Terry's Genealogy LinksTerry's Genealogy LinksThis page updated 30 Apr 2008
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of useful sites on the Internet – here are a few I've found. As with any other subject, there is a lot of false information, or at best simple errors, to be found on genealogical sites. But there is a wealth of invaluable information as well. Just pay attention to what you are looking at – see my article Genealogy and the Internet for more on this.
These are the ones nearly everyone recommends:
| LDS Family History Library | The LDS (Mormon) Church's Ancestral File™, IGI, and catalog to the Family History Library |
| RootsWeb | Databases, contributed trees, thousands of e-mail lists, and much, much more – all free |
| US GenWeb | Locate state & county libraries, official repositories, query boards, and more |
| Ancestry.com | Simply the best subscription site – US Census images, passenger list images and much more. Available free at some libraries |
| Cyndi's List | Thousands of genealogy sites listed, categorized into hundreds of useful groups |
These sites are newer, and thus have less broad offerings than some of the more established sites. But they are very worthwhile if the happen to have what you need, and they are adding more all the time:
| Footnote.com | Is partnering with major archives to offer images of a wide range of historical documents. Some is free, but much by subscription. |
| GenealogyBank | Historical books, newspapers, obituaries, and more. By subscription. If they happen to have newspapers from where your ancestors lived, this can be a treasure trove. |
A growing number of public archives and libraries are putting databases, and increasingly, actual images of public documents online, all free. Here are a few examples:
| Library of Virginia | Has an amazing number of Virginia records, and even family Bible pages, online |
| Missouri State Archives | Has images of death certificates from 1910 to 1957, and a database of older records |
| Bureau of Land Management | Has databases and images of land grants |
| Shelby Co. Tennessee | Has images of deeds, birth, marriage, and death records, and more |
| Kentucky Land Office | Has images of land grants |
| Congressional Biographies | The "official" biographies of United States Senators and Representatives. |
If these don't cover where your ancestors lived search for archives where they lived on Goggle.
There are hundreds of organizations dedicated to specific families or surnames – Here are some examples that relate to my family lines. Use a genealogical or standard search site to look for any that relate to your lines.
Here are a few sites that I've used that can help with overseas connections:
When dealing with foreign languages an on-line dictionary can help, though I find they don't do all that well with old terms. Here are two I've used:
Sometimes the best resource is a book. The Internet can be a great resource in finding them. Used bookstores can sometimes supply out of print books that are difficult to find elsewhere - Here are some that seem to carry titles I've looked for:
Another great source is local historical and genealogical societies. Find them by following the links to the state and/or county of interest on USGenweb
You might even find them on-line:
| Google Books |
Specialized genealogy sites listed elsewhere have very helpful search features. But don't forget regular web search resources when looking for people or places of interest. Regular search sites are great for locating information about places, people, events, and organizations:
On-line directories may help locate living relatives:
Some of these might be of interest, or at least show some of the variety of things that can be found on the web:
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