Internet Genealogy Favorites

Cyndi’s List – www.cyndislist.com

An alphabetical list of genealogy sites on the Internet. Features 267,130+ links, categorized and cross-referenced, in over 180 categories. Another 9,520 uncategorized new links.
You can find all of the following sites on Cyndi’s List.

RootsWeb.com - www.rootsweb.com

Oldest & largest free genealogy site. Surname lists (1,225,931), mailing lists, World Connect (over 575 million individuals on searchable family-linked Gedcoms), Social Security Death Index (SSDI), archives of all e-mail message and mailing lists, county, state and world resources.

Ancestry – www.ancestry.com

$$ Subscription site – full version available at MRFHC (no fee)

(many city and county public libraries have access to the institution version)

For a membership fee you can search their database collection with well over 3.5 billion names. Has extensive collections including US Census, UK Census, WW1 Draftcards, Historical Newspapers, Passenger Lists, Obituary Collections, German & Canadian records.

USGenWeb - www.usgenweb.org

Volunteers providing Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. Includes ongoing US census and Tombstone projects.

WorldGen Web – www.worldgenweb.org

Goal to have every country in the world represented by an online website and hosted by researchers. Each country is divided into individual provinces, states, or counties.

Family Search – www.familysearch.org

Sponsored by the LDS church - Ancestral File, International Genealogical Index (IGI), Pedigree Resource File, 1880 US Census, 1881 Canadian and British Isle Census, Family History Library Catalogue, PAF down-loads, mailing lists, contribute and preserve your genealogy, order family history resources.

Record Search – Pilot - http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=0

A part of FamilySearchLabs. Thousands of volunteers around the world are helping to make more free records available online through the Indexing program. Search the name index and view the original record. US and world records – more records added monthly.

Research Wiki - https://wiki.familysearch.org

An online genealogy encyclopaedia. Search or browse by topic or location. Free family history research advice for the community, by the community. Registration and sign in required only if you want to contribute or edit an article.

Mesa Regional Family History Center - www.mesarfhc.org

Information on hours, location, calendar, specialty classes & workshops. Powerpoint training and specialty quick-starts are available online in English and Spanish.

Ellis Island Passengers – www.ellisislandrecords.org

Ellis Island Passenger arrival records of 17 million people who immigrated through the port of New York from 1892 – 1924.
(Use Stephen P. Morse Webpages - http://stephenmorse.com/ to access Ellis Island with different search options)

ProGenealogist – www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthb.htm

Links to databases and important tools for conducting searches within US records. Has links to an International page as well as an Irish page.

Death Indexes & Records – www.deathindexes.com

This is a directory of online death indexes listed by state and county. Included are death records, death notices & registers, obituaries, probate indexes, cemetery and burial records.

FreeBMD – http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/

An ongoing project to provide free access to Civil Registration index information for England and Wales. These are the birth, marriage and death records that began in July 1837. More then 177,332,847 distinct records. Updated about every six weeks.

Genealogy Links - www.linkpendium.com

A collection of useful genealogy links that is easy to use. Search by location or surname.

Search Engine – www.google.com

A great Internet search engine for genealogy.

Footnote.com – $$ - www.footnote.com/

(free at the Mesa Regional Family History Center)

The National Archives and Footnote.com are working as partners to bring access to selections of the vast holdings of the National Archives. Still growing - includes Revolutionary War Pensions, Civil War Pensions, Pennsylvania Archives, Naturalization records, FBI case files

U.S. National Archives Records Administration - www.archives.gov

Order Online - www.archives.gov/research/order/orderonline.html

· Eastern Cherokee Applications 1906-1909

· Federal Land Entry Files

· Immigration & Naturalization Records

· Federal Military Pension Files for the Revolutionary War to 1912 (before WW1)

· Compiled Military Service Records through the Philippine Insurrection (1775 – 1902)

Mailing Lists –

Most, but not all, are found through Roots Web. Mailing lists are interactive e-mail forums that are free for you to subscribe and participate in. You can ‘subscribe’ and ‘unsubscribe’ easily. Be part of a list for one hour or years – everyone receives everyone’s e-mails and can respond or just read and learn. They cover many topics: states, surnames, countries, counties, ethnic groups, religions, genealogy software, military etc.

E-Mail & Query Etiquette

Make sure your subject line is concise and reflects the information you are seeking: a surname, related surnames, county, states, country, parish, migration pattern, dates, specific subject. If you like to hit the ‘reply’ key so you don’t have to type in the address – be sure to change the subject to reflect your comments. Always be polite and reread your message before you send it to make sure it makes sense.

Denise Crawford, Mesa Regional Family History Center