Presentation given on March 17, 2012. Presentation rounds up and examines the best genealogy websites of 2012 available for researchers to use. List includes paid and free websites.
2. Outline
Brief Introduction
“The Usual Suspects”
“By Record Type” – e.g. BMDs
“Crossing the Pond” – eg. English
“Other Noteworthy Research
Tools”
3. Why do you need such a list?
Not all genealogy websites are the same
Some require a paid subscription (per view or
monthly) or are free; some provide only
images, an index (points you to the original
source), etc.; some are created by
libraries/archives/genealogical societies while
others are done by volunteers
List of online resources is not meant to
replace “traditional” formats like books &
microfilm. Rather the list is meant to be used
“in addition to”
List features both paid $ and free web
resources
4. Criteria
Offers the most authoritative and trustworthy
websites to use for genealogy
How did I select the best genealogy websites
for you to use?
Annual “Best of” featured on the Family
Tree website: http://
www.familytreemagazine.com/
Magazines such as Internet Genealogy &
Family Chronicle
Various genealogy blogs
Tips from other genealogists
Personal experience helping patrons
5. “The Usual Suspects”
These websites consistently top the “Best
of the Best” online resources to use:
Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com or
http://www.ancestry.ca) - $ (ALE is free
through RPL – Central Library only!)
Canadian Genealogy Centre (Library&
Archives Canada; http://www.genealogy.gc.ca
/) – FREE
FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org) –
FREE
Cyndi’s List (http://www.cyndislist.com/) –
FREE
6. Tip # 1 – Canadian Genealogy Centre
Microfilm Digitization Page
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-di
7. Tip #2 – FamilySearch.org
Browse by Location Feature
9. “By Record Type” – continued
Census Records
Automated Genealogy (Canada; http://
www.automatedgenealogy.com) - FREE
10. Tip # 3 - “One to Keep An Eye Out For…”
National Archives and Records Administration’s
(NARA) 1940 website - will be launching April 2,
2012 (http://1940census.archives.gov/) - FREE
11. “By Record Type” – continued
Cemetery Records
SGS Burial Index (http://
www.saskgenealogy.com/databases/indexes.a
)-$
Canada’s GenWeb Cemetery Project (
http://cemetery.canadagenweb.org/search.html
) - FREE
Deceased Online (UK; http://
www.deceasedonline.com) – $
Interment.Net (Global;
http://www.interment.net/) - FREE
12. “By Record Type” - continued
Find A Grave (Global; http://www.findagrave.com
) - FREE
13. “By Record Type” – continued
City Directories
Peel’s Prairie Provinces (AB, MB & Saskatoon;
http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/henderson.html)
- FREE
British Columbia’s City Directories, 1860-1940
(http://www.vpl.ca/bccd/index.php) - FREE
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du
Québec (BAnQ) (Quebec;
http://www.banq.qc.ca/collections/collection_nume
) - FREE
14. City Directories - continued
Toronto City Directories 1833-1899 (
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/digital-archive/
) - FREE
Distant Cousins (US; http://distantcousin.com
/Directories) - FREE
Historical Directories of UK (http://
historicaldirectories.org/hd/) – FREE
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
(PRONI) (
http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archive
) - FREE
15. “By Record Type” – continued
Immigration & Passenger Lists
Ellis Island (New York, US; http://
www.ellisisland.org/) - FREE
Castle Garden (New York, US; http://
www.castlegarden.org) - FREE
Bremen Passenger Lists, 1920-1939 (Germany;
http://
db.genealogy.net/maus/gate/index_en.html) –
FREE
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG)
(Global; http://www.immigrantships.net/) - FREE
The Ships List (Global; http://
www.theshipslist.com/) – FREE
Ship Index (Global; http://www.shipindex.org/) -
$
17. “By Record Type” – continued
Local/Family/General Histories
Heritage Quest - $ (FREE through RPL –
Central Library only!)
Our Roots (Western Canada; http://
ourroots.ca) - FREE
Canadiana (http://www.canadiana.ca/en/home
) - FREE
Google Books (http://books.google.com/) -
FREE
Internet Archives (http://archives.org) - FREE
Family Histories Archives (
http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc) – FREE
18. “By Record Type” – continued
Maps
Canadian County Atlases (Ontario; http://
digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas) - FREE
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
Online (global;
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/tgn)
- FREE
Cassini Maps (UK; http://www.cassinimaps.co.uk)
- FREE
Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection (global;
http://lib.utexas.edu/maps) – FREE
David Rumsey (global; http://
www.davidrumsey.com/) – FREE
19. Tip # 5 – Really Cool Map!!!
Atlas of the German Empire by Ludwig
Ravenstein (Europe; http://
library.wisc.edu/etext/ravenstein) – FREE
20. “By Record Type” – continued
Military Records
Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial (
http://www.svwm.ca) – FREE
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
(British Commonwealth; http://www.cwgc.org/)
- FREE
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System (US;
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/) - FREE
National Archives & Records Administration:
Military Resources (US;
http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/m
) - FREE
21. Tip # 6 – War of 1812 Ancestors
Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/) - $ except for
War of 1812 Pension Files!!!
