Selected Family History Databases on the Internet
© copyright 2002-2005
updated 10 April 2005
Overview
With the explosion of genealogical information
available on the Internet, it has become increasingly difficult to determine
the best sites to search for your ancestral information. During this class
we will look at different types of sites, spending most of our time on those with
the most extensive information.
- Commercial and free sites
- Extracted information
- books (histories, resource information, etc.)
- obituaries
- directories (phone, Polk, etc)
- indexes
- Contributed Information (via GEDCOM or others formats)
- GEDCOM files
- direct contribution of databases
- on-line data entry
- Primary Source Information in images
- microfilm (like census pages)
Ancestry.com,
rootsweb.com and other sites.
- original documents (like marriage licenses)
- Personal Sites
- Published Databases
Tens of thousands are on line.
- Family Histories
- Genealogical Data Collections
Family or Surname or Record Type oriented
- These sites are best found with the Major Internet Search Engines:
Google,
AltaVista,
FastSearch, etc.
- Web sites with info also available on CDs
FamilySearch.org
has made some Vital Records, Census and other published CDs searchable
online. The index to the Pedigree Resource File CD is online.
Other sites only allow limited searching to induce you to
purchase.
- Sites with individuals that do free lookups of specific information
- Ancestral Findings Free Genealogy Lookups
-
http://www.freegenealogylookups.com/
- FHC Angel Lookup Requests
-
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~famsearch/LDS/index.html
- Many USGenWeb County pages have free lookups (such as Elkhart County, Indiana)
-
http://www.usgenweb.com/
- Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness
-
http://www.raogk.org/
- The better Internet sites have most types of information available
- On your first visit get to know the site.
- Spend 15 to 20 minutes just looking around.
- Read or skim the FAQ and/or news area and/or site map.
- Learn different ways of searching at the site.
- Look for information on the scope of information made available.
- Some sites have newsletters to keep you updated.
- Genealogy Sites Ranked by Nielson Ratings "largest unique audience" (Oct 2000)
- Ancestry.com
- RootsWeb.com
- Genealogy.com
- Familytreemaker.com
- FamilyHistory.com
- FamilySearch.org
- CyndisList.com
- Genealogy.org
- Gendex.com (discontinued in 2004)
- Surnameweb.com
- GEDCOM supported databases are the largest.
- Ancestral Archive Index at Kindred Konnections
-
http://www.kindredkonnections.com/ancestry.html
- AncestralFile at LDS Church
-
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=af/search_AF.asp
- Ancestry World Tree at Ancestry/My Family
-
http://ancestry.com/search/rectype/usersub/worldtree/main.htm
- GenServ by Cliff Manis
- http://www.genserv.com/
- Global Tree at GenCircles.com
-
http://www.gencircles.com/globaltree/
- One Great Family
- http://www.onegreatfamily.com
- Pedigree Resource File by LDS Church
-
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=prf/search_PRF.asp
- World Connect Project at RootsWeb
-
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
- World Family Tree by Family Tree Maker/Broderbund
-
http://www.familytreemaker.com/wfttop.html
Searchable Databases of Contributed GEDCOMs
updated 9 Jan 2005 Copyright: Gerhard Ruf, 2002-2005
Return to list of classes page.
Return to Gerhard and Deon's Home Page.
This page was last updated 10 Apr 05.
It has been accessed times since 6 Feb 01.