Question of the Week: What are some of the websites you subscribe to ...

Question

... and what do you find most beneficial to your research?

All of us are always looking for new places to find information. What's your favorite?

Comments

at the moment my main places are:

Ancestry
Findmypast (when I can't find what i'm looking for on ancestry)
Gedmatch
and good old facebook stalking

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• Ancestry
• NEHGS
• Find a Grave
• Google
• Scotland"s People
• Family Search

It depends on what I am looking for as to where I will look. I am new to Wiki Tree and just learning how to use it.

Answer 1

You can dig deep on Facebook.  Search for small towns, surnames, as well as specific regions of countries.  I belong to even a small, unknown town where my mother grew up called  ..."I lived in Davy, WV and I survived" .  One group: Genealogy: I Need Your Help... you can post just about any question or comment.  People post incredible maps and charts and more.  Make a list of all of your towns, states, counties, surnames, etc. and do a facebook search for (xyz) genealogy or (xyz) family history.

• Ancestry.com
• FindAGrave.com
• Google Search.com
• WikiTree.com 
• Rootsweb.com
• Familysearch.org
• Facebook Groups:   German groups, various state and county groups, Restore and Color Old Pictures 
•  My wish list includes GedMatch and restoring my lost RootsMagic data

 

Comments

Thank you so much!  I appreciate your vote. I am glad my answer helped you.

Answer 2

My go-to websites:

• Ancestry.com
• FindAGrave.com
• Google! :)
• WikiTree ;)
• Rootsweb.com
• Facebook (if living)

I know I need to spread out a bit more on the sites I check out.

Comments

A definite Me Too for Google and Facebook!

I did a lot of contemporary research a couple of years ago and confirmed many descendants of a common ancestor the FaceBook way.

Google is great for getting ideas to follow up. There are a lot of Swedish trees on self-published sites etc. out there - and it's a lot easier finding the sources when I have dates and places to go by.

Rootsweb... well, sometimes there are sources, at other times there are coherent ideas, at yet other times at least an explanation of where faulty data may have spread from :-(

Answer 3

My Go-to places are:

• Ancestry.com
• Familysearch.com
• Findagrave.com
• Wiki Tree

I have several small places I hit for specialized items like ScotlandsPeople, Fold3, Newspapers, etc.  But I also spend a lot of time working the DNA angle on:

• GEDmatch
• 23andME
• Ancestry.com

I have a free program called Genome Mate Pro on which I have been mapping my chromosome matches.  It has been helping me to make sense of my thousands of DNA matches.

My not so favorite website so far is My Heritage and I would like to check out Find My Past to see what they have to offer.

When looking for a specific piece of information, I am not afraid to call cemeteries, companies that have been around for a century (like when I called the New York Met archives), genealogical societies and museums.  You never know where a nugget might turn up.  And of course, I use Google when I can't think of anywhere else to turn ;)

Answer 4

I subscribe to Ancestry & GenealogyBank. I use many others, but they do not require subscriptions.

Answer 5

1. Ancestry.com

2. Findagrave.com

3. Wikitree.com

4. Cagenweb.com

5. Archive.org

6. augustana.edu (Swedish ancestry - go all of the way down to the bottom of the page and click on Swenson Center; that will bring you to Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center)

Ancestry is the site I use the most

Answer 6

Being Swedish, I subscribe to both the big providers of digitized images of records, Arkiv Digital and Riksarkivet SVAR. Both are very useful, definite favourites. I'm just a little envious of the other Nordic countries, where similar material is available free.

I also still have a premium subscription to MyHeritage, although definitely NOT a favourite.

Answer 7

1. Family Search - I use family search first.

2. Find A Grave

3. US GenWeb Project and my state's GenWeb Pages

4. Facebook - for Historical Societies and relatives.

5. Newspapers.com

Answer 8

I don't currently subscribe to any pay sites. I use Family Search, Heritage Census records through my local library portal and a lot of books I've purchased for Louisiana civil and church records. I use Rootsweb.com for researching possible connections. There are also a few sites that have published good information on Acadian families like http://www.acadian-cajun.com and http://www.acadian-home.org.

