JewishGen is a destination genealogy site that hosts databases, tools, and research resources focused on Jewish ancestry worldwide. It is far more than a research guide—JewishGen contains millions of searchable records, many of which are unavailable on general genealogy websites. For genealogists, JewishGen is especially valuable for: Download the Quicksheet PDF To obtain a two-page […]
Author: Kenneth R Marks
Kenneth R Marks was born and educated in the San Francisco Bay Area, receiving a BS in Mathematics in 1968. His career was in Information Technology; with the last 20 Years as a software executive with Boeing, Pearson, and NASA. His genealogy career began in 2004. He is an expert in newspaper research for genealogy, as well as additional genealogy topics. He regularly conducts webinars on the subject and has authored three genealogy books. See the About page for more details.
The Ancestor Hunt, founded in 2008, is focused on helping genealogy and family history researchers of all skill levels to achieve their goals, by providing links to free online genealogy collections, and search tips and techniques, largely via easy-to-understand Quick Reference Guides.
Most genealogists rely heavily on census records, yet very few ever visit the U.S. Census Bureau website. That’s unfortunate, because the Census Bureau is the authoritative source for understanding how census records were created and what the data actually means. This site is not for finding your ancestors directly.It is for understanding: Think of the […]
USGenWeb Archives was created to solve a major problem: preserving volunteer-created genealogy content in a stable, centralized location. While USGenWeb county sites are independently maintained, USGenWeb Archives acts as a long-term home for transcriptions, organized by state and county. For genealogists, USGenWeb Archives is often: It is especially valuable when original USGenWeb county pages disappear. […]
USGenWeb is one of the oldest and largest genealogy projects on the internet. It does not function like a modern database, and it was never intended to. Instead, it is a massive, distributed network of county-level genealogy websites, each maintained by volunteers and focused on local records, transcriptions, and research aids. For genealogists, USGenWeb is […]
Lowcountry Africana is one of the most important free destination sites for researching African American ancestors in coastal South Carolina and surrounding areas. Unlike general genealogy databases, this site brings together multiple record types, databases, and contextual resources specifically designed to support lineage reconstruction where traditional records are sparse or missing. For genealogists, Lowcountry Africana […]
The FamilySearch Digital Library is one of the most underused genealogy resources available online. While many researchers associate FamilySearch primarily with indexed records, the Digital Library contains books, family histories, local histories, periodicals, and compiled genealogies that often include names, dates, and relationships unavailable elsewhere. For genealogists, the Digital Library is especially valuable for: This […]
The German Genealogy Group is one of the most practical and underused genealogy sites available to researchers. While it supports German-American research, many of its largest and most valuable databases are geographic rather than ethnic, making them useful even when German ancestry has not yet been confirmed. For genealogists, GGG is valuable because it provides […]
MyHeritage continues to add or update its record collections at a fast pace for us to search. For December 1-31, 2025, there are 8 new and 27 updated collections. The new and updated collections are: I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for! Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
Ancestry.com continues to add or update its record collections at a fast pace for us to search. For the period of December 1-31, 2025, the new and updated collections are: I hope that some of these are what you have been waiting for! Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
Find My Past is an underappreciated source for digitized newspapers. It is a subscription site that specializes in British and Irish newspapers. Currently, its collection numbers over 98.4 million pages and is growing rapidly. This month, Find My Past added 12 new titles and added to 50 existing titles. They are listed below: New Titles Updated […]