If you’re trying to find no-cost genealogy records online you’ve probably started to wonder if there really are any truly free genealogy sites. It’s easy to get confused by paid sites that only offer free trials; you begin to feel like there is just no other option than to pay to get the records you need.
While there is no doubt that having a genealogy membership to a paid site is convenient, the truth is, there are free alternatives to Ancestry.com that require no credit card or payment of any kind.
Hundreds of 100% free ancestry research sites (created by religious organizations, government organizations and dedicated volunteers) exist online. You just need to know where to look for them.
FamilySearch, for instance, is the largest provider of no-cost records in the world and offers billions of free records, including popular collections like the U.S. census and many birth, marriage and death records. You will find many of the records you may be paying for on other sites here.
But FamilySearch is only the tip of the iceberg. Whether you’re looking to access genealogy records on a specialized topic, find vital records, search old censuses, dig through wills or find any number of other resources there’s a good chance you can find what you need for free.
The Best Free Genealogy Sites
- FamilySearch: best for vital and census records
- Find a Grave: best for burial and cemetery research
- Chronicling America: best for finding old newspapers
- Ellis Island: best for researching immigrant ancestors
- Hathitrust: best for old books and periodicals
Totally Free Genealogy Websites by Topic
We’ve selected the 50 best free genealogy websites for researching your ancestors in the U.S., as well as the top choices for locations in the UK and the rest of Europe and Australia. Since these searches are often more challenging, you’ll also find special resources for researching African American and Native American ancestors.
We had a lot of fun compiling this list of excellent resources. Remember, most free genealogy sites have been made available by the hard work of many volunteers who are dedicated to providing better access to free genealogy research. Don’t forget to thank them and give back when you can.
For more detailed help and no-cost sites from additional locations you can take at look at the other other article in our Free Genealogy Section or check out our online genealogy courses.
Free Genealogy Sites for General U.S. Research
These sites are the best places to start for many records we count on in our daily family tree research. They contain vital records (birth, marriage, death and divorce), as well as census records, military, immigration records, obituaries and much more. For more specialized research collections, see the categories that follow this one.
FamilySearch has long been the leader in free genealogy research for a very long time. With billions of online records, they are the best place to start if you are hoping to find vital records (including birth, marriage and death), census records, military and war service records, other people’s family trees and much more. Only a free account is required.
USGenWeb Project – The USGenWeb is comprised of volunteer-run genealogy help pages organized by state and sometimes by county. State pages include a wide variation in available data, but generally you will find guides, records, transcriptions, links to external projects and much more. This is a very valuable collection for anyone researching in the United States and is a great place to start when looking for records by US state.
Because every single one of the state sites is organized differently, however, take some time to familiarize yourself with the various offerings before diving into the records and projects available. We encourage you to visit the main page first and then check out the states sites you are interested in.
This resource is a special project from USGenWeb and offers a huge collection of primarily volunteer and user submitted family history data for the US. Find Bible, obituary, census, birth, marriage, death and military records and much more. Records are transcriptions from many sources and source information is generally, but not always, provided. A national and state-by-state search is provided.
USGenWeb Archives is so massive that proper search terms are imperative if you want to find what you need. You can use search operators like quotation marks – “Margaret Jones” or “Smith, David” to find exact terms. The wildcard operator on this site is the % sign. For instance, you can search for Elmer Cla% and get results for any surname that starts with Cla. Or use it for a date, such as 185%. The tilde symbol, ~ , means NOT; place it in front of a word (without a space) to exclude that word from searches. Example: John Clay ~England.
This section of the US National Archives contains more than 50 million searchable records for civilians (including vast immigration records), military personnel, prisoners of war and more. AAD offers 5 areas of research in their Genealogy section – Casualties, Civilians, Military Personnel, Passenger Lists and Prisoners of War. Do not limit yourself to these sections however, as many other areas may contain information about individuals. Search everything by using the main search box or browse all of their offerings here. Also see the resources and record collection on the National Archives main site.
A huge collection of varied genealogy resources. Select the Search Our Free Databases link on the top to access free records online.
Enormous collaborative, worldwide family tree. Always be careful when using information from another person’s family tree as it may not be accurate. Look for record sources to back up the details you find.
A very large and eclectic collection of transcribed family history, and general history, data created by a group of volunteers.
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness
This site is a gathering place for volunteers from across the US who are willing to do record lookups, cemetery searches, research and more for free. If you can’t find what you need online, check out this site (or volunteer!).
Finding Old Newspapers at No Cost
A giant database of archived newspapers from the Library of Congress. These US newspapers are searchable and are organized by year and location. Find notices of marriages and births and well as obituaries and articles. Although the newspapers are searchable, pinpointing your term on a page can be daunting. Make sure you zoom out using the available tools and look for the red highlighted areas, these are where your search terms appear.
Fulton History, a much-loved site, offers historical newspapers from the US and Canada that can be searched, viewed and downloaded. Use it to search for obituaries, birth and marriage notices and much more.
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection
A vast number of archived US newspapers that are easily searchable.
Millions of archived newspaper pages scanned by Google. Obituaries, birth and marriage notices, newspaper articles, etc. can be found here. This site is no longer being developed, but the records are still online.
Where to Find Free U.S. Immigration Records
Ellis Island and Castle Garden
This is actually two separate resources, but we have grouped them together for simplicity. If you think you had an ancestor that may have immigrated to the US via New England after 1820 these will be valuable resources for you. While Ellis Island is a dedicated website, the Castle Garden records are available at no charge on FamilySearch.org. Generally, Castle Garden covers the years 1820-1892 and Ellis Island holds records for anyone who came after 1892. However, there is some overlap and there was some loss of records — so it is worth checking both sites if your ancestors came in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
While Ellis Island offers 51+ million records free of charge on their website, do be aware they will try to charge you to download certain certificates and images of records. You do not need to pay to see the information or write it down, or even take a screenshot, but if you attempt to download or print a record they will ask for payment.
Presented by BYU Idaho, this resource offers a free searchable database of Japanese immigrants to the US between 1887 and 1924.
BYU Immigrant Ancestors Project
“The Immigrant Ancestors Project, sponsored by the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University, uses emigration registers to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries, which is not found in the port registers and naturalization documents in the destination countries.”
