In the hunt for genealogy information eventually a person will need to search public records. Luckily, there are plenty of places on the web to find useful family tree information.
One of the best websites is Ancestry.com. This website has been around since the 1990's in various incantations but not until recent years has it become the de facto place to find public records.
Ancestry.com is a fee-based genealogy website which allows subscribers to search a huge archive of records including birth, death, marriages, military, census records, voter records, immigration, travel/passport, and international records. Users can also upload gedcom files to the website and continue to add records and family trees to there own without actually having to manual type the information.
The census records are one of the most helpful tools on the website. Users can search for family members either by using the search engine on top of the home page or by clicking on the search link on a person in the family tree. The search results will come back with thousands of census records in all the years; the best thing to do is narrow this search down by picking a year for the census and searching within that year. For example, the search can be narrowed to the 1800's and further down to every ten years. For census searches, it really helps to have as much information about the person as possible including name, birth date and place of birth. From there it is a matter of deduction much like Sherlock Holmes - does this person have relatively the same birthday, is the place correct, the right parent's names, etc.
Ancestry.com also has almost all birth, death and marriage records for the United States as well as many records from other countries. These results will give the user a stepping-stone for further research as it is possible that some of the records have errors.
Errors can be a problem with using Ancestry.com because not all census takers wrote down names with the correct spelling. Some birth or death records have wrong dates on them. One of the most frustrating of all is the Family Trees, which are put on the site by members. Most researchers do a good job of fact checking before including any information on a person but not everybody takes the time to get the facts right. For instance, while searching for a specific family member I ran across a tree with what seemed to have the name of the mother and father for my family member, which I didn't have, but on further examination I found that the actual birth date of the parents was after the birth of the child. A complete impossibility, and a step back in my research. Just a word of warning, make sure you double check those trees before including them in your own family.
Another good site is Cyndi's List, which is a free gargantuan search engine of all things genealogy. The home page has an alphabetical list of direct links to websites on all facets of family searches. One very handy tool she has to help narrow this hunt is a search engine for the website at the top of the page. Researchers can type in a family name, state, or even a website and search for the results, which will come up in alphabetical, order. This site usually takes some time to search through so be prepared to cut out a wide swatch of the day searching.
The US GenWeb Project is a free nonprofit website run by volunteers from across the United States to help genealogist researchers. The website has links to all 50 states and from there each state is broken down into counties. For the most part the counties can be searched by such things as church records, maps, census records, courthouse and government records, bible records, newspapers, and photographs. Most sites have a search engine where a researching can type in the family name of the person they are looking for which can save hours of hunting through pages.
One thing needs mentioning, not all counties have the same searchable records this is a volunteer effort and some of the states do not have the personnel to get information onto the websites. But it is still a great tool for researches, which can lead to some real breakthroughs in people searches.
There is also a free WorldGenWeb Project which is much the same idea as the US GenWeb Project with volunteers from across the world uploading links to websites worldwide. Searches begin at the regional level and then go to country websites. Many family trees are posted on this site and are searchable with contact information from the poster. It is a large site and one that takes a lot of time to search through.
GenealogyBank.com is another fee-based website that allows users to search a myriad of information, including obituaries, historical newspapers, books, pamphlets, military records, government records, and Social Security Death Index. Finding information through newspapers is a great way to find information on family members that will give a researcher a broader picture of a family. This is also a good way to get information on just about anybody. Searching archives can be used for more than genealogy but also for employers, business research, or historical interests.
Find A Grave.com is a free search website, which allows researchers to search for cemeteries by name, date of death, birth and place. It also includes a search database on the tombstones and resting places of famous people. It has a fun search for humorous or touching tombstones throughout the United States. This is a great place to search for family members or anybody else who is dead and gone. However, one drawback is that it doesn't have every single tombstone listed on some 55 million grave records but it is a good place to start a posthumous search.
NewspaperArchives.com is a fee-based website, which allows users to search newspaper archives from around the world. This is great for not only family tree research but also for historical research projects and general interest. They have a search engine, which will look up by name, place, and year. Users can view a brief summary of the results free but to view the whole newspaper page users must pay a small fee. The page will come up as a PDF file, which means Adobe Reader is required to view the full pages. The nice thing is Adobe Readers, is a free download and once you have the program you can save the newspaper pages for future reference.
Free public records at FreePRF.com is also another option for searching for people but it would be more applicable to searching for family members in the modern age. This website has links for searching phone records, court records, criminal records, property checks, military records and a ton of other searches. At the top of the page, it has a search engine for the entire site by name and place. This is a handy tool for narrowing down the search options.
Rootsweb.com is a free website with a variety of search engines. There is the metasearch, which takes the name of the person and searches through databases and websites across the web for that name. In addition, there is a search engine for Social Security Death Index, which allows users to search through millions of deaths all by date, name, place, social security number. This very powerful and useful tool can shed light on many missing dates for family members. You also have the option of purchasing a copy of the social security application for the deceased person. Getting this piece of paper can take research one-step closer to finding parents, where the person lived and correct spellings of names as the person filling out the form is usually the person who's applying for the Social Security card. Rootsweb.com also has a database called WorldConnect, a search database hosting millions of family trees. Millions of genealogists who are searching for family members upload their trees using this database. Once again users must be careful because there can be errors in the research so all information should be double-checked.
FamilySearch.Org recently rolled out their new and improved search engine. FamilySearch.org is probably one of the oldest free websites on the internet for genealogist. It is a great tool for finding family members from all over the world. People have uploaded their family trees to the website which allows users to download the files as ged.com. The files can be opened with any family tree programs. FamilySearch.org also has its own free genealogy program, which is limited in tools but a very good way to start your family tree at no cost.
These are just a few of the websites available for researchers to use. Information in the internet age is as easy to find as a click of a button. It still takes time to sift through the bounty of records and find the exact match. Good hunting!
GenealogyBank.com The largest online newspaper archive for family history research with over 1.5 billion names from 1600's to present day. Search free.
Free Genealogy Search Advice Answer a series of questions and get free, customized advice on the next steps for your genealogy search
FamilySearch.org
Search For Ancestors from an official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Online
Genealogical Database Index This index contains links to all known genealogical databases searchable
through the Web. It is limited to searchable databases.
USGenWeb Project Free genealogy and family history online made possible by the USGenWeb Project volunteers. Search free genealogy websites for your ancestors.
Preserve Your Family History - From Genealogy to Heritage Album Online Genealogy store,selling products to create a family heritage or family history album as well as charts, how-to books,scrapbooking products and supplies, and helpful information and links to start your family tree research.
