What's a good underutilized web site for sourcing?

+15 votes
427 views
I feel like exploring.  I'm sure there are tons of web sites I had no idea existed.  What's your favorite "unkinown" goldmine of  genealogical information.  Particularly one which is useful for sourcing.
in The Tree House by Living Dardinger G2G6 Pilot (454k points)
Great post Dave

8 Answers

+6 votes
 
Best answer
That's a broad question but one site people don't mention often is the BLM GLO records, which are free. For people who have ancestors who traveled west, the site is an incredible resource of land purchase documents. Often you can see the original land purchase contract. You can see where the land was on a map, and any joint purchasers. I've found it to be really useful for helping identify when a family moved from one area to another.
by Michele Lukowski G2G1 (1.3k points)
selected by Living Dardinger
Good one!  I did actually use that once to find my William Miller (3rd ggrandfather) who bought land in Licking County. Ohio.  Unfortunately, though it had the land patent available to download, it just showed him to have been living there and didn't give a lead to where he came from.  BTW does anyone know if you can upload the documents from that site to WilkTree?  It is a government site I believe and I'd think material there should be public records.
+12 votes

Depends what/where you are researching. For Ontario, Canada I often find hidden gems in http://ourontario.ca/ For Canada-wide http://ourroots.ca/ is full of surprises with a wide array of local histories. In the Netherlands I am always discovering new-to-me municipal archives that often have loads of digitized local content (newspapers, books, legal documents, photographs).

As far as U.S. sources (outside of archive.org and hathi trust) I will see if universities/colleges near where I am researching have digitized collections. Some states have great collections of digitized content freely available (North Carolina for example), but many seem to treat history only as a revenue stream.

I also like to hit up Old Maps Online to get a better 'sense of place' - I find looking at period maps often helps my research (oh look - X's house was right by St. Y church that moved - maybe their records will have something on X)

by Rob Ton G2G6 Pilot (299k points)
Well, one good thing your answer does is point out that there are categories of underutilized sources.  Though I can't think of many relatives from Canada and no ancestors, I can think of a need for maps or municipal archives, so thahks.
Thank you for the map link. That's awesome!
Agree with Kelley, Rob. The map source is vey helpful.
+5 votes
by Anonymous Vickery G2G6 Pilot (268k points)
+5 votes
This site isn't unknown, at least to me, but a lot of people don't use all the goodies available on http://www.familysearch.org. In particular I'm thinking of the Wiki, the Books, and the unindexed collections.
by Rosemary Jones G2G6 Pilot (272k points)
+5 votes
My latest favourite is the National Library of Australia Trove website; all sorts of interesting things, especially searchable newspapers, and best of all it is free!
by Living Hampson G2G6 Pilot (116k points)
+4 votes
I really like findmypast they do great deals as well
by E G G2G6 (7.8k points)
+5 votes

With an awesome search system the Hiski Project is a great, free source fo Finland research.

by Norm Lindquist G2G6 Mach 7 (78.3k points)
+4 votes

dustydocs.com It is a free source for English parish registers. Also seems to have a lot of other interesting info/links on it, including a link to wikitree :-)

by Chase Ashley G2G6 Pilot (329k points)
edited by Chase Ashley

Related questions

+16 votes
2 answers
280 views asked Mar 1, 2014 in The Tree House by Billy Wallace G2G6 Pilot (241k points)
+6 votes
2 answers
+17 votes
1 answer
+10 votes
4 answers
+4 votes
1 answer
+9 votes
6 answers
+6 votes
0 answers
+4 votes
3 answers
180 views asked Jul 21, 2017 in Policy and Style by Robin Whitman G2G1 (1.4k points)
+10 votes
2 answers

WikiTree  ~  About  ~  Help Help  ~  Search Person Search  ~  Surname:

disclaimer - terms - copyright

...