Full Mayflower passenger list as well as lists for other early ships to the Plymouth Colony. Genealogies, history, source records links and much more. Discover more about researching Mayflower ancestors in this article.
Best Websites for Free Military Records
This site offers no-cost War of 1812 pension records access from the National Genealogical Society in partnership with Fold3. It is a robust, unusual resource many people never consider searching.
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
Created by the National Park service and its partners the “The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a database containing information about the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War.” The site includes Union and Confederate regiments, battles, and selected lists POW records and more.
Revolutionary War graves registry and patriot index from the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Daughters of the American Revolution
Military service records, mostly Revolutionary War records, collected by DAR for the purpose of descendancy proof but can be used for general research.
Where to Research Native American Ancestors for Free
List of Native American genealogy resources and searchable databases.
Think one of your ancestors may have been a member of one of the five civilized tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, or Seminole)? Search the Dawes Rolls, and other tidbits, for free on the Oklahoma Historical Society website.
Large selection of census, cemetery, military and Native American records for the US.
Free Records for African American Research
The Freedmen’s Bureau was organized near the end of the American Civil War to assist newly freed slaves in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Many details were collected and millions of records are available or are currently being indexed.
List of Free African Americans in the Revolution
Free colonial African-Americans who served in the American Revolution. Please read our guide to researching your African-American ancestors for many more free resources.
North American Slave Narratives
“This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920.”
Free Records for Finding Jewish Ancestors
The leading publisher of books on Jewish genealogy offers the Consolidated Jewish Surname Index (CJSI). CJSI has information on almost 700,000 surnames, mostly Jewish, that appear in 42 different databases containing more than 7.3 million records.
Millions of records including burial, memorial and plaque research, town locator, family trees and a holocaust database.
Free Obituary and Burial Research Options
Locate your ancestors in cemetery records across the globe in the largest and most comprehensive site of it’s type. Millions of graves – including many with transcribed inscription information and photos – can be found here.
Seventh-Day Adventist Obituary Database
Hundreds of thousands of obituary entries, freely accessible to all.
Headstone records from around the world. Not as large as Find a Grave, but still a great resource.
Best Option for Researching Early Colonial Ancestors
Direct link to the Library of Virginia’s online catalog. Contains a huge variety of records, including manuscripts, service records, land grants, early colonial records and much more — many are online, others need to be accessed through the library itself. A great, free genealogy site no matter what location in the US you are searching.
Where to Find Old Books and Periodicals
Huge free resource library with more than 13 million records from across the globe, mostly books and periodicals, but other records can be found and many contain genealogy gems.
Digital Public Library of America
Portal to hundreds of US repositories and one of the best free genealogy sites on the web. Find thousands of birth, death, marriage, military records, family books and more.
Search all books Google has in its database. To find only free, online family history books type in a genealogy-related search term or name and then look for “Search Tools” at top. Select the “Any Books” dropdown and filter by “Free Google eBooks.” Find more resources for using free books in your research here and learn how to use Google to find free family history books on Amazon here.
A large amount of historical information useful to genealogists, but you’ll need to do some digging for family history books that may help you in your research as many are not fully searchable.
A good place to find family history books that may contain biographies of your ancestors (mostly early colonial options). Search for surnames or locations to find what you need.
Land and Homestead Patent Records
BLM General Land Office Records
This resource from the Bureau of Land Management has some fascinating free records. Find more than 5 million land titles for public land states dating back to 1820 and more. To get the most out of this site, and the records it holds, you should take some time to read the information available in the extensive reference section. This will help you understand how the information can be best searched, used and applied to your research.
Best Sites for International Records
Genealogy resources and records for nearly every country and region in the world. Each country/region has its own pages, making to easy to find what you need.
Family trees and databases containing a large variety of information from around the world.
The official National Archives of the United Kingdom with many online family history resources. For many more UK resources, and help finding your English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish ancestors view our beginner’s guide.
Romany and Traveller Family History Society
Expansive Romanichal ancestry (British focused) research site.
The National Library of Australia eResources
180 online databases for family historians. Records include cemetery research, electoral rolls, genealogies, vital records, convict ships, military records and more. This collection of databases requires that you be registered with the National Library of Australia. You can apply for a free card online by following the prompts, but this service is limited to Australian residents.
The GG Archives offer access to 10,000+ documents and photographs, including passenger lists to America, original immigrant passage contracts, steamship brochures and much more.
This site offers thousands of free genealogy records for Sweden (in Swedish).
Nearly 100,000 birth, marriage and death records for finding your ancestors who lived in Scotland.
The official archives of Canada includes a huge wealth of information and searchable databases for Canadian ancestors — including marriage, census, land, and military records, directories, additional resources, guides and much more. Find the ancestor search here.
“The German Genealogy Group (GGG) is a not for profit organization that was established in early 1996 to provide mutual support among those interested in researching their Germanic ancestors.” The databases are mostly helpful for those in the US who are researching German ancestors.
Szukajwarchiwach from the National Archives of Poland
Offers nearly 18 million scanned documents from 31 state archives. Births, marriages and deaths dating back 100 years or more and census records, residency books and more. English version.
The Portale Antenati (Ancestor Portal)
Created by the Direzione Generale per gli Archivi (Italian National Archives) this site allows free access to countless millions of records held by the state as well as valuable information on researching in Italy. Indexing is still in process so many records must be sifted through manually, but this is one of the largest free online collections of Italian records available.
This site offers a free emigrant database and articles about those Norwegians who left for America pre 1875.
There are many more free genealogy websites online and Family History Daily offers a variety of articles to help you find them. Read our guide to free genealogy sites in the U.S. or take our online course “Free Genealogy Unlocked” – included with our Complete Access Package – that contains hundreds of free genealogy sites and specialized help.
What if I can’t find a record I need for free?
Of course, there are times when the record you need is held behind a paywall and is not available elsewhere online for free. If this happens you should know that, many times, these records are available without cost from the archive where they were originally scanned from.
Unfortunately though, unless you live near the collection, travel is much more expensive than a record subscription will ever be. And, even if you do live nearby, there are sometimes costs for printing or scanning. A better bet is to find a way to access the archive online, and there are a couple of ways that you can do this without having to pay for a subscription.
