Genealogy Links Page
Our Top 30 Genealogy Links - Still growing!!
Top 30 genealogy links from around the web!
- Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com is one of the foremost names in Genealogy and Family History research. It is the largest family history site online, with over 4 billion names in worldwide historical records, family tree services, and genealogy resources, including research tips, how-to articles, message boards, subscription options, and technical support. A great way to locate your ancestry!
created: 10 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 13 Oct 2006
- Bureau of Land Management (BLM) General Land Office Records
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) site offers great information on historical land patents from 30 continental United States (excludes original 13 Colonies), east and west. Succeeding the General Land Office, the BLM inherited more than nine million land documents, which have been, or are in the process of being digitized. Visitors to the website can download a legal description of a homestead and an patent image—A great way to verify lineage or to place an ancestor in a specific place and time! With a legal land description, a researcher can order a copy of the land-entry case file from the National Archives. Certified copies available for purchase.
The BLM website, also, provides image access to Federal land conveyance records and more than two million Federal land title record (s) for Eastern Public Land States, issued between 1820 and 1908. It includes indexes to patents issued prior to 1908, for most western states, with various search featuresand file formats, i.e. TIFF, GIF, and PDF.
New to the site: Survey Plats-- the official survey documentation used when land title was transferred (via a Land Patent) from the Federal government to individuals. These critical historic documents can help in genealogical research locate the land referenced in a land patent's legal land description (i.e. Meridian, Township, Range, and Section/Block).
created: 11 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 12 Oct 2006
- Cyndi's List
Cyndi's List is a large categorized and cross-referenced directory of genealogy sites useful for genealogical research, with more than 262,000+ links, in over 180 categories. It has another 8500+ uncategorized new links in the works!
created: 10 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 13 Oct 2006
- DeadFred.com
DeadFred.com is a free, searchable, genealogy photo archive site boasting over 65,000 records of nearly 14,000 surnames. Its unlimited database is fully searchable by various and combined detailed criteria, including: given name, surname, date range, age range, locality, photographer, photo type and keyword. Users can search and post photos.
The site offers a Mystery Photos section of unidentified photos, as well as, testimonials from users successfully united with an old family member photo. DeadFred.com has discussion groups, a bulletin board, and a popular monthly e-newsletter.
created: 05 Dec 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 05 Dec 2006
- Ellis Island Passenger Lists
An online, searchable database, of over 22 million passenger names, covering roughly 70% of the immigrants processed through Ellis Island, between 1892 and 1924. It stands as a symbol of American immigration and the immigrant experience.
This free genealogy search engine and official Ellis Island website allows you to search passenger arrivals to New York. Use it to find your immigrant ancestor, arriving in the United States, through Ellis Island.
created: 12 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 12 Oct 2006
- FamilySearch
The FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service (www.FamilySearch.org) is a World Wide Web service sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to help people find and share family history information. One of the largest genealogical sites on the Web, FamilySearch has over 1 billion names in searchable databases and receives over 10 million hits per day, from over 50,000 visitors each day. It has over 1 million registered users and over 200,000 collaboration e-mail lists.
Its content: the Ancestral File, International Genealogical Index, Pedigree Resource File, 1880 U.S. Census, 1881 British Census, 1881 Canadian Census, Vital Records Index, Family History websites, Research Guides, a research guidance tool, a Family History Library section, Product Support, genealogy tools and products, What’s New, and a News section. FamilySearch offers a FREE download of it’s well-know Personal Ancestral File genealogy software.
created: 10 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 12 Oct 2006
- Find A Grave
Find A Grave contains listings of cemeteries and graves from all around the world. As of July 2006, visitors can search over 11 million famous and “not so famous” grave records, that have been submitted by Find A Grave contributors.
American cemeteries are organized by state and county; and, many cemetery records contain photographs of the cemeteries. Individual grave records may contain dates and places of birth and death, biographical information, cemetery and plot information, headstone photos, and contributor information. The site has a categorized message board forum, plus four types of searches: “fast grave,” cemetery, death, surname, and more!
created: 12 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 12 Oct 2006
- GenCircles
Registered users to GenCircles.com find sharing easy, as they submit their family histories, as GEDCOM files. The resulting 'Global Tree' index is flexible & easy to search. It’s a free site offering “smart matching,” surname clubs, and mailing list subscription, for the latest features and announcements. GEDCOM files are easily updated or deleted by the submitter.
created: 12 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 12 Oct 2006
- Genealogy.com
Genealogy.com is a great resource for getting started with genealogy. Free Genealogy Search for Family - 14-day free trial. Visit to discover and preserve your family's unique story. It boasts the featured product and 2006 Codie Award Winner, Family Tree Maker 16--the software that can do it all: create, find, build, share!
created: 10 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 12 Oct 2006
- ImmigrantShips.net
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG) references immigration information with an emphasis on passenger lists, ships, and emigrant databases. It is a great and growing online collective effort of over ½-million names, extracted from more than 5,000 ships. Over 500 Guild volunteers are dedicated to the task of making the search for our ancestors’ immigration easier, with the creation of digitized ships’ passenger lists.
