Saturday, October 10, 2020

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Top 5 or 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

 It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!



Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Ken McKinlay posted My Top 10 Fee-based Genealogy Sites this past week, so I've made it the challenge this week (thanks to Linda Stufflebean for the suggestion!).

2)  List your Top 5 or 10 top fee-based genealogy sites, and a short reason for listing them.

3)  Share you list on your own blog, in a comment on this post, or on Facebook.  Please leave a link to your list wherever it is.

Here's mine:

1)  Ancestry.com -- it has the most record collections, the most complex search system, the most record hints, etc.  I do a lot of my record finding there.  I'm in it every day.

2)  AmericanAncestors.org -- I have so many New England ancestral families and AA has so many records that other sites don't have.  This is my go-to site for probate records in estate file form, for many vital records, etc.  I'm in it every week at least.

3)  FamilyTreeWebinars.com -- this is my favorite education site, with several recorded webinars every week and a library of about 1,400 webinars.  Amazing breadth her.  I'm in it every week.

4)  MyHeritage.com -- it has many collections, and some are unique to MyHeritage.  The record hints are more accurate than any other site.  I love the search by source for people in my MyHeritage tree.  I'm in it several times a week.

5)  Newspapers.com -- the newspaper collections are wonderful, but the OCR indexing leaves something to be desired.  I'm in this site several times a week, often as a result of a Hint on Ancestry.  

6)  Findmypast.com -- it also has many collections, and some are unique to Findmypast.  I have many English (but no Irish, Scots or Welsh!) ancestral families so the breadth here is very useful.   I wish it had more from records Wiltshire and Somerset, though.  I use the NewspaperArchive and PERSI links occasionally.  I'm in this site several times a week.

7)  GenealogyBank.com -- this newspaper site (plus other useful collections) is excellent, and includes the San Diego papers.  I'm in this site at least once a week.

8)  Geni.com -- this collaborative family tree can be very useful for finding one-name study people, for other researchers with my ancestors, and for relationships with famous people.  I'm in it at least once a week.

9)  Fold3.com -- this site is my go-to site for military records, and it used to be the only site with indexed city directories and big city newspapers.  I'm in this site several times a month.

10)  FamilyTreeDNA.com (I count this as fee-based because I had to pay to use it) -- this DNA site is excellent, and the family trees can help me find distant cousins and most recent common ancestors.

That's my ten.  I don't use Archives.com or VitalSearch.com; I do use 23andMe.com but they don't have match's trees; I don't have a GEDmatch Tier 1 subscription; I do have a Genetic Affairs monthly subscription which was very helpful for DNA clusters before Ancestry canceled it;  I do have Virtual Genealogical Society and DNA Central subscriptions; I don't subscribe to ScotlandsPeople or The Genealogist or any Irish fee site; I don't have any other subscriptions to other fee-based sites to my knowledge.  I didn't consider software programs, genealogical or historical societies (except for NEHGS/AmericanAncestors) subscriptions.  

I know I've missed or forgotten about some websites - I look forward to exploring some that others comment on.

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Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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8 comments:

Lois Willis said...

Here's mine:
https://loiswillis.blog/2020/10/11/sunday-afternoon-genealogy-fun-your-top-5-or-10-fee-based-genealogy-sites/

Janice M. Sellers said...

I kept it to a Top 5.

http://www.ancestraldiscoveries.com/2020/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-top-5.html

Trevor Rix said...

Images of Wiltshire and Somerset parish registers of baptisms marriages and burials are on Ancestry. Excellent resources.

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here is my list: https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2020/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-112/

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Was out visiting our daughter yesterday, so am writing an early Sunday morning post.

https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2020/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-top-5.html

Cassmob (Pauleen) said...

Inspired by your topic even though we're long past Saturday. Thanks Randy

https://cassmobfamilyhistory.com/2020/10/14/my-current-top-5-favourite-family-history-sites/

D. Taylor said...

Thank you for encouraging me to consider my top fee-based genealogy websites. Here are mine:

http://dontaylorgenealogy.com/2020/10/my-top-10-fee-based-genealogy-websites.html/

Ken McKinlay said...

I guess I sort of started the ball rolling with my Top 10 Fee-Based Genealogy sites which you mentioned in one of your previous posts. So here is my Top 10+ Free Genealogy sites:

https://familytreeknots.blogspot.com/2020/10/my-top-10-free-genealogy-sites.html