The first is through your local library. More and more are offering access to genealogy subscriptions to their members and some of these records can even be used from home. Commonly, Ancestry is available on-site at your library, whereas HeritageQuest may be available on site or from home. Call your library to discover what is available or look for this information on your library’s website.
If you cannot gain access to the record you need for free, or via your library, the next best bet is to use a free trial of the site you are interested in. This may mean one where you keep your family tree, or another you know you will get good use out of.
To make this tactic work, you will need to get organized. Make a list of every collection you want to access during that period and everyone you plan to search before you begin your trial period. The guide referenced here includes links to the catalogs for these popular sites so you know just what they offer before you sign up. Making sure you know just how you will use the service will ensure that you make the most of your free time.
If you decide to go this route don’t forget to cancel it before it runs out so that you are not automatically charged for a month, or even year of service, if you decide not to continue.
What about free offline genealogy records?
Although a good deal of documents have now been digitized, many more are not yet available online. Sometimes, records are only available in an old book or microfilm in a library or local archive. In a case like this, some cost is almost always inevitable.
For instance, as this helpful article explains, some states will send out copies of vital records via mail that have not been digitized, but they always charge a small fee. There is little chance of avoiding this unless you can travel to the archive yourself, ask family members to do the searching, or find someone to go there for you. But costs for doing so are often higher than the fee the archive charges anyway.
Again, getting organized can save you money here. Make a list of offline documents you need and then try to place requests for lookups and orders at one time to save on shipping and research fees.
More Commonly Asked Questions
Ancestry.com does offer free record collections, although it can be hard to know which ones require a paid membership and which do not. Read this article for more helping find Ancestry’s free records .
Yes, while FamilySearch does require a free account to search records, all of their collections are provided completely free of charge.
In addition to free records, there are a number of places where you can host your tree free of cost. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch both have free tree options. You can find more help for finding no-cost family tree programs here.
You’ll find birth, marriage, divorce and death records, census records, obituaries, funeral notices and wills, voting and tax records, city directories and phone books, cemetery and grave records, newspaper archives, books, biographies and family histories, military and war service records research tips and so much more.
You can trace much of your family tree for free online, but not all of it. Some records are not yet available at no cost while others have not yet been digitized and much be found offline.
Featured Image: The Halley family. Priest River Valley, Bonner County, Idaho. 1939. Library of Congress
By Melanie Mayo-Laakso. Melanie has been conducting ancestry research for over 25 years and is the founder of Family History Daily and Learn Family History.
Originally published February 19, 2015 – fully updated Nov 27, 2023.
Thank you so much for all of this information, I really appreciate it.
I am a newbie to ancestry. I go to the library to go to ancestry.com for free, lots of
info there. Thank you all for the hard work putting together these free sites for us.
It is greatly appreciated.
Archivesportaleurope.eu is the site of the group of official archives of the 27 member countries of the European Union. With the search function, you search in all the associated archives.
You should include:
GenealogyBuff.com
GenLookups.com
CanadianObits.com
They have huge obituary and/or marriage databases and are free.
Thank you so much, i learnt a lot from this reading.
Thank you for the helping us with helpful information to work on our family history.
Wow, Melanie What a gift – Thank you so much. I learned a great deal in this read thru. Also I shared specialty resources for others as I was moving along. Every link opens a new world of helps! Whether it’s the Scottish Diaspora, Schwäbisch villages, or Ukrainians I haven’t met yet (all very thrifty I might add), you’ve given me an affordable strategy my sensible ancestors would be proud of and great new resources for the next leg of the Ancestral journey. Grateful in NYC, Linda Anne Baxter Distler Gerardi
This is a fantastic resource and has jump started my interest in family history. I have been away from research for many years now.
Regarding 33. Internet Archive: There’s a collection (subset) specifically called Family Genealogy (books): https://archive.org/details/familygenealogy?tab=collection . So it’s not hard to find at all.
Thank you for giving us a roadmap to our families. You are making a great contribution to us all with you guidance. I appreciate all your efforts to help us.
hey thanks for giving me some more free sites to look at for my own genealogy as well as others I look for.
This is great! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for this list and all of the comments adding other ideas! I’ve hit a wall on a couple of lines and have conflicting information. Hope this will help.
Bruce, I so agree on the tree, but they have records that Ancestry doesn’t have yet! Also their Wiki is unsurpassed by anything I have seen elsewhere. Just type in a place name sometimes you need to use the County, and the site returns information about the formation, the changes, when records started being preserved, all the little towns and cities and for the most part where you can find records.
They also have a great community of people who are willing to help; decipher handwriting, they will translate records and answer questions. They also have all kinds of self help on reading old languages, help with specific languages, most anything to do with genealogy. Reopen your account and use all the other great tools – just leave the Tree very simple to make it easier to search their records.
Thank you so much for this incredible list of helpful information!
This gave me some wonderful info. Thanks to all involved and also many thanks for all the comments.
Hello my name is Valerie, are you still seeking help? If so please email me with an update on who you are wanting help with.
Sincerely
Valerie
Just so you know, your link to GenDisasters is incorrect. It says www3.gendisasters.com. See the odd “3”?
Hi Bruce! I may be able to help you. Feel free to contact me. I have used FamilySearch extensively for a long time.
Sincerely,
Vicki Rush
864.415.7988
I’m looking for a copy of Dexal Shannon’s book “Shannon” written in 1991. It is unpublished. Someone was emailing out copies at one time but so far I haven’t found them. Can you help? Please email me.
Debra
I fully agree with u and tree building geni.com
I enjoy family search.org unbelievable what u find
Have you checked the Dawes Rolls, a major database for Native Americans that is very informative?
i do ancestry with ancestry.ca and my heritage and i thought i would try family search. After several months I could not do it any more as I would put in my tree some my ancestors and some one would take them out and i would put them back in again’It was getting very frustrating that i just told them to close my account.I tried to put in a tree but could not.
help? how much do they cost as I only have very small founds and I would love to look as I would like to find about my past
I am 72 this year
My Great Grandma was full blood Cherokee her name was Edna Rice then found & married My Great Grandpa in Carolina Married & went on the Oregon Trail to Forest Grove Oregon. Her name became Edna Clairy I know she also as a young girl had to go through the Trail Of Tears Great grandma is buried at the Forest Grove cemetery .
