books to read free kindle unlimited

15 Genealogy Books You Can Read for Free With Kindle Unlimited

Ongoing education is one of the keys to productive genealogy research. Whether you’re taking a fun online family history course like The Genealogy Journey or curling up with some new genealogy books — you’ll be surprised how much there is to learn in the ever-changing world of modern family history research.

One of our favorite ways to access genealogy books at a reasonable cost (besides our local library) is via Kindle Unlimited.

Update, Sept 2018 – Not all of these books are currently still available with Kindle Unlimited but are still available to purchase on Amazon.

Please note that some of the links in this article are affiliate links. This means that we may receive a small amount of compensation if  you choose to buy from Amazon using these links. The program helps us support Family History Daily at no cost to you. 

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Amazon has a very good selection of genealogy books and a surprisingly large amount of them are available “free” to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. For the monthly price of $9.99 (after free trial), Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read an uncapped amount of books from the more than 700,000 choices available. While some of these books would cost only a few dollars if purchased outright, others cost enough to justify paying for an entire month of the service by themselves.

Kindle Unlimited can be especially valuable if you like to have access to a large variety of research material, but don’t want to commit to spending hundreds of dollars at once to build your library, or if you enjoy genealogy focused fiction books that you’ll go through quickly. We’ve put together a list of the most popular and interesting reads in the family history category, as well as some helpful information on how to access these books for “free” with a new or existing subscription.

How do I access genealogy books for “free” with a Kindle Unlimited subscription?

You do not need a Kindle device to access books through Kindle Unlimited (unlike with a Prime membership). This is a real plus for those who would rather read on their mobile phone, tablet or computer or who do not own a Kindle device. Once subscribed to the service (get a 30 day free trial here), you simply select the “read for free” button on any qualifying book to download it to your kindle, computer or phone.

To read on anything other than a Kindle device, you will need the free kindle reading app. It’s easy to use and available for just about every device. However, if you would like to enjoy your books on a dedicated reader, you may want to consider investing in Kindle. Kindle readers, like the excellent Paperwhite, are a wonderful way to enjoy digital content without the digital feel. The screens on these devices mimic paper and reduce eye strain considerably.

15 Genealogy Books You Can Read for Free With Kindle Unlimited


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Also check out:

Interested in print books? Check out our list of the best genealogy books for new and advanced family historians.

Top Image: $2,500,000 in rare books acquired for Folger Library. Washington, D.C., May 14 1938, Library of Congress

Originally published in Sept 2014 and updated for 2016

4 thoughts on “15 Genealogy Books You Can Read for Free With Kindle Unlimited”

  1. There are 3 comments here, one in 2014 (when this article was likely written), one in 2016, and one in 2017.
    As of today, December 22, 2017, most of these are NOT on the Kindle Unlimited inventory. I did find all the genealogy fiction series by Steve Robinson on Kindle Unlimited (a 6-book series), and also the ‘Hiding in the Past’ first book of the series of that series – the rest of that series were available for sale. Also, a book by Nancy Hendrickson was on the Kindle Unlimited – ’52 Weeks of Genealogy: Projects for Every Week of the Year Kindle Edition’, but not the one listed in this article by Nancy Hendrickson. Most of the links of the books in the latter part of those shown only showed an image of the book when CTRL+clicking on it, as the link was broken to go to the actual page on Amazon.com. Just FYI for those reading this for any later re-printing of this article.

  2. my family name is Jean-Baptiste from Haiti I don’t think I can find any thing from there. My grand father was from a place name Jeanrabel

  3. this is perfect timing for the holiday season for the genealogist on your list. Thanks for compiling this list for Kindle users, that make it easier to read many in one sitting. The 101 best genealogy websites would be an interesting read to see which sites they picked. Again, thanks for compiling this great list for holiday gift giving!

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