More recent passenger lists can provide a wealth of information about an immigrant ancestor including name, age, sex, birthplace, marital status, citizenship, purpose of travel, literacy (can read/ write), race, last residence, nearest relative and relationship, physical characteristics, destination, ticket status, payment of passage, money in-hand, year previously in US, friend/relative by name and where they live, departure date & place, arrival date & port, and more! The site provides ancestral, immigration, naturalization, maritime, passenger, and ship resources, as well as, passenger route maps.
created: 04 Dec 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 04 Dec 2006
- My Family.com
MyFamily.com allows you to create your private family website. It’s quick and easy and great for keeping in touch with family and friends. Features include family history message center, calendar, photo album, chat, a family tree, and the ability to upload family trees.
In less than three minutes, you can create a private family website at MyFamily.com where you can share your family history. Build your family tree, catalogue your ancestral photos, and share your family heritage on your own password-protected website. Only family members you specify will be allowed access to your site.
created: 11 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 11 Oct 2006
- National Archives and Record Administration (NARA)
The National Archives (NARA) is the nations’ record keeper, of the Federal Government. It has a subscription to Ancestry Library and Heritage Quest, which have digitized many of NARA's holdings with genealogical interest, making them available online, with unlimited, free access, from any NARA facility, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and LDS family history centers and some public libraries nationwide. Some of the most useful records in NARA's holdings for genealogical research are:
- Census Records
- Military Records (i.e. enlistment, discharge & pension)
- Immigration Records (Ship Passenger Lists)
- Naturalization Records
- Land Records
created: 13 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 13 Oct 2006
- Obituary Daily Times (GEN-OBIT)
The Obituary Daily Times is a world-wide, daily index of published obituaries. It is distributed FREELY, often twice a day by email, and usually has over 2500 entries a day. As of 14 Oct 2006, this searchable database has 11,750+ million entries.The Obituary Daily Times mailing list is intended mostly—though not exclusively—for Family Historians, genealogists, researchers and compilers. The site does not have the actual obituaries, but regular contributors (volunteers) may request a particular copy from each other. For others, GEN-OBIT is an easy way to find a publication date of an obit. You can then refer to the newspaper to get a copy of it (at a public library or directly from the newspaper).
created: 13 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 13 Oct 2006
- Roots Web
The Internet's oldest and largest FREE genealogical community. An award winning genealogical resource with searchable databases, free Web space, and an extensive series of articles covering a variety of topics related to genealogy. It’s a great starting point for checking user contributed rootsweb databases and contains a complete index to RootsWeb's 29,955 genealogy mailing lists!
created: 10 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 11 Oct 2006
- USGenWeb
The USGenWeb Project consists of a group of volunteers working together to provide Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. The Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free access for everyone. Organization is by county and state, and this website provides you with links to all 50 United States’ websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties.
USGenWeb sponsors important, on-going special projects, including: Archives, Tombstone, Family Group Sheet, African-American Griots, Genealogical Events, Lineage, and the Kidz Project. Archive sub-projects include such topics as: USGW Digital Map Library, Pension, Online Census, Church Records, Marriage Records, Archives Newsletter, Obituary, and Special Collections.
Also, included in its layout are resources for postings of unknown county queries, family reunion bulletin boards, state histories, and maps showing the changing county boundaries, among others. Many states also have ongoing projects as diverse as the transcription of Civil War regiments or the reuniting of families with lost photos, bibles, etc.
created: 10 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 12 Oct 2006
- Western States Marriage Record Index - New!!
This all-time favorite, for marriage record research, is, without question, the most comprehensive index of marriage records for the western United States. For more than two decades, the BYU-Idaho (formerly known as Ricks College) Arthur Porter Special Collections area in Rexburg, Idaho has been extracting early marriage records from counties in the western part of the United States.
Virtually all of the pre-1900 marriages are included in the index for Arizona, Idaho and Nevada. Many counties for those same states have been extracted into the 1930's and some, much later. A significant number of marriages from selected counties in California, western Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Utah, eastern Washington, and Wyoming are also included. For more details, see "List of Counties by State". As of October 11, 2006, this file contains over 429,662 marriage records with additional entries being added nearly every working day.
The index may not be comprehensive for the time period and/or locality described. Each entry may contain: names of bride and groom, their residency, marriage date and place, county and state where marriage is recorded, and miscellaneous comments. As is the case for all indexes, it is recommended that the original marriage record be reviewed for additional information not extracted and for transcription accuracy.
created: 11 Oct 2006 by bonweesta ::: updated: 14 Oct 2006
