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April 29, 2014

What Are Your Top 5 Genealogy Websites?

What Are Your Top 5 Genealogy Websites?
What are the top 5 websites you use most often for genealogy? This was a question posed by a friend on Facebook  and I thought the responses were very interesting. They also gave me some leads on new avenues of research. So here is the question repeated and I hope my readers will comment with their top 5. The sites can be free or pay-to-view.




Here are my top 5:

Ancestry.com I use it daily for American, Canadian and British research and would be lost without it.
FamilySearch - for International databases
British Newspaper Archive for my British ancestry
Library and Archives Canada for Canadian databases
Trove (National Library of Australia) for Australian & British ancestors

It was difficult to narrow my top sites to 5 as I have about a dozen that I use frequently (meaning at least once a week).  They include GenealogyBank.com, FindMyPast.com, OliveTreeGenealogy.com (yep I snuck my own site in this list but I do use it frequently), OurOntario.ca, TheShipsList.com and others.

Credit: "Top Rated Stamp" by Stuart Miles on FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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13 comments:

  1. Celia Lewis7:13 PM

    FamilySearch
    Ancestry
    FindMyPast.co.uk
    Old Fulton Postcards(NY newspapers)
    OliveTreeGenealogy

    & then...
    Mocavo
    NEHGS (AmericanAncestors)
    old history books online anywhere, including WorldCat libraries

    And with 2 big screens I often have several open at the same time, checking them against each other. So useful.
    Cheers
    - Celia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown11:22 PM

    Ancestry
    FamilySearch
    Institut Drouin (I'm French Canadian)
    New York City vital records on Italiangen.org
    Library and Archives Canada.

    The first two open automatically when my browser opens. The rest are frequent go-tos. The hardest part is limiting myself to five! Thanks for the challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Janice Harshbarger7:33 AM

    My top five:

    Ancestry.com
    Fold3.com
    FamilySearch.org
    Rootsweb.com (yes, I know it's the same as Ancestry but I find the family trees easier to use ad when I'm just starting on someone I usually go there first)
    AmericanAncestors.org

    Also high up on the list would be Newspapers.com

    And there are still 22 people who are my third and fourth grandparents that I can't "find", except for a name and sometimes a birth and death date.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jackie Corrigan8:10 AM

    My top 2 would be ancestry.ca and FamilySearch. Then, because I have mostly French Canadian roots, the next 3 would be PRDH (subscription site) at
    http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/en/leprdh.htm, Fichier Origine (free) at http://www.fichierorigine.com/index.htm and PREFEN (free)at http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/prefen/formPion.php?p=0.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Olive Tree Genealogy9:41 AM

    Celia, thanks for reminding me about Fulton postcards. I am there at least once a month!

    And thanks for the support of my site! (grin)

    Lorine

    ReplyDelete
  6. Olive Tree Genealogy9:43 AM

    Maureen thanks for mentioning Institut Druin. It's really helpful to hear from others as to what genealogy sites they use the most!

    I totally agree with how difficult it was to limit the list to 5 and am thinking I might do a Top 10 or even a Top 25. Maybe by categories - International, Canada, American, etc

    ReplyDelete
  7. Olive Tree Genealogy9:43 AM

    Janice - I've never used AmericanAncestors, will have to check it out. I do have American roots prior to the American Revolution

    ReplyDelete
  8. Olive Tree Genealogy9:44 AM

    Jackie thanks for listing those French Canadian sites! I have Quebec ancestors but only prior to 1650s

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yvonne Demoskoff12:47 PM

    Lorine, my top 5 gene. sites depend on whom I'm researching, but for my French-Canadian ancestors, it's Ancestry.ca, Genealogie Quebec (Institut Drouin), PRDH, BMS2000 and Mes Aieux (Your Folks). Running a close 6 and 7 are LAC and FamilySearch :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Diane Scannell1:02 PM

    My top genealogy web sites are
    Rootsweb (I have a personal web page hosted here and love the transcribed records submitted by dedicated contributors), Ancestry, FamilySearch, GenealogyBank, and AmericanAncestors. There is also Find-A-Grave, FindMyPast, FreeBMD, GenesReunited, ScotlandsPeople, US (and World) Genweb Project, Newspapers.com, and of course, Olive Tree Genealogy.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Howard Swain2:27 PM

    Lorine - NEHGS (American Ancestors) has been increasingly moving into coverage of NY.
    See:
    http://newyorkancestors.org/
    and
    http://www.americanancestors.org/new-york/

    Also, they have online back issues of The American Genealogist (TAG) now up thru vol. 82. This alone is almost worth the cost of membership to me.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Amy6:04 PM

    My top five are Ancestry, FamilySearch, Steve Morse's pages, JewishGen.com, and Facebook. Facebook is great for finding living relatives.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dana Leeds9:07 PM

    I'm new to research in England and didn't know about "The British Newspaper Archive". Thanks for sharing that tip!

    ReplyDelete