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July 26, 2014

A Baker's Dozen of Favorite Genealogy Websites

A Baker's Dozen of Favorite Genealogy Websites
In 2012 I listed my personal favorites of Top 10 Genealogy websites. I've revised that list and created a baker's dozen of my most-used genealogy websites, in categories for Canadian, American and International research. 

Oh yeah, and there's an "Everything Category" too. There are many many other fantastic websites out there but I had to have a cut-off number so I chose the traditional "Baker's Dozen".

Everything Category

These websites have genealogy records for world-wide research

* Ancestry.com - ($) pay site but my absolute #1. I visit several times daily in my search for Canadian, American and English ancestors.

* FamilySearch - (free) Lots of images and indexes world-wide. I probably only frequent it once a week. I confess that I find the search function not as friendly as it once was. I use it for my American and English ancestry

American Genealogy Research

* Olive Tree Genealogy (free) Yes I know it's my site. But it is my first stop for ships' passenger lists to USA,  New Netherland research and New York records (births, marriages, naturalizations, almshouse, orphans etc.) It's eclectic and has a mix of genealogy records.

* NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) (free) NARA has lots of goodies if you take the time to look around the site

* Fold3 - ($) pay site- So many military records you could get lost for a week!

Canadian Genealogy Research

* Library & Archives Canada (free) - dozens of free online databases for anyone with ancestors who lived in Canada. I use this site at least once a month.

* Olive Tree Genealogy (free) Yes I know I listed it in my American research category. But I  use it as my first stop to find ships' passenger lists to Canada and for Loyalist and land records in Ontario.

* The Ancestor Hunt (free) I use Kenneth R. Marks'  blog for listings of online Canadian Newspapers. They aren't always easy to find and this blog has a great listing of links

International Genealogy Research

* Free BMD - (free) Civil Registration Indexes. My mother's ancestry is solidly English so I use this site a lot (several times a month) to find ancestors in the index to Births, Deaths and Marriages after 1837.

* The British Newspaper Archive ($) I love this site for finding newspaper articles about my English ancestors. I use it about twice a month.

* The National Archives UK (free) Lots of online documents and very reasonably priced documents you can download instantly. I use this monthly for my English ancestors.

* Trove. (free) Another newspaper site (and more!) for Australia. I have found many newspaper records here for my Australian and English ancestors.

* Cora Web (free) If I want to know anything about ships passenger lists to Australia I head to Cora's site. I don't go that often but I know it's there when I need it.

Since I listed my own site twice, I am adding one more site to complete my Baker's Dozen. That is the wonderfully organized and huge list of links to every resource imaginable on Cyndi's List



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, love these lists with favorites. It is nice your read your view on genealogy useful sites. Totally awesome you list your site too. Fran @travelgenee

Barbwire said...

Fold3 should be listed as a ($) site. I created a free membership, then found that I could view a very limited amount without being a premium member. It seemed everything I searched and found on one of my ancestors required the premium membership. I was very disappointed. But thank you for the list. I did find some interesting tidbits in a few of the other free sites.

Alex Daw said...

Thanks for these tips!

GeniAus said...

Great list Lorine. So thrilled you included our national treasure: Trove.

Michael F Harris said...

I agree that Family Search is not as easy to use as it was.