Genealogy Web Site Rankings - 9/28/07

Once in awhile, I look for rankings of genealogy web sites and blogs. I found the Quantcast web site which was pretty easy to use. You just input the URL and it tells you the "Global Reach" and "US Reach" - defined as the number of unique visitors (not visits) per month worldwide and in the US. It also gives a ranking in Reach against all web sites. The site doesn't say when these measurements were taken.

To test this out, I found the Reach (some global, some US) and ranking (all web sites) for the following URLs (done on 28 September, so they may be different when you read this):

* http://www.legacy.com/ - 3,601,655, #405
* http://www.rootsweb.com/ - 2,668,656, #601
* http://www.ancestry.com/ - 2,296,830, #751
* http://www.genealogy.com/ - 1,038,527, #2,167
* http://www.familysearch.org/ - 766,539, #3,089

* http://www.archives.gov/ - 763,227, #3,105
* http://www.myheritage.com/ - 668,656, #3,602
* http://www.myfamily.com/ - 623,387, #3,891
* http://www.ancestorhunt.com/ - 473,450, #5,106
* http://www.vitalrec.com/ - 406,453, #5,786

* www.findagrave.com - 396,581, #5,900
* http://genealogy.about.com - 358,445, #6,487
* http://www.onegreatfamily.com/ - 313,100, #7,301
* http://www.accessgenealogy.com/ - 289,049, #7,802
* http://www.obitcentral.com/ - 281,624, #7,980

* http://www.interment.net/ - 279,556, #8,022
* http://www.usgennet.org/ - 264,903, #8,568
* http://www.genealogytoday.com/ - 256,698, #8,605
* http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/ - 254,176, #9,721
* http://www.cyndislist.com/ - 204,934, #10,296

* http://oa.newsbank.com/ - 186,884, #11,221
* http://www.footnote.com/ - 176,690, #11,655
* http://www.distantcousin.com - 168,988
* http://www.kindredkonnections.com/ - 168,125, #12,194
* http://www.familytreemaker.com - 160,693, #12,691

* http://www.cousinconnect.com - 157,697
* http://www.ellisisland.org/ - 155,930, #13,038
* http://www.deathindexes.com/ - 146,807, #13,772
* http://www.linkpendium.com/ - 96,634, #19,879
* http://www.heritagequestonline.com/ - 89,054, #21,326

* http://www.geni.com/ - 88,281, #21,484
* http://www.familytreedna.com/ - 81,247, #23,118
* http://www.usgenweb.org/ - 78,666, #23,796
* http://www.eogn.com/ - 62,034, #37,158
* http://www.gencircles.com - 58,417

* http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ - 52,082, #34,302
* http://www.newenglandancestors.org/ - 50,016, #35,572
* http://www.genealogybank.com/ - 48,520, #36,490
* http://www.geneasearch.com - 45,264
* http://www.familytreelegends.com - 43,528

* http://www.legacyfamilytree.com - 23,204
* http://www.worldgenweb.org - 18,777
* http://www.rootsmagic.com - 13,350
* http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org - 10,028

Unfortunately, Quantcast does not make a list by topic (e.g. genealogy) like http://www.alexa.com/ does. I haven't compared Quantcast with Alexa rankings, either.

These are mostly random selections by me - I'm sure I've left out many popular genealogy related sites. Tell me what "popular" site I've missed and I'll add it to the list.

My point in doing this is to ask you a question - are you visiting the web sites that can help you with your research? Are there sites on this list that you haven't checked out?

In reviewing the list, it seems to me that many people in genealogy-land are visiting web sites that are not particularly helpful - I won't name them, but you can check out the list above and find some. But maybe they aren't useful for me, but are useful for others!

UPDATED 9/30: I received one comment and several emails suggesting web sites, and I thought of a few more. I've integrated the additions into the list above.