My grandma to us to see whereshe was buried I cant tell you her birthdate or the day of her death as I was young. I know my fathers side of the DNA but Ancestry .com would not include my mothers side. I.m sure I.m an 1/8 Cherokee & Irish on grandmas genes I would be honored to receive my native American card showing proof that I am indeed native American I am learning herbal healing & more as Great Grandma always spoke of the way things were in her clan & more.
Thanks everyone for sharing all this info and comments. Given me many more areas to search. Having frustrating time…my maiden name was SMITH!!!
I would like to speak to someone about finding out the family history on my father’s side of the family Thank you Cindy
I’m looking into my family tree. What is the best way to find my family on my father’s side from Portugal ( the main land). And my mother’s side is the Family from Poland.
Any information to dig and find information will be very helpful.
Thank you!
Your info is remarkable, looking for any info on Chrisman, Worek, Gary Indiana or Iowa area
My dads birth name was OTT, according to 23 & Me, we have DAVIS kin, my dad also had lived in Florida most of his life after age 40. Hummm….cousins? Mebbe?
Looking for a native American site. I have Indian grandmothers on 2 sides if my family that I would love to find more info on.
May I ask the name of your free website? I would love to check out your site and share it with all my friends that search.
When you click “search” and a map comes up, click on the area you want to search, ie; Bohemia.I do this for Croatia and a list of towns come up, click on the town you want and see the sources available.
I am searching for the children or grandchildren of Roy Latimer Davis who lived in Kansas City, MO and graduated from high school there, went to college in Kansas, served in the Navy in WWII and lived in Florida at one time.
i was born under this name my mother passed beyond the curtian in 1943 at the age of 32.we lived in pontypridd south wales,i have found my 5 brothers, and5 sisters,all have passed beyond the curtian except 2sisters my self and my twin brother, i have met them after 60 years , as we were all put in a orphanage at the the death of our mother in 1943 my sister violet died at the age of 14 years,us twins were kept seperated from the rest of my brothers and sisters by the order of my farther. this was done by the social servicesthey sent me to london and kept my twin in wales,out of spite because he was not our farther, he ran of with a woman who had 10 children and they ended up with us in the ophanage with us , this i know because i have the documents of my adoption,and my twin as well, i would like some help to carry on , serching into 2 other families that are blood relitives mr and mrs nancy horgan and mr wilfred horgan,hoping this meets with your approval i remian mr howard horgan
Did you find any records on your Civil War Soldier??
I am looking for information on John M. B. Patterson Enlisted on 16 December 1861 in the Company H 63rd Infantry Regiment : He served on the Union side; John M. B. Patterson est. born 1830 in Tennessee. As per records listed of soldiers in the NATION PARK SERVICE U.S. CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS 1861-1865 Data Base Battles and Places Listed. Was not killer in the war; died unknown after 1890 US
Census lived in Arkansas, Randolph County, Water Valley Township. John M. B. Patterson is listed Farmer In the Eleven Point Community; as married to Francis (Scott) Patterson born 1828 Tennessee,
Died unknown in Randolph County, Arkansas was married April 09, 1850 Jefferson County, Illinois
They had six children; all born in Illinois. Five were born before his enlistment in the Civil War and one child born 1870 after he returned from the war.
Any information on this family would be greatly appreciated; by Peggy J. Reed e-mail
peggyjmcreed@ suddenlink.net or Rick Patterson e-mail [email protected].
Thank for any comments, leads or information regarding John M.B. Patterson.
Peggy J. Reed – 2nd Great Granddauther of John M.B. Patterson
Looking for Artemissa Kelly ( Kelley ) McCain and husband civil war soldier Will. From Benton, Illinois area. Any help, especially photos greatly appreciated. Thank you
Lots are free. Lots are not. I have all the charging sites blocked both in search and link. Genealogy is a hobby for me and not something I need to pay for. Personally I find familysearch to be the best there is on the internet and totally free.
Never worked for me.
On yout post for the Somerset, England Can you let me know the web site? i have family that used to live there and want to find them. Thanks in advance.
the LDS Church owns Familysearch, which is totally free to use. Other sites may be run by member of the Church, and they may even charge for the use of their sites, but they have nothing to do with the Church itself
Go to familysearch.org, Hold your cursor on “Search” at the top of the page. Click on “Wiki”. Type Bohemia in the search box. This article tells how to search for records, what records are available, and provides links to records, indicating free or cost.
You can also use Ancestry.com free at any LDS Family History Center. The Library Edition and the Institutional Edition do have limitations that the paid subscription does not have.
As of 1 Sep 2017, you will not be able to order films.
https://www.openarch.nl/ > The multi-lingual websites Open Archives gives access to the biggest collection of Dutch records, includes phonetic search and search for two persons for free.
Does anyone know where I can find emigration records for Scotland?? My ggf Alix Greenberg left Braila, Romania some time in the late 1800s and wound up in Scotland. Also, where can I find Romanian Jewish records?? I would like to find out about my GGf’s Family. Thanks for any help!!
If you are researching English or Welsh family history, please take a look at my free site ogindex.org. It list genealogical data by place and year. It will show you which sources are free or subscription. Very rarely will data be only available on a paid site. This is my personal project of 5 years and grows all the time. Currently contains 352,000 data sets including all of Ancestry, Familysearch, Findmypast, Billiongraves, findagrave, etc. It will save you hours of research time.
