What are good websites to research that are completely free?

+11 votes
375 views

Are there any other 100% completely free websites that I can use for research?  I find a lot of information on Family Search and Find a Grave, but I don't always find everything that I'm looking for.

I google the words "absolutely free geneaology" but all I get are paid sites with a free trial offer which I don't want to do at this time. Or I get sites that allow me to look up three things, then they want my credit card information.

in The Tree House by Kaitlynd Valliant G2G1 (1.3k points)

7 Answers

+9 votes
 
Best answer
by Jim Lynch G2G5 (5.1k points)
selected by Anonymous Vickery
+6 votes

A lot depends on the places you are looking at. I can only talk about England, Canada and Seychelles. I'm not aware of much free for Canada that allows access to the sources, but there are plenty for different counties in England, and for Seychelles. If you look through the location categories you will probably find someone has put together a list for each area.

by Living Hampson G2G6 Pilot (117k points)
+11 votes
Here's another good category to check:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Source
by Julie Ricketts G2G6 Pilot (523k points)
+8 votes
Look in the FamilySearch Wiki for links to other sites. Also, a lot of FamilySearch isn't indexed so instead of searching on a name go to the list of all collections and look for those w/o an index. ALso, don't neglect the FamilySearch catalogue (you can borrow microfilm for a small fee) and their book collections. And speaking of books, Google Books is a good place; a lot of them are digital.

Cyndislist at www.cyndislist.com may have some links as well.

Get yourself a guest membership in Ancestry. This will give you access to whatever free collections and indexes there are. Then keep an eye out for free days where certain types of collections are free for a limited amount of time.
by Rosemary Jones G2G6 Pilot (274k points)
+9 votes

Your going fishing. You found the big lakes like Family Search, Find-a-grave.

Now you want to start finding the small lakes, ponds and hidden fishing holes.  So you need to start asking the locals.

Where do you want to go fishing?  Contact the Libraries and  State and local genealogical and historical societies.

Look for surname groups, family associations, dna groups.

Start asking around.

Also, visit Cyndi's list

The good sites are the ones that have your ancestors, where did they live?  

Fish there.

by Michael Stills G2G6 Pilot (550k points)
+5 votes
Your local library might have resources. Mine has access to Ancestry, obituary and death records, and census records.
by Shaylea Huffnagle G2G1 (1.1k points)
+3 votes
Ancestry.com and familysearch.org
by Living Barnett G2G6 Pilot (521k points)

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