I thought I would take a bit of time here to jot down some of my favorite genealogy websites, but before I do, I want to remind you that not all information on websites is of equal quality. There are websites which offer free information. These are often databases with information transcribed from the source record and are often very helpful as finding aids, but you should always try to view the original source data or a copy such as a scanned image or photocopy yourself. There are beginning to me more websites that do publish images of the original source material.
Don't overlook Wiki Articles too. They often have helpful information about a geographic location, biographical information about a person. You can find almost any kind of information in Wikipedia. Again you will need to double-check the source of the information. Anyone can contribute to a Wiki so some are better than others.
The social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are also offering another way for family members to connect and share information. You might want to investigate if you prefer this way to connect to your family and genealogy friends. This is a good way to connect with relatives to share documents that might not be available from any other source.
There are also several subscription websites that generally do offer images of the source documentation and they provide search tools to help you search their extensive databases which connect you to the image link.
Free Websites:
- Missouri Digital Archives - death certificates, land patents, coroner's inquests, etc. New information added frequently.
- FamilySearch - now starting to offer links to some documents; keep checking this site as it just keeps improving.
- FindAGrave - this website is also under constant revision; volunteers contribute cemetery listings and often include photos of the cemetery marker and biographical information.
- Newspaper Abstracts - new information from newspapers contributed daily.
- U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service - information about ordering U.S. Immigration service records.
- Rootsweb - an old standby; this website has been around many years; consists of volunteer contributed information; databases; photos; historical and biographical information, much, much more.
- GenealogyToday - This site has both free and subscription areas. In the free area it contains reference articles, how-to information, good collection of funeral cards and other unique databases as well as links to less common genealogy websites and search engine that links to other well known genealogy sites.
- National Archives of Ireland - census records, information about life in Ireland and more.
- Limerick Burial Records - Limerick, Ireland burial records
- Limerick Quaker Records - Meeting minutes from the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Limerick, Ireland
Subscription Websites
- Ancestry.com - my favorite genealogy website
- Footnote.com - also excellent source for images of original records
- NewspaperArchive.com - this is a good website for find newspaper articles
- GenealogyBank.com - variety of valuable information
- WorldVitalRecords.com - collection of databases; good finding aid
Watch for updates to this post!!
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