Thanks Rick. Many sites advertise as Free, as they offer a Free Trial for a limited time only. Often one discovers this only after entering the required information. It’s frustrating!
no you can go back there if you have belive, because they will like to hear from you,
I have this rose pennington in my family tree. As of now I do not have a spouse for her but will look. Kermit Wheeler [email protected]
Ross P Pennington
Ross P
Pennington
Suffix
Birth
Birth
Date:
13 Jul 1890
Date:
13 Jul 1890
Place:
Pennington farm, Eagle, Clinton Co., MI
Place:
Pennington farm, Eagle, Clinton Co., MI
Death
Death
Date:
Dec 1954
Date:
Dec 1954
Place:
Grand Ledge, MI
Place:
Grand Ledge, MI
These aren’t genealogy sites per se but they can be useful. As I mentioned above, many counties now put various records on-line. There are companies that provide these for various counties.
http://www.roamdallaspropertyrecords.com/sites.html
http://www.OKCountyRecords.com (Oklahoma)
http://www.TexasLandRecords.com
http://www.TexasOnlineRecords.com
http://www.CountyGovernmentRecords.com
site:search.cogov.net
In the Google search results, select the county. The names are in the format Okwxyz where Ok stands for Oklahoma and wxyz are the first four letters of the county name, e.g., Cleveland County is /Okclev
Obviously above some of these sites are state-specific. But there are other companies in other states. Google (without quotes) phrases like “Harris County government records” or “Harris County Texas government records”
My maiden name is Keller. From the research my uncle has done we are Swedish, German, Irish, native American but he could have missed something somewhere. Do you know if any of your family immigrated to America? If so maybe I can put you in touch with my father and you can find out if our ancestors are related.
Wishing you luck in your search,
Sonnett (Keller) Reyes
ANCESTRY.COM HAS ALL THAT INFO. PROBLEM IS TRAIL OF TEARS…MANY HAD MARRIED SCOTT. TROOPS WHO DID NOT WANT TO GO BACK. THEY MOVE WEST WITH THE TRIBES. THEY SETTLED AROUND THE EDGES OF THE REZ. DAWES ONLY ENROLED PPL ON THE REZ. YOU MAY HAVE TO LOOK IN AREAS AROUND IF YA CANT FIND EM ON THE ROLLS
Mike That picture is amazing and I was wondering who these people are. The man without the hat kind of looks like my father and having your input is quite helpful. My dad would have been too young to be in that picture, but it is uncanny how much they look alike. Priest River is not too far from where i grew up and I remember seeing many places like that and visiting some friends and family with little farms with like buildings
The photo of the woman holding the baby was taken near Priest River, Bonner county, Idaho in the 1930’s. The woman is my aunt, Marie Savage, The man in the middle is her brother, Arend Van Hoff, And I think the other man is her husband, Otho Savage.
Looking for info re: Marie Testerman, supposedly b 1904 in Virginia. Later census data shows parents as George Testerman & Arminda (Neeley) Testerman, brothers, who were much older, Abraham & Luther. We suspect she may have been taken in by Testerman & not their natural child. Have not been able to find any record of her birth in Virginia or surrounding states. Any suggestions on where or how to search would be very, very much appreciated. Have been & continue to be an Ancestory member without success on this issue.
http://www.ObitTree.com – American and Canadian obituaries
I am looking for a call who;s birth name was Sherry, born 12/28/51 in Lebanon, Missouri.
What state did this take place in? If you know is first name and date of birth. email me at [email protected] I maybe able to help you.
Free genealogy records and publications containing the names of ancestors at http://genealogybeyondthebmd.blogspot.ca/
Well said Rick. There is NEVER a charge to use familysearch. The only exception is the nominal fee to order films to be viewed at your Family History Center. If the image from the film is available on-line, you will be notified and you won’t need to or even be able to order the film.
As stated, by Rick. to view an image, you may sometimes be sent to a partner site that does charge, but familysearch gets no money from that source.
I have an Ancestry subscription but it depends on the age of your nephew as to whether or not he can be traced. I’m happy to look for you.
You’ll need to submit a Standard Firm 180 to obtain his military records. Just Google SF 180 and the instructions are on the form.
I just put in Dawes roll and it came up. It was divided in to tribes. Also you ay look up the Five civilized tribes, Trail of Tears.
The wiewaswie website (for Dutch ancestors) has also an English search page. The transcripted information is in English, but the (if available) images are in Dutch.
Could you please give me the names of the ancestors or a link to your family tree to look for the ancestors?
The LDS church does NOT charge fees.
The LDS church has BY FAR the largest genealogy collection in the world–MUCH larger than Ancestry. However, LDS does genealogy for RELIGIOUS reasons, NOT as any type of favor for the general public or even for Mormons.
The LDS digitization project generates about FIFTEEN TERABYTES of new images PER DAY. They don’t just “automatically scan and move on”, they also check individual image quality, etc.
What LDS did a few years ago is they said, “If images of specific documents are available from other sites, even commercial sites, why should we provide it for free? We need to use applicable financial resources for the things that are NOT available elsewhere.” So they partnered with Ancestry and a few other genealogy-related sites.
One thing that did is it made available FREE on FamilySearch a lot of the INDEXED data that ANCESTRY paid for. The FEE is because you will NOT be seeing images from FS, you will be seeing images ON the commercial site.
Also, I can tell you that Ancestry does a LOT of cleanup of documents. Certain document sets such as the 1940 U.S. census ARE available free elsewhere. When you look at THOSE images and compare them to the ones on Ancestry, It is very obvious that Ancestry has often done substantial enhancement.
If your local library has a library membership to ancestry, you can go to the library and use ancestry free.
Could you please help me find name and tribe thank you
I am looking for my ancestors of KELLER (other forms: KIELER / KELER / KIELLER / KOHLER ) Family from JUKÓW (or JUKOW) in Poland.
Although they are not genealogy sites per se, MANY U.S. counties now have their real estate records available on-line for free and often you can even see and download copies of the documents.
Just google {name of the county} County Clerk {State}, e.g., Harris County Clerk, Texas. That will take you to the County Clerk’s website, then look for Property Records or Real Property Records or Real Estate Records.
(Be careful in big states. If you google Houston County Clerk, Texas, that’s a different county–you won’t get records for Houston, Texas, the county seat of HARRIS County.) Use Wikipedia or the U.S. Post Office ZIP lookup to find out the county. (Search for P.O. Box 1 in that city and state, then click on Mailing Industry Details.)
Often you can tell relationships of multiple signers, such as husband and wife or a man and a woman with the same surname deeding the property to someone else with the same surname–most likely a son or daughter.
Looking for native american on my grandfather side it was his great grandmother my grandfather name is Charles Henry Dellinger born 1906 died 1984 his mother name was Sadie Lease Dellinger Horn married to Milton Henry Dellinger I would like to know my great great great grandmother name and what Indian tribe my dad thought is was susquenna
great list including sites mentioned in posts
my thanx
s
Looking for information on my father’s US Navy records and how I could get him the copies of them. He served on the Forsnell in 1959 and he’s from Maine.
