Best Free Genealogy Websites

Everyone has their “go-to” websites that they often use to find genealogy resources and information. Here is a list of my favorites for the U.S., Canada, and Europe; and everyone is Free!

(Updated November 2023)

Access Genealogy

  • Transcribed U.S. genealogy records

Advantage Archives

  • Digitized U.S. newspapers, over 100 million pages

Afrigeneas

  • African-American Collections

Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

  • Genealogy collections and records

American Battle Monuments Commission

  • U.S. World War I and II burials

American History & Genealogy Project

  • Transcribed U.S. genealogy records

Ancestry Free Index Collections

  • Genealogy collections and records

Ancient Faces

  • Miscellaneous searchable photo database

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

  • County boundary changes in U.S. states

Automated Genealogy

  • Indices to Canadian Censuses

Behind the Name

  • Histories of thousands of first names and surnames

Billion Graves