Answer 9

You didn't specify pay or free so you're going to get a mix

1. NewsBank for their "America's Obituaries & Death Notices." Free via my library's portal; absolutely priceless for obits from the mid 1980s through current.
2. Legacy Family Tree Webinars. The webinars are free at the time of broadcast and several days afterward. The paid subscription gives me access to the syllabus and the webinars after the free period expires. There's nothing like webinars on demand on whatever topic I happen to need to learn about at that particular moment in my research.
3. InternetArchive - the free subscription lets me create my own collections (for instance, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, City Directories 1875-1963)
4. FamilySearch - probably 75% of my sources are found here. It's always my starting point.
5. Ancestry - about 10% of my sources. If I get a hit on city directories, I head to InternetArchive
6. FindAGrave - lets me send corrections to memorial managers and set up virtual cemeteries if the family is spread out.

Answer 10

The place I found the most helpful was Ancestry, I just couldn't afford it anymore.

Answer 11

My main workhorse is FamilySearch but as I'm British I also subscribe to FindMyPast.co.uk which offers good value for money and has many digitized images.

I don't like ancestry's pricing so much but can use it for free at a local library! I also use FreeBMD extensively and will also be using the GRO.GOV.UK site more now that they have mother's maiden names.

Answer 12

At the moment, I have a subscription to Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, and Newspapers.com.  I also belong to a couple of New York-specific Facebook genealogy groups: New York City Genealogy and Brooklyn History, Brooklyn Genealogy & Lost & Found

In the past, I have subscribed to (or paid for content on):

• FindMyPast
• Roots Ireland
• Scotland's People
• GenealogyBank

Other websites I use frequently (aside from FamilySearch, Facebook, Google, and Find-A-Grave) - most of these are New York-specific:

• New York State Historic Newspapers
• Fultonhistory.com
• Brooklyn Historical Society
• Brooklyn Public Library's Digital Collections
• Brooklyn Genealogy
• Italian Genealogical Group - NYC births, deaths, & marriages indices
• Green-Wood Cemetery's burial search 
• IrishGenealogy.ie

For research in Australia:

• National Archives of Australia
• Trove
• BDM (Births, Deaths, Marriages) lookups in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland etc
• The Ryerson Index - death notices and obituaries
• Western Australia Metropolitan Cemeteries Board burial record lookup
• AustralianRoyalty.net.au
• Australian Cemeteries Index

Answer 13

i use the LDS family search.org....I have found that when researching past ancestors, many LDS members have already researched those ancestors so that when you pull up a particular name, there may already be a complete family tree in existence.

Answer 14

Ancestry.com - Clearly the most informative but it's also very very expensive.  One of the best/cheapest things you can do is gather all of your research together and when you've got a couple of weeks of holiday, get a trial membership.  Set yourself a calendar reminder to terminate the trial a couple of days before the trial ends.  You'll still have good access after you cancel until the trial period is over. 

 

Google - The cheapest and fastest option.for general information. Google names that you know and a location or date (or try googling husband and wife teams to get results that give you their kids). Googling doesn't give you a lot of detail, particularly when it hits the paid sites but it usually gives you enough information to establish the basic trees. 

 

Trove -  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/  This is an Australian resource. It's got lots of old newspapers. Try doing advanced searches for last names only which are also Family notices or obituaries.  This quite often gives you information about siblings, spouses, residential addresses and children. 

Answer 15

Family Search.org

Ancestry® | Genealogy

Find A Grave - 

FindMyPast.com

MyHeritage.com

 

Answer 16

I have used ancestry.com and family tree maker. Also the morman church library and our local library and find a grave.com.  I have also done some traveling to search for ancestors and got hints from them as well as others.  I find wikitree.com a harder to use. But I mostly joined to help others because I have finished most of my own history.

Answer 17

Here are my sites I actively use

1. WikiTree (Best site ever)
2. Ancestry.com  ( the Only site to have a full range of New Zealand records)
3. FamilySearch (Most of my records)
4. Google Genealogy (if you know how to use search terms, this is the best search engine)
5. MyHeritage.com (desktop Software free) 
6. Geni.com (Free Account for contacting distant family)
7. RootsWeb (Why am I subscribed?)

Answer 18

Don't subscribe to any pay site, just use the free ones.  I like FamilySearch, RootsWeb message boards & mailing lists, Genforum message boards even though defunct. Pick up a lot of information from the various genealogy publications available on the newsstand.  Use the local library and Family History Center whenever I can.  Use Google to search a lot, as well as Google books, Internet Archive and a number of other book sites.  I belong to a lot of Facebook groups but most are not real informative.  Also check out the US Genweb a lot.