Genealogy: Finding Your Ancestors Online: Essential Resources

Available through Cornell or a local public library or personal subscription Provides access to historical documents and photos, local narratives, oral histories, indexes and other resources in over 30,000 databases that span from the 1500s to the 2000s. The Library Edition of Ancestry.com has fewer personalized functions and options than the versions available to private subscribers. More detail about the differences

The largest collection of genealogical lists on the Web today. A good starting point for problems and challenges.

Now free. Invaluable resource for discovering articles in periodicals about local history and genealogy. Search by surname, but also consider searching on towns, events, churches, cemeteries, disasters, and local records. Produced by staff of the Allen County Public Library. Strongest on North America and United Kingdom, but global in scope. Use the "order copies" option to request PDFs of material for a reasonable fee from the Allen County Public Library, or get them through Interlibrary Loan at your own local public library.

Available through Cornell or a local public library
Includes Revolutionary War records, and Freedmen's Bank Records (Guide).

Information is volunteer-sourced and of uneven quality. .
Recommended: International Genealogical Index(IGI) index of birth and marriage registers from all over the world submitted by volunteers who transcribed information from the microfilms of original records collected by the FHS; Family History Library an online catalog. Microfilm can be borrowed through a local Family History Center.

Run by volunteers. Organized by county and state. Provides gateways to and email discussion lists for counties.

Find others working on your family to exchange information.

60 million records. Includes forums for discussion.