This is a great list! I’m always correcting people when they say researching genealogy is too expensive – and when I do show them just a few of the free sites out there, they’re amazed!
Hi Yvonne
Thank you for the information have a good day kind regards Michele
Renata Dobrez
Loxahatchee, FL
not sure if she is still living
Searching for irish ancestors the parents and familys of, William Coleman,1843,country cork.
Catherine Daley,1839,Enfield.Ireland.
They moved to Liverpool,England and married.
Also any help with Joseph Burns,who left fot the U.S.A. in 1925 (William and Catherine’s grandson)
My family would be so,so grateful.
Thank you.
Where do I do a search for a nephew who may be looking for me? He was taken from his parents when very young. I do not know if he was adopted for sure or just placed in a foster home.
Magbag1
Hello Michele,
Search on free site FamilySearch.org and entered your relative’s name
see following, hope some help
https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=+givenname:Renata~ +surname:Dobrez~
Tara
Hi I am hoping someone in the USA can help me out please with some lookups there
I am trying to find any information on Renata Dobrez that came from Australia after 1973? to the USA
I am trying to find out if she is still alive and if she ever got married
looking for information about her for family research
Renata was born 28 Dec 1946 Fiume
thank you for your time and any help you can give me with my search kind regards Michele Australia
I am working on my family tree, and need to find out how to access the dawes rolls for my native American Indian ancesters names. I also would like to find out how to contact someone in Switzerland about ancesters.
I could really use some links from Hungary
Czech Genealogy Society International is a free site: http://www.cgsi.org/
It has free on-line records for Czech, Bohemia and Slovenia records. You must know the district and village name to find the church for your village to find the records. The Eastern District did not do their own microfilming but had the LDS film their records. Districts vary as to the amount of records now online.
Could you please send me information about genealogy sites in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Here is a Tip for free Genealogy In the Search Engine TYPE FULL TEXT: THEN THE SURNAME;
EXAMPLE; FULL TEXTED: PILLSBURY The genealogy book of the Pillsbury family will appear. Use any surname. Sometimes a county book may appear for example FULL TEXT: IRWIN ANDERSON You will be Adams County Ohio. Its a great way for free answers.
Thank you for the list I might be able to get through some brick walls thanks again
FreeReg has a new site: http://www.freereg.org.uk/
I shall be awake all night now having seen these free sites. Is there any good sites for criminals and convicts . Esp uk as shipped to Australia. It’s the court records I’m after thank you for reading I take my hat off to you all for doing a fabulous job
Found some information in 1880 Census for John Bryant, 34 years difference from Amanda Chapman, had seven children. Join Ancestry.com. By now, you may have found this information.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GermanyGenealogyJustAsk/?fref=nf
Facebook group: Germany Genealogy! Just Ask! I don’t really know much about it as I just joined but I think someone there will be able to help you. Good luck!
Genealogy Trails is an active FREE website with no ads. Was sorry to see that it didn’t make the list.
Trove is a fantastic resource but you don’t need to be a registered user to correct the text. I urge all users to make corrections as you find stuff but remember to correct exactly as it is in the original, commas, errors and all.
Several of the sites allow you to search for a surname. But, to get information about the surname, you have to pay and join the site.
http://wiki-en.genealogy.net/Main_Page
This is a free site, I that I use quite often.
Can anyone give me sites for german research that is in English. I am having trouble finding anything. Thanks in advance
Two of the Best Free Newspaper sites, Australia and New Zealand -you never know where your family might go,
Australia = trove.nla.gov.au AND the OCR is correctable by all registered users (millions of lines already done) and New Zealand = paperspast.natlib.gov. nz
I agree with you Donna, especially if it is like I do, I forget to CANCEL the free trial and get charged at some point.
Another free to search site … records can be viewed:-
National Archives of Australia – http://www.naa.gov.au/
FYI just noticed this one on the other updated list !!!
7. NZ Birth, Death and Marriages Online: This site offers more than 3 million historical birth, death and marriage records for New Zealand. You can search the extensive index and order complete records when available.
For help with NZ burial locations
Judith (Judy) Whyte
Community Services Administration Officer
Central Otago District Council
1 Dunorling Street
PO Box 122
Alexandra
DDI: 03 440 0618
Fax: 03 440 0606
Email: [email protected]
Also Finnish Family History Associaton: http://www.digiarkisto.org/sshy/index_eng.htm
A great site for WV birth, death, and marriage records is wvculture.org
It appears that the site is currently down, but it may be a temporary issue. We will replace the link if it doesn’t come back up within a week. Thanks for alerting us.
Thank you so much for the African Amercian site. The “African Heritage Project”, which is number 20 does not work and with your help hopefully I will find what am looking for.
Thanks Again
Trying to find my Baptismal certificate from 1966-67. In New Jersey
I don’t know if you tried this, but if you are on the site, and right click with your mouse, a menu came up for me that had the option ‘Translate to English’. Best of luck.
Do you have the records and just need help reading them? I can be of some help to you.
I’m looking for the father of Joseph Martel born in April 1825 .Baie-du-febvre yamaska QC Canada. Joseph wife was hermine Alliar.
Thank you for all the hard work you do and for making this list. I use many of these wonderful free websites, and will add a few more I use.
http://www.interment.net/
http://www.usgwtombstones.org/index.html
http://africanamericancemeteries.com/
http://teafor2.com/
I would also like to say that the Ancestry message boards are free to use, and have volunteers that can help you. http://boards.ancestry.com/
Also, when you are posting for help, please post birth dates, death dates, burial locations, and locations your family lived in. If it is a female, please post the maiden name, and married name. The more info you can give, the better help you will receive.
Anyone know of Bohemia website – don’t know where in Bohemia/Austria and a Polish website to find records?
Here is a link to include with the Seventh-Day Adventist obit index site. After they find which paper the obit is in this site has most of them for viewing online. (Also Free)
Thank you for this great list!!! I have bookmarked many of them.
http://docs.adventistarchives.org/
Thank you all so much for this information. I wanted you all to know that I truly appreciate all of the hard work you have done. You are all amazing!
