free Software

  27. Legacy Family Tree - http://www.legacyfamilytree.com
  28. Personal Ancestral File – http://www.familysearch.com
  29. Kindred Connections - http://www.kindredkonnections.com
  30. Bygones - http://home.utah-inter.net/bygones
  31. Forte' Free Agent - http://support.planetc.com/text/agent.htm
  32. Downloadable programs - http://www.download.com

    33.  

    Lists and Newsgroups
  33. This is where to go to sign up for a list, can be surname, area etc.
    http://lists.rootsweb.com
    Also has 60+ thousand newsgroups. Check for archives, but use judiciously. There are groups that cover every topic. Your mail program will have some means for signing up for newsgroups but I prefer Free Agent (see #29) as a means for signing up and for reading them.
  34. Google newsgroups archive of more than 500 million messages--a terabyte of human conversation dating back to 1995 - http://groups.google.com/

    35.  

    Forms online

     Rather than re-inventing this list I am using this list from Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter. The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 1996 - 2007 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.

    Looking for some blank forms that you can fill in during your genealogy research? You can download free, high-quality blank forms online from several web sites and print them on your own printer.

  35. Misbach Enterprises houses one of the largest collections of downloadable genealogy charts in Adobe PDF format. You can print directly from the web site or store the forms on your local hard drive and then print them later as often as you wish. All the charts are formatted to fit on 8.5" x 11" paper. Go to http://misbach.org/pdfcharts/.

  36. FamilySearch.org has a collection of online forms, including U.S., British, Irish, and Canadian census extraction forms, family group sheets, blank timelines, and more. The forms are available at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/RG/frameset_rhelps.asp?Page=./research/type/Form.asp&ActiveTab=Type.

  37. Family Tree Magazine has a huge collection of downloadable forms on the company's web site. The forms include pedigree charts, research calendars, note-taking forms, deed indexes, research journal, correspondence logs, family group sheets and census extraction forms. You can see this impressive collection of forms at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forms/download.html.

  38. Ancestry.com has downloadable forms that are as nice looking as the commercially available forms. You can obtain a pedigree chart (called an Ancestral Chart), Research Calendar, Research Extract, Correspondence Chart, Source Summary, and Family Group Sheet. You can do all of this at: http://www.ancestry.com/save/charts/ancchart.htm.

  39. Canadian census forms for the 1851, 1901, 1906 and 1911 Canadian censuses may be downloaded from: http://www.ancestry.com/trees/charts/canadacensus.aspx.

  40. Similar forms for the 1841 through 1901 decennial U.K. censuses may be obtained at http://www.ancestry.com/trees/charts/ukcensus.aspx.

  41. My Ancestors Found http://www.myancestorsfound.com/forms.htm

    All of the above are available free of charge.

     

    What Can You Find - some examples
  42. Yorkshire information http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/. There are 12,000 pages available with information on Yorkshire alone. For information on Great Britain and Ireland go to http://www.genuki.org.uk
  43. South West Virginia http://www.ls.net/~newriver/nrv.htm
  44. Library of Virginia http://www.lva.lib.va.us/

    45.  

    For Fun
  45. Some Epitaphs http://www.alsirat.com/epitaphs

    46.  

    Genealogical Columnists
  46. Shaking your Family Tree - Myra Vanderpool Gormley- a syndicated genealogical columnist. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~gormleym/
  47. DearMyrtle: an online subscription columnist. To subscribe send an e-mail that says only "subscribe" in the body to DEARMYRTLE-L-request@rootsweb.com but also a learning and search site at: http://www.dearmyrtle.com

    48.  

    Genealogical Guides and Lessons
  48. What do you do when you have hit the wall? Roots Web Guides.
    http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/

    49.  

    Researching the Civil War
  49. Civil War Rosters the most complete listing:
    http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/3680/cw/cw.html
  50. Civil War Home Page: http://www.civil-war.net/
  51. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/

    52.  

    Where to look when you run into a word or need a word
  52. 1700 Dictionaries, glossaries, and such assembled by Dr. Frank Dietz
    http://www.jump.net/~fdietz/glossary.htm

    53.  

    What was that occupation?
  53. I have found some strange and wonderful occupations in my search for my ancestors the following URL's have made it easier to figure out what they were doing. They were from the Legacy Genealogy list it in itself is worth subscribing to at http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp . Since surnames were often occupation related this might also help to see what trade and ancestor was working in. The URLs are:
  54. http://www.gendocs.demon.co.uk/trades.html
  55. http://cpcug.org/user/jlacombe/terms.html
  56. http://olivetreegenealogy.com/misc/occupations.shtml

    57.  

    Ethnic Genealogy - Native American, African American, Asian American
  57. A site with links for searching for your Native American Ancestors: http://members.tripod.com/~Randy_T/index-5.html
  58. African American Resources on the Web: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cgaunt/afram.html
  59. Asian American Ancestry: Tough one. Best bet is to go to Cindi's List and WorldGenWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/~asiagw/

    60.  

    Maps
  60. Mapquest - maps for anywhere in the world or at least where I have looked. http://www.mapquest.com
  61. North Eastern States: http://www.negenealogy.com
  62. South Eastern States: http://www.segenealogy.com