The following is a list of general resources that I personally use in my own research. This was getting to be a very long page and I have much more to add, so I’ve decided to list multi-State resources here and will dedicate a separate page for each State to try and keep it organized and easy to find what we are looking for.
I’ve tried to include as much information as possible such as addresses, maps, phone numbers, websites and any transcriptions or images found online. This page is here for my recap in case I need to visit one of these resources again and hopefully this will help you with something that you may need. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have anything additional information on one of these resources or a source that I have not listed that you would like to include here.
Genealogy Programs – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.rootsmagic.com/Try/RootsMagic/default.aspx
This is the program that I use and I only use the free version at this time. It’s been a very good and very reliable program. It’s easy to use and navigate. Some of the features are only available with the paid version, but that’s mostly if you want to print certain reports and/or a book.
US National Archives – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.archives.gov
This is the official website of the US National Archives. I don’t even know where to begin to explain all the information that can be found on this site. The Archives hold our history. Granted, not everything is digital and available on-line, however, this is where you will obtain information as to what is available to you, where and how to obtain that information. Also the 1940 US Census was recently released to the public. This was the first time it was put into digital format rather than microfilmed. All of the 1940 census records are available on this site for free. At this time, volunteers are working hard to index it by name.
Fold3 – (Pay Site with a 1 week Free Trail. It does have some FREE sections)
Web Address: http://www.fold3.com
This site is pretty cool. I just started to check it out with the free trial (May 2012), so I’m not sure of everything available as of yet. So far I’ve been able to download and print the original Civil War Records of several people. You do have to know some information before you start such as 1. Where they Union or Confederate 2. What Regiment they were in. After that you simply click on the letter that their surname begins with and look for them through and alphabetical list. I can’t even get those records on Ancestry.com so I’m very happy with this site. They are very interesting and I’ve already learned some great information from these records that I hadn’t known before. Although this site states that it has records from WWI and WWII, I haven’t been able to find actual Service Records for individual soldiers.
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database containing very basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of the CWSS is the Names Index Project, a project to enter names and other basic information from 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives. The facts about the soldiers were entered from records that are indexed to many millions of other documents about Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration. Other information includes: histories of regiments in both the Union and Confederate Armies, links to descriptions of 384 significant battles of the war, and other historical information. Additional information about soldiers, sailors, regiments, and battles, as well as prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records, will be added over time.The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a cooperative effort by the National Park Service (NPS) and several other public and private partners, to computerize information about the Civil War. The goal of the CWSS is to increase the American people’s understanding of this decisive era in American history by making information about it widely accessible. The CWSS will enable the public to make a personal link between themselves and history.
Find A Grave.com – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.findagrave.com/index.html
A free website that started out as a hobby site dedicated to the final resting places of famous people or those who where a part of a famous event, over the last decade it has grown into a massive on-line cemetery with literally hundreds of thousands of people from around the world contributing cemetery photos, transcriptions and short biographies everyday. There are over 11 Billion records on-line. The genealogy community has definitely seen what a great contribution this site is and has joined in. I think that one of the best things about this website is that it is interactive. You can leave virtual flowers, notes, pictures, additional information. This is a five-star site as far as I’m concerned. I’ve started a virtual cemetery for all the families we are researching, click here to check it out. This site is extremely addicting, just remember that I warned you.
Histopolis – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.histopolis.com/Default.aspx
This is a new site for me and I’m still getting acquainted with it. So far it’s been helpful in locating and mapping some smaller locations such as townships and cemeteries. Here is the description they give on their Facebook page: “Histopolis.com provides free genealogy and history information on over 130,000 cemeteries and 220,000 other places in the United States and Puerto Rico including links to other sites with related information. The Histopolis Grave Index allows researchers to find grave information on other genealogy sites, large and small.”
Rootsweb.com – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.rootsweb.com/
If you do genealogy – you need to be familiar with this website! There are free databases, web space, websites, message boards, mailing lists, newsletters, etc…
USGenWeb Project – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.usgenweb.com
The USGenWeb Project is made up of a group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. This Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone.
Familysearch.org – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.familysearch.org
Free family history and genealogy records. From their homepage “Our records span billions of names across hundreds of collections—including birth, marriage, death, probate, land, military, IGI extracted, and more.” This is one of the few free sites left where you can still search the SSDI (Social Security Death Index)
Western States Marriages – (Free)
Web Address: http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/search.cfm
“For nearly three decades, the BYU-I (formerly Ricks College) Arthur Porter Special Collections area of the David O. McKay Library in Rexburg, Idaho has been extracting early marriage records from counties in the western part of the United States. This extraction is called the Western States Marriage Index.
Most of the pre-1900 marriages are included in the index for Arizona, Idaho and Nevada. Many counties for those same states have been extracted into the 1930’s and some, much later. A significant number of marriages from selected counties in California, western Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Utah, eastern Washington, and Wyoming are also included. Very early marriages (1700’s) in New Mexico are currently being added. For more details, see “List of Counties by State“. As of May 22, 2012, this file contains over 700,757 marriage records with additional entries being added nearly every working day.”
Cyndi’s List – (Free)
Web Address: http://www.cyndislist.com/
“A comprehensive, categorized & cross-referenced list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online.”
STATE Resources:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arkansa
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