Was Zavatsky her maiden name or was that her surname after she married your grandfather?
I would love to find some records from Ujak, Austria-Hungary. My Grandma was Julia Zavatsky, born in 1894.
I whole like to have “50 Free Geneology Sites…” sent to my email address. I find it most valuable. Please send it to me.
I found this one record on familysearch. It probably isn’t much help. But a bit of information can go a long way. I’d suggest going on ancestry and starting a tree, you might get a few leaves if you use the information on the link. Even though you can’t look at the documents on ancestry without paying, it’ll give you a bit of information and you can just find it for free on a different site (I’d suggest family search, but you might have to go elsewhere for some things).
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NSD9-G2D
Thanks to all who put this together…..Trying to find the Pomerantz family from Galica, Austria
The Hiski project -For Finland or Aland Island geneology …http://hiski.genealogia.fi/historia/indexe.htm
Don’t Miss our addition to this list at: http://familyhistorydaily.com/free-genealogy-resources/20-free-family-history-sites/
Who are the volunteers?
I thought readers submitted information.
I am trying to find some of my father’s mothers people. My fathers’ name is Grandville Adkins, his mother is Rose Pennington. I may have Pennington spelled wrong. My dad passed away several years ago, and we haven’t had very little contact with his people. We have had no contact with his mother’s people as she died when he was a small boy. His father was Churchill Adkins. My father had two brothers Opel and Able – who were twins, one died at birth and the other died in Cincinnati Ohio. Before my grandfather passed away he had run into some of my fathers people in Arizonia. They wrote some to my mom and dad and even sent a picture. But after my mom passed all these got lost. If anyone could help I would appreciate it. My dad i believe lived in Lafonte, Tn, Scout County or in around that area, he may have lived or his parents may have lived in West Virginia.
A great free site is stokescorod.org. You can view deeds in Stokes County, NC, going back to the 1700’s. Another good digital newspaper site for NC is digitalnc.org/collections/newspapers/. Another good digital newspaper site for OK is http://gateway.okhistory.org/search/.
state of Georgia; looking for any information on John Pickney Bryant, DOB 1807. wife: Amanda Champion (maybe Cherokee Indian). I feel he had a second family as he was 30-40 older than Amanda. We know nothing of her family either. They were my great grandparents.
I am also a Miller. My ancestors were part of the German migration to the Russian province of Bessarabia where their name was spelled Mueller. I was able to find them on church records from Tarantino, Bessarabia. Maybe that will help you.
For Limerick City, Ireland check out this list of free genealogy resources http://limerickslife.com/limerick-family-history/
Ruth, the url address you provided above doesn’t work. I googled and found that web site, but the address is different. I think you might have meant this:
http://www.kykinfolk.com/
..looking for Walter Gatherer and Betsy Baird
http://www.ddss.se – is a free database for South of Sweden.
If you are researching in Somerset, England, the West Somerset Parish Records is the place to go. Records up to 1860 for most parishes. I have had fantastic ‘finds’ in this website.
This is terrific, I have just written down all the available sites and will check many of these sites. There must have been thousands of hours of work went into this. Thank you for all of the hard work you have done, it helps so many find relatives and connects them to the country of their origin.
For those with danish ancestors. Find churchbooks, censuses, school class protocols and much more.
http://seekingmichigan.org/
This is a good site for Michigan records.
One of my favorites #42 Open Library has been a huge help to me. I use this in conjunction with Google Books. Two Great sources
I have some information on MIller’s from Wikitree.com back to 1758 for my family & wanting more information on them. Will check these web sites out. Thank you for all the sites to check out. I am also working on a friends family ( Godfrey’s) from Ne & can’t find any thing more information than 1888.
Sandy Price
Great work – thank you all so much
My maiden name was MIller, and I have found a lot of ancestors in Germany. Don’t know if we may be related, but we could exchange info to see if w come from the same family line if you would like.
A new free magazine with lots of informational articles and connections to some new resources for genealogical research and information. Very well put together and enjoyable to read.
If you haven’t tried familysearch.org, try it . You never listed any dates for those people you are trying to find.There are records for the marriage of the children of Pedro and Micaela Salas. You might find immigration records for Pedro as well.
Very hard very difficult. Pedro Miguel Herrada my 5th great grandfather. Can’t locate. Married to Micaela Salas, then to Andrea Vargas. Trying to locate his parents. Please help,
http://KentuckyKinfolk
Sorry the site doesn’t show in previous comment
Good site for Kentucky ancestors. Counties are listed
I have Miller in my family. I don’t have them traced back very far.
Searching for Irish ancestors, Annie O’Loughlin B:1861 & parents Patrick O’Loughlin & Bridget Annie O’Loughlin (nee Woods). They died within short time each other. One Daughter Mary E O’Loughlin B:1953 went to Rochester, New York & married James Farley. Next Daughter Beatrice B : abt 1865and son James both to Adelaide. Need information esp DOD n place of Patrick & Bridget. After parents death kids cared for by Grandma McCann.
My son Mike Stanley has done a lit of research on Thompsons and Harolds
Thank you to all volunteers.. You are a blessing.. If anyone can help me with my Italian records would be much appreciated.. I’d like to find them in English if their out there..
MaryBeth
I apologize, the website did not appear in the comment section, it is http://www.troyirish.com
Free site for those researching ancestors in the Troy and Albany area of New York State. Although the organizations name is Troy Irish Genealogy Society we do not limit ourselves to Irish records. We locate and transcribe any and all records for this area of NYS.
Hi, im looking for my mothers birth and that of her 3 sisters 1 brother, we automaticly looked in ireland where they were from , but, just found out that they were all born in glasgow scotland, but cant find them they were all born in the 1920’s surname Loughran any free stes where i might find them ?? thanx
Many thanks to each for all the work and time you have spend on the “50” genealogy sites provided.
thank you
I help input data to a couple of these sites. Thank you telling people about what we do. Now i know my hard work (unpaid) will be going to good use for even more people.
If your ancestors were from Germany, you may wish to search for the surname Muller (with or without umlaut) or Muhler.
Miller is an Anglicized version of the above.
Hi looking for Thompson family information. I want to research my Family who were originally from London, and Scotland Montague and Flora Thompson. Harold Montague Thompson, and my father Gilbert Nelson Thompson. Please tell me where to start. Thank you.
