Major Genealogical Resouce Collections & Tools

AASL: State Historical Societies

The American Association for State & Local History's Resource Center provides this page of links to State Historical Societies. Requires free registration to use national, state, or local materials.

AfriGeneas African Ancestored Genealogy

The Librarians' Index to the Inetnet calls this "a searchable collection of census records, slave data, and other documents. There is a surname database, calendar of reunions and other events, discussion forum and chat section, archived e-mail list, a beginner's genealogical research guide, and more. With its intent to find and document the last slaveholder and the first African in each family, the site encourages submissions of information and adoption of regions and topics for further research."

The Statue of Liberty—Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

Volunteers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have transcribed the detailed passenger lists, known as ship manifests, of the more than 22 million immigrants who came to Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924. You can search for individuals in Passenger Search. Some areas of this site require registration (free), others require membership in the Foundation. The database is experiencing heavy use, so try to access the site during off-peak hours.

American Local History Network

The American Local History Network (ALHN) is a nonprofit public benefit corporation whose purpose is to serve as the hub of a network of freely-accessible, independent historical and genealogical web sites maintained by volunteer webmasters. All ALHN websites are categorized by State or Topic.

Interment.net

Searchable database of more than 3.5 million records from over 7,500 cemeteries. Interment.net contains thousands of transcriptions of cemetery records and tombstone inscriptions, from cemeteries in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.

Census Finder A Directory of Free Census Records

According to LII, this site contains over 35,000 links to census information. Primarily containing sites with U.S. data, the site also has some links to Canada, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. (Not all areas of the countries covered are represented.) Types of sites include county/parish/province archives, message boards, and maps. Other features include a guide to historical museums in the U.S. and a section for Native American information. Advertising may obscure the free content, but it's there and worthwhile.

Census Links

A directory of over 7,000 sites for genealogical research. While the majority are for the United States, several other countries are included. Resources for the United States may be browsed at the state or county level. Research Aids contains links specifically about the United States census. Searchable.

Census Tools

A collection of free Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to download for recording census data. Includes forms for all federal U.S. Census data, some state censuses, Canadian, English, Irish, and Scottish censuses, and special topics such as the 1890 Surviving Veterans and Widows Schedule.

Christine's Genealogy Website

Christine Cheryl Charity's comprehensive collection of African American genealogical resources.

City Directories of the USA

City Directories, arguably one of the most over-looked resources by genealogists, have been around since the 1700s. This web site will attempt to identify all printed, microfilmed, and online directories, and their repositories, for the United States...[in order to] answer these questions: does a directory exist for a locality? If it does, where can it be found? Includes examples of directory use and a bibliography.

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System

The initial focus of this site is the Names Index Project, containing information from the 5.4 million military records in the National Archives.

Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet

Over 263,150+ links for family history ! 254,750 of which are organized and cross-referenced in 180+ categories.

FamilySearch

Research over 950 million names that are part of the world's largest collection of genealogical data at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Genealogy Home Page

Stephen A. Wood's award-winning annotated list of over 4,000 resources, with frequent updates.

Genealogy Resources on the Internet: World Wide Web

Chris Gaunt at UofM maintains this very comprehensive alphabetical list of sites, although it was last updated in 2005.

Library of Congress Local History & Genealogy Reading Room

The Library of Congress has one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogical and historical publications, which began as early as 1815 when Thomas Jefferson's library was purchased. In addition to these print resources, a strong collection of genealogical links is included on this page.

Library of Michigan Abrams Foundation Historical Collection

A rich source for Michigan Genealogy & Local History Research, including excellent advice and bibliographies, and downloadable .pdf documents.

Library of Michigan Genealogy Web Sites

A very comprehensive list of sites and tools, including software.

Michigan Vital Statistics

Records of births, marriages, and deaths that occurred in Michigan and were filed with the state since 1867. Michigan divorce records since 1897 are also available.

National Archives and Records Administration: The Genealogy Page

This page provides many finding aids, "quick guides", and research tools that can prepare you for a visit to the facility, or requesting records from NARA. Records housed at the National Archives include Federal Population Census (1790-1930), military service and pension records, immigration and naturalization records.

Nat'l Archives of Canada

ArchiviaNet, the National Archives of Canada's online research tool "provides access to a variety of information resources related to the actual archival holdings." In the Canadian Genealogy Centre, you may search such topics as ethnic groups, births, marriages and deaths, census, military and immigration records.

The Newberry Library

Chicago's legendary privately-funded research library offers one of the nation's most prominent collections, including useful guides on ethnic groups.

Genealogical Research at the New York Public Library

One of the largest genealogical and local history collections in the country with "how-to" manuals, passenger lists, census records, U. S. military sources, D.A.R. and Irish sources.