22. “By Record Type” – continued
Newspapers
Google News (US & Canada;
http://news.google.com) - FREE
Chronicling America (US;
http://www.loc.gov/chronicling america/) - FREE
British Newspapers, 1800-1900 (
http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs) - $
International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON)
(global; http://icon.crl.edu/digitization.htm) - FREE
Newspaper Abstracts (http://
www.newspaperabstracts.com/) - FREE
23. “Crossing the Pond”
English Genealogy
FindMyPast (http://www.findmypast.co.uk/) - $
(available through SGS)
British Origins (http://www.britishorigins.com)
–$
Genuki (http://genuki.org.uk) – FREE
London Lives 1690-1900 (
http://www.londonlives.org) - FREE
24. “Crossing the Pond – continued”
Scottish Genealogy
Scotland’s People (
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) - $
25. “Crossing the Pond – continued”
Irish Genealogy
The National Archives of Ireland (
http://nationalarchives.ie) – FREE
Ireland Gen Web (http://irelandgenweb.com) –
FREE
Irish Family History Foundation (
http://www.irish-roots.ie/) – $
26. “Crossing the Pond – continued”
Scandinavian Genealogy
Digital Archives of Norway (http://arkivverket.no
/eng/Digital-Archives) – FREE
Swedish National Archives (http://www.svar.ra.se
) – FREE
Arkivdigital (Sweden; http://www.arkivdigital.net)
–$
Finnish Family History Association (FFHA) (http://
www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/index_eng.htm) – FREE
Danish Demographic Database (
http://www.ddd.dda.dk) - FREE
27. “Crossing the Pond – continued”
Eastern European Genealogy
HalGal (Western Ukraine & Galicia;
http://www.halgal.com) – FREE
EastEuropeGenWeb (
http://www.rootsweb.com/~easeurgw) – FREE
Federation of East European Family History
Societies (http://feefhs.org) – FREE
PolishRoots (http://www.polishroots.org/) -
FREE
28. “Crossing the Pond – continued”
Western European Genealogy
German Roots (Germany; http://
www.germanroots.com/) – FREE
The German Genealogy Network (http://
www.genealogienetz.de/genealogy.html) -
FREE
GeneaNet (France; http://www.geneanet.org/)
– FREE
Genelias (Holland;
http://www.genlias.nl/en/page0.jsp) – $
Italian Heritage and Home Page (Italy; http://
www.daddezio.com/) - FREE
31. “Other Noteworthy Research Tools”
Staying Up-to Date
Prairie History Blog (
http://www.reginalibrary.ca/prairiehistoryblog/) -
FREE
Dick’s Eastman’s Newsletter (
http://blog.eogn.com/) – FREE
Ancestry Insider (
http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/) - FREE
Genealogy Blog Finder (
http://blogfinder.genealogue.com/) - FREE
32. Tip #9 – online genealogy articles
Hobbies and Craft Reference Center (
http://www.reginalibrary.ca/databases/db_hobbies.ht
) – FREE w/ Regina Public Library Card
Full text of Family Chronicle (2009-2012) and
Internet Genealogy (2009-2012)
Notas del editor
**Ongoing project for LAC to digitize its microfilm & microfiche collection; often new records sets such as school files can be found; IMAGES only – no nominal index
Free BMD – transcribed index books for civil registration for England & Wales; spans the period from 1837-1983 DeathIndexes – directory of links to websites that offer online death indexes listed by state & county
Ellis Island – list of immigrants who arrived in New York between 1892 to 1924 Castle Garden – New York’s first immigrant receiving station in 1855 but the records go back to 1830 and stretch till 1892 Bremen Passenger Lists – Bremen was one of the most important ports of departure for Europeans; however many of Bremen’s records have now been lost so don’t expect to see any earlier years than 1920;
Swiss Refugee Database: contains the names of 25, 000+ individuals who fled to neutral Switzerland during WWII. Info about each individual includes name, date of birth & nationality (day-month-year) **note: Site is in French!!!
Atlas of the German Empire by Ludwig Ravenstein – map was printed in 1883; The atlas helps in tracing the roots of families with origins in any part of the German empire from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Besides Germany, the maps of this atlas also cover the bordering portions of present-day Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, and Switzerland.
Scotland’s People - The 1911 census joins earlier enumerations from 1841 to 1901, parish records and statutory registers; you can start searching for about $11. Sections on wills and testaments (1513 to 1901) and coats of arms (1672 to 1907) are free.
Digital Archives of Norway – offers census and parish records; the place to begin your Norwegian genealogy research; The 1910 Norwegian census is now available at this record-packed site from the National Archives of Norway, joining the enumerations from 1801, 1865, 1875 and 1900 Swedish National Archives – offers the 1880, 1890 & 1900 census records Arkividigital – nearly complete collection of Swedish parish records Finnish Family History Association – images of original church records (communion books) Danish Demographic Database – “Emigrants” section offers searchable list of Danes who left Denamkr from 1869 to 1908; site also offers census records - Here you can search nearly 13 million census records and 400,000 emigration records, 1868 to 1908, all without spending a krone.
HalGal - Genealogy of Halychyna/Eastern Galicia; starting point for anyone doing genealogical research in Western Ukraine/Eastern Galicia EastEuropeGenWeb – free online data repository for queries, family histories & source records Federation of East European Family History Societies – organized in 1992; website contains a resource directory with links to organizations, databases & an extensive online map library (free to view) PolishRoots – site offers info from 16 th century up to the later 20 th century; offers maps, history, immigration & other useful info
German Roots – Make sure to check out the “Emigration & Immigration Records” section where a researcher can expect to find extensive lists & explanations of German departure records as well as US arrival records of immigrants The German Genealogy Network – click on the “Regional” link to find descriptions of your ancestor’s German state of origin; similar to Genuki (lists of resources) GeneaNet - Over 2 million user-contributed civil and parish records are available online through the French site GeneaNet.org, plus subscription-based access to additional records, including civil and parish registers, digitized books and additional French genealogy sources. Genelias –collaborative efforts of a number of archives in the Netherlands; project aim to index all the open civil registers (post 1811); searching is free while copies can be ordered for a fee Italian Heritage and Home Page – good “jumping off” point for Italian genealogy research, including a name translator, a list of Italian immigrants and links to Italian genealogical societies