Looking for sites with info for Yugoslav and other Slavic countries
Website link for Perugia
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2043831
Hopefully I will be able to find my miller’s family in Germany.
Thanks for all the sites.
Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project
http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/
Neville, you might want to check the lengthy list of links at http://www.geni.com/projects/South-Africans-Geni-Landing-Site-WELKOM-CUZZINS/2504 or just post on the discussion board there.
thank you for this information it will really help me in my searching. Do you have any sites that can assist me with South African records. I am finding that most sites are extensively in for the USA. thank you once again.
Went into this site but it was all in Norwegian. I need English – any suggestions?
I see findagrave is already listed! Sorry!
Great information! I would add two more to this list: findagrave.com and Washington State Digital Archives – http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/ Happy Hunting everyone!
Thank You for all the info,it is great. Please keep it coming.
If you have family ties to the ethnic community of Delray (Detroit) Mi. prior to it’s decline in 1960, then I think you will like my tribute to this once vibrant and thriving ethnic community. Families and life styes, the way it was, “Once upon a Time!”
Has anyone had success finding roots in Italy. My family is from Perugia and I can not find any information. My grandparents came to America and I have that information, however their families never came here. It’s so frustrating trying to find any information, if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
Dorothy Pierini-Rodgers
Hi,
I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today’s Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2015/02/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-february-27.html
Have a great weekend!
Genforum is another one that is helpful to add to this list.
Baptisms, Marriages & Burials from hundreds of Churches across Lancashire some dating back to 1500’s. Also look out for other County’s which also have Parish Clerk Records online
You missed Genealogy in Time
Genealogy Trails has free data not just on the state but on each of the counties in each of the states. The hosts work to add data to their sites daily! http://genealogytrails.com
Sorry to see you missed Genealogy Trails – we work hard providing free data for every state and every county, updated regularly. Check us out – genealogytrails.com
Sorry to see Genealogy Trails missed – we work hard to provide information on every county in the US, with updates being made regularly. All free! Check us out – genealogytrails.com
Georgia has a great online digital archives with marriages, newspapers and some wills/death certificates.
http://cdm.georgiaarchives.org:2011/cdm/
That is wonderful news, Chris. Your team has created an outstanding resource and we are glad to include it in our list.
How interesting, Eve. The image comes from the Library of Congress and is by the well-known photographer Dorothea Lange. (who also captured the iconic “Migrant Mother” as part of her work with the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression)
Here is the link to the original with full details, as well as the description provided by them. We’d love to hear back if it does turn out to be a relative.
“Farm family in the cut-over land. Priest River Valley, Bonner County, Idaho. The Halley family, FSA (Farm Security Administration) borrowers.”
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000005262/PP/
Thanks for including WikiTree in this list. Hundreds of great new volunteers are finding our site through this link.
Two NZ sites that give national coverage:
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz
Was wondering about the picture of the family by the fence. My cousin saw it and belieesvs it to be her grandparents. We wonder if you could tell us about it and if it is could she get a copy? Thanks.
Thank you so much for the information. I have been searching for a great-aunt in South Dakota in Roberts County and have had no luck. Maybe this will help.
anything on William Edward Sider st catharines ontaio Canada
Genealogy records for Denmark (in English and Danish)
Thank you for all the great sites.
I am struggling with new Zealand records for my family. Would you be able to tell me where to look for the newspapers and any other good records sites please.
Families in British India Society http://www.fibis.org a free searchable database of millions of records free to search, free research guides in it’s wiki and a gallery of free images to browse and search. You would be surprised how many ancestors that have gone missing turn up in India!
Thank you so much for all the website ideas!! I only knew of 2 of them – ancestry.com and my heritage.com. These are fabulous! Thanks again.
I found the following site most helpful in finding death certificates of relatives in Missouri. http://www.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/archivesdb/deathcertificates/ and would love to know the URL of other state death cert. archives.
It is interesting to read about them! Some I have heard of, others I have not!
oops, I somehow missed them already on the list. Oh well, they are helpful sites.
USGenWeb.org has every county in every state listed. Volunteers maintain each county website. Lots of good information for researchers to go to if they know a particular county their ancestors were from. There is also Worldgenweb.org and Canadagenweb.org.
Genealogy Trails at genealogytrails.com is ranked in the top 100 genealogy websites worldwide.
Totally free websites of transcribed data. No ads, no banners, very few links – just DATA! Over 2 million records online – all FREE.
For norwegian research:
The Norwegian National Archives do have all the churchbooks, probate, censuses and a lot more free of charge http://arkivverket.no/arkivverket/Digitalarkivet. (English/Norwegian menus)
There is a big Norwegian AncestryWiki also at: http://www.genealogi.no/mediawiki/index.php/Portal:Hovedside (only in Norwegian)
Wiewaswie.com can be viewed in english by clicking on the english button on the top of the page. I use this site almost daily! Thank you for sharing all these free sites it makes the search so much easier.
#52 New Zealand newspapers digitised and free to search and download for those researching downunder. I agree with BoB above Trove-Australian newspaper site should be included also.
Lots of info to be found on this site, photos, maps, plot numbers and names of others interned in grave . Also has links to other cemeteries in liverpool.
Information online of whose buried ,plot numbers, maps of cemetery and lots of photos of graves. Is an on going project. Also has links to other cemeteries in liverpool
Rernews my interest in genealogy! Wish had had there sites 30 years ago when was doing so much driving up and down the east coast of the US… Thanks so much for your work in bringing all these sites together…
Geni.com. My favorite thing about searching there is that I can pull up a profile and see all the sources and documents people have already attached. So if I’m without access to a particular database and can’t easily get a record I’m looking for, I can often find the record already uploaded on Geni. And if nothing else, I can find at least one other person researching the same line, so we can collaborate.
I will definately try some of these sites as I have been struggling to find various information, thanks.
#51 – Australian Newspapers.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper?q=
Another resource is as follows:
https://familysearch.org/
Thank you for the great info. I appreciate all the hard work of everyone out there.
Thanks for sharing. Really gonna come in handy. Having trouble finding families.. Thanks again. Joy
thank you for consistently providing helpful information