Websites for Family History Beginners: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Lab Pups.jpg|thumb|right|250x230px]]Many websites can help beginners with family history research. This article lists websites that can be used at the Family History Library, Family History Centers, from home, or wherever one has access to the Internet, such as cybercafés or libraries.  

*[https://wiki.familysearch.org FamilySearch Wiki]: The FamilySearch research Wiki is a place to search for information to help you with your genealogical research. As a user-contributed and edited site, it is similar to Wikipedia in nature. This page is a part of the FamilySearch Wiki.<br>

*[http://www.progenealogists.com/resources.htm ProGenealogists]: A professional genealogical company that conducts family history research.&nbsp;Their web site&nbsp;includes two specific pages that have&nbsp;useful links to other genealogy web sites:&nbsp;a United States Genealogy Sleuth page, and an International Genealogy Sleuth page.

 

*[http://www.cyndislist.com/ Cyndi's List<span id="fck_dom_range_temp_1260565416542_253" />]: A large genealogical directory that can be searched by&nbsp;location or topic. Select a location or topic, then select a category of records or topics. Scroll to the specific record or topic desired.<br>

*[https://www.familysearch.org/#start Record Search]: A free site that contains indexes and images of&nbsp;U.S.,&nbsp;Canada, and international records. For the U.S., it includes&nbsp;selected federal and state censuses; birth, marriage, and death records; funeral home records, Freedman's Bank and Freedman's Bureau records; military pensions; probate records; passenger lists; WWI draft registrations; and land records. Check back often as this web site is updated&nbsp;with new records regularly.

*[http://www.ancestry.com/ Ancestry]&nbsp;or [http://www.ancestryinstitution.com/ Ancestry Institution]&nbsp;$: Ancestry is a subscription site, but access is free in the Family History Library. Ancestry Institution, with a limited subset of Ancestry.com data, is available free in larger Family History Centers.

*[http://www.footnote.com/institution-index.php Footnote.com] $: Contains digital original sources such as naturalizations, Revolutionary War papers, Civil War papers, Mormon Battalion pensions, newspapers, Southern Claims Commission, and Texas births and deaths. Free at the Family History Library and many Family History Centers.

*[http://www.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/index HeritageQuest] $: This website contains indexes (1790-1820, 1860-1880, and 1900-1930) and images (1790-1930) to U.S. federal censuses; over 22,000 family and local histories; PERSI, an index to 2 million genealogical periodical articles; Revolutionary War pension and bounty-land warrants; Freedman’s Bank records; and U.S. Congressional records. It is free at the Family History Library, larger Family History Centers, and many public libraries.&nbsp;Check with your local library for free access to HeritageQuest.&nbsp;

*[http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/ World Vital Records] $: A subscription website with vital records, church records, newspapers, and other information from around the world. Free access is available at many Family History Centers.

*[http://www.archive.org/ Internet Archive] contains public domain books, including family and local histories, records transcriptions, and more.

*[https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Introduction_to_the_Family_History_Library_Catalog Introduction to the Family History Library Catalog]: Explains how to use and search the Family History Library Catalog at FamilySearch. (Also available in older versions on on compact disc, and on microfiche.)<br>

*[http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic Geographic Names Information System]: The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database that contains name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Geographic Names Information System," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_Names_Information_System</ref>

*[http://www.davidrumsey.com/ David Rumsey Map Collection]: A collection of over 21,000 historic maps online. The web site includes a link to the David Rumsey Blog for additional information.

*[http://www.castlegarden.org/ Castle Garden]: Free index to New York City passenger arrivals from 1820 to 1892, containing roughly 12 million immigrants.

*[http://EllisIsland.org Ellis Island]: 1892-1924 New York City passenger arrival index and passenger list images showing ethnicity, arrival date, residence, age, ship, port of departure, passenger manifest image, and ship’s image. The site is also indexed at [http://stevemorse.org/ One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse].

*[http://www.germanroots.com/onlinelists.html US Passenger Lists]: This web site includes links to transcribed passenger records&nbsp;and&nbsp;indexes.

*[http://www.theshipslist.com/ The Ships List] Website containing transcriptions of worldwide passenger lists, newspaper records, shipwreck information, ship pictures, ship descriptions, shipping-line fleet lists and more.

 

*[http://www.dogpile.com/ DogPile]:DogPile is a metasearch engine.&nbsp;It gathers information from several search engines and&nbsp;displays them under&nbsp;one search site.&nbsp;This allows the user to search several search engines with only one&nbsp;display list.<br>

 

 

[[Category:Beginners]] [[Category:"New to Genealogy"]]