Saturday, October 17, 2020

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Top 10 Free 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) Last week we defined our top 5 or 10 fee-based genealogy websites.  This week, let's define our Top 10 Free Genealogy Websites!

2)  List your Top 10 (or 20 if you want!) FREE based genealogy sites, and a short reason for listing them.

3)  Share your 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 my Top 10:

1. FamilySearch (https://FamilySearch.org) - Owned by LDS Church
2. Find A Grave (www.FindAGrave.com) -Owned by Ancestry.com
  • Over 190 Million Memorials, Many With Gravestone Photos
  • Some With Vital Record Information, Biographies or Obituaries
  • Has a Primitive Search Engine.  Ancestry Has Better Search Engine.
  • Search by Name, Location, Birth/Death Years, With a Specific Cemetery
  • Registered Volunteers Can Create Memorials, Upload Photos, etc.
  • Registered Users Can Request Photos
  • Has a Mobile App
3. Google (www.google.com)
4. Chronicling America ( http://ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov ) - Library of Congress
  • Directory of All U.S. Newspapers Published 1690-Present
  • Over 2,000 Newspaper Titles Digitized, 1789-1963: Over 17 Million Pages Digitized
  • Not All Issues of Every Newspaper
  • Advanced Search Engine Permits: Select by State; Select Specific Newspaper; Select Year or Date Range
5 . WikiTree (Collaborative Tree): http://www.wikitree.com/ - Volunteer Effort
  • Over 25 million User-created Profiles
  • Users Can Add, Edit, or Merge Profiles with Events, Notes, Sources, Media, etc.
  • Profiles are Managed by Users and Curators 
6. Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com)
7. Family Tree Webinars: https://familytreewebinars.com/ - Owned by MyHeritage.com
  • 90-Minute Webinars with Noted Genealogists. Need to Register for Each.
  • Free to View Live or For One Week After Live Presentation
  • $50 Yearly Subscription for Archived Webinars (with Handouts)
  • Over 1,400 Webinars in Archive.
8. Cyndi's List (www.CyndisList.com) -- Volunteer, FREE Genealogy Links Website
  • Over 220 Categories; Each has Sub-Categories and Related Categories
  • Over 335,000 Links; Constantly Updated
  • Readers can Submit a New Link, and Report a Broken Link
9. RootsWeb (https://www.rootsweb.com/) - Owned by Ancestry.com
10. U.S. GenWeb ( www.USGenWeb.org )
  • FREE Genealogy Information by Many Volunteers
  • Organized by States and Counties
  • Information may be maps, text, lists, indexes, links
  • Has U.S. GenWeb Archives ( https://usgwarchives.net/ )
The next 10 FREE Genealogy Websites:

11. Internet Archive: www.Archive.org - digitized books and records

12. U.S. National Archives (NARA): www.Archives.gov

13.  Evidence Explained:  https://evidenceexplained.com/


15. U.S. BLM General Land Office: https://www.glorecords.blm.gov/

16. Joe Beine's Death Indexes: www.DeathIndexes.com and more sites!

17. Olive Tree Genealogy: http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/

18. Steve Morse One-Step Website: https://stevemorse.org/

19.  Billion Graves:  https://billiongraves.com/ - more cemetery records

20.  The Family History Guide: https://www.thefhguide.com/

One more:

21.  Facebook:  https://www.Facebook.com - has many family, company and society pages and groups - need to like Pages and join Groups.

I have many more sites on my Genealogy Links page - https://www.geneamusings.com/p/randys-genealogy-links.html

These are the sites that I use to find genealogy records, genealogy community, and learn about genealogy.

I did not add links to genealogical or historical societies, software companies, genealogy blogs, YouTube channels, etc.  

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

==============================================


Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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8 comments:

Lois Willis said...

Here's mine
https://loiswillis.blog/2020/10/18/sunday-afternoon-genealogy-fun-your-top-10-free-genealogy-sites/

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

Here are my 10 (actually 12). https://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2020/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-top.html

Janice M. Sellers said...

Here are my 10 (actually 12 also!):

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

Seeds to Tree said...

So many to chose. Here are mine:
1. familysearch - probably my favorite of all, so many records!
2. My Local library - From the comfort of my home I can research using newspapers.com, genealogybank, ancestry (library edition thus overseas records) fold3, and many more. Daily go-to.
3. theancestorhunt - listing of free newspapers in little known places, from all over the world
4. facebook - good overseas information including volunteers who help translate
5. findagrave - many comments already written that I agree with
6. fultonhistory - aka old fulton postcards - many NY newspapers where I've broken down brick walls
7. cyndislist - new place? where do you find records? here!
8. google - I google "Google Germany" on German records to find much more info especially about histories of small towns
9. wikipedia - I'm doing alot of background historical research, so I've been depending on the wiki for info
10. Conferencekeepers - I look weekly for interesting online classes to improve my research and writing.

Marian B. Wood said...

I've added the excellent website The Ancestor Hunt (theancestorhunt.com) to my list of "free or fee" genealogy sites. Plus sometimes it really does pay to pay for a record. Here's my post and thanks for the challenge! https://climbingmyfamilytree.blogspot.com/2020/10/free-genealogy-websites-but-sometimes.html

Linda Stufflebean said...

Here's my link, a little late. I found a BSO to chase on a collateral line that has kept me busy this morning. :) https://emptybranchesonthefamilytree.com/2020/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-113/

M. Diane Rogers said...

Here is my Top Ten list: https://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-my-10-top.html

Tess said...

A bit late to the party, but here's my list :)

https://writingmypast.wordpress.com/2020/10/22/genealogy-fun-favourite-free-resources/