Free Genealogy Resources

4 Events That Changed Our Ancestors’ Lives Forever, and the Records They Left Behind

By Tony Bandy When it comes to history and genealogy, the two topics can never be separate. Our ancestors’ daily lives, family connections, and records were influenced by events in history that they could not control – and the aftermath of these historic events often brought about quite a change for those affected. Let’s take …

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More Than 100,000 Free Genealogy Records Can Now Be Found on Internet Archive

No matter how experienced of a genealogist you are you’ve no doubt discovered that one of the most valuable resources available to you are digital libraries. Not so long ago, in order to access these family history records, one had to travel to the specific places where those documents were stored. Now, with digital libraries, there is a treasure trove of resources available from wherever you are.

Of course what is available through digital libraries is limited by how fast those historical documents are being digitized and uploaded. And one of the leaders in digitizing the world’s archives and providing free access to the resulting library is Internet Archive.

Internet Archive has made finding family history records simple by providing a specific portal dedicated to genealogy. At the time of writing, this free resource contained 129,580 items of valuable genealogical information, and it is continually growing. Better yet, the available documents are taken from a wide array of sources, including texts uploaded from places such as Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, the Boston Public Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Leo Baeck Institute Archives of German-speaking Jewry and many more.

From Pension Applications to Bounty Warrants: Free Revolutionary War Records Online

Do you have ancestors that served during the American Revolutionary War? A surprising number of records exist from this period and there are now numerous free collections online that will allow you to uncover records about these ancestors and their families.

From War Pensions and Bounty Warrants, to the collections of the Daughters of the American Revolution – we have gathered together some of the best free Revolutionary War collections online and linked to them below for easy searching.

These Old Fire Insurance Maps Reveal a Surprising Amount of Genealogy Data

When’s the last time you used a paper map? More than likely it’s been a while.

Smartphones and browser-based geographical applications have, for many of us, replaced the physical maps we once so heavily relied on. However, our ancestors did not have the luxury of this technology and so they depended exclusively on paper maps for a wide variety of purposes. One such use that often seems long forgotten was for fire insurance purposes!

The “Secret” Codes on Death Certificates That Can Tell You How Your Ancestors Died

Finding death certificates for our ancestors is a critically important part of family history research. These important records contain information about when and where our ancestor lived and died and often include names of a spouse, parents, witnesses and, of course, a cause of death.

But the causes of death on death certificates are notoriously hard to read. Certainly, the more we research the better we get at deciphering the meaning of these sloppily written medical texts, but, very often, we are still left scratching our heads. Luckily there is a “secret” code on many of these documents that can help you make sense of this information and more fully understand how your ancestor passed.

Millions of Immigrants Never Set Foot on Ellis Island – Find Their Records Here

While we can certainly use the existing records from Ellis Island and Castle Garden, two of the better-known immigration points for the United States, these collections only represent part of what is available. These resources leave out many other important historical locations such as Galveston, Texas and Angel Island, California, or even New Orleans.

The Important National Death Registers That Many Family Historians Miss

Are you in search of a date or place of death for a certain member of your family tree, but keep coming up empty-handed? If the individual passed away in the mid to late 1800s, U.S. Mortality Schedules – conducted in connection with the federal census – may be the key to finding the missing piece of your genealogy puzzle.