Research Aids

The list below contains only free sources.
Updated August 25, 2024.

General

• FamilySearch Collections List 
• FamilySearch Research Wiki 
• FamilySearch 
• FindaGrave 
• Interment.com - Cemetery Records Online
  
• Rootsweb 
• Linkpendium 
• Cyndi's List 
• U.S. GenWeb Project 
• Steve Morse's OneStep Searches 
• Randy Major's Ancestor Search (easy, deep, focused) 
• Online Searchable Death indexes
• LDS Genealogy (not to be confused with FamilySearch)
• Sorted By Name
• Relative Finder 
• Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources
• Measuring America:  The Decennial Censuses from 1790 to 2000.  Questions on each census and instruction to census takers.
• WorldGenWeb Project
• Online Searchable Death Indexes (https://www.deathindexes.com/).  This is not a place to search but a list by state of collections to search.
• Interment.net  (various cemeteries)
• Obit Magnet  If you have a name and a date, searches newspapers at Google Books, Newspapers.com, Newspaper Archive, and Chronicling America
• 25 Records to Research Your Civil War Ancestors - This is a blog post listing 25 sources to search and includes a podcast.
  
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Charts, Forms, and Research Aids

• Ancestry Genealogy Toolkit
• Census Forms at Ancestry (for transcribing both U.S. and U.K. censuses)
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Libraries, Portals, Genealogy Books, and Online Collections

• Archives Portal Europe (Lists and links to archives in Europe)
• ArchiveGrid (Lists and links to archives in the U.S.) 
• WorldCat 
• Digital Public Library of America 
• Google Books
• Internet Archive 
• Internet Archive Genealogy 
• Internet Archive Books
• Wayback Machine from Internet Archive 
• Midwest Genealogy Center at the Mid-Continent Public Library
• National Union Catalog, Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
• PERSI (Periodical Source Index) at Allen County Public Library
• Allen County Public Library Youtube Videos
• The Newberry Library, Genealogy and Family History
  
• Project Gutenburg
• Free Genealogy Books at MyHeritage
• FamilySearch Digital Library
• Hathi Trust Digital Library
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)  (Find the legacy catalog here until March, 2023.) 
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Immigration

• Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island
• Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
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The Odd, the Unusual, the Miscellaneous that Won't Help You Find an Ancestor But Might Help Explain Some Aspect of His Life

• Old Disease Names Frequently Found on Death Certificates
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Maps

• Old Maps Online
• United States Digital Map Library 
• USGU Historical Topographic Map Explorer 
• Historic Map Works Earth Basic (free) from Historic Map Works
• Randy Majors's Historical U.S. County Boundary Maps
• Atlas of Historical County Boundaries from The Newberry Library  
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps at Library of Congress
• David Rumsey Map Collection
• HistoryPin (photos associated with maps)
  
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Newspapers and Books of Their Times

• Elephind
• Harper's Civil War Issues 
• Google Newspapers 
• Chronicling America, Newspapers
  
• Webster's 1828 Dictionary 
• Genealogy Book Links 
• Old Fulton History (newspapers primarily from New York)
• Life Magazine Archives
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 About Earlier Times and Places

• Old English Occupations 
• List of Some Early Occupations
• Inflation Calculator 
• Webster's 1828 Dictionary 
• American Memory at the Library of Congress 
• HEARTH:  Home Economics Archive:  Research, Tradition, History 
• Harper's Civil War Issues
• Old and Interesting
• MeasuringWorth 1774-present
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Image Resources

• Library of Congress Photo Albums at Flickr 
• U. S. National Archives Photo Albums at Flickr 
• PhotoPin 
• Penny Postcards
• PhotoTree
  

Learning to Become a Better Family Historian / Genealogist

• Learning Center at FamilySearch 
• Learning Center at Ancestry.com 
• Historic Pathways, Elizabeth Shown Mills 
• BCG Skillbuilding 
• BCG Work Samples 
• NGS Genealogical Standards and Guidelines 
• The Source:  A Guidebook to American Genealogy
• BYU Free Online Courses
• National Genealogical Society Complimentary Magazine Articles
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Diaries of the Past

• A Hundred Years Ago 
• World War II London Blitz Diaries, 1939-1945 
• May Hill's World War II Diaries, Seventy Years On 
• Diary of Adelia Thomas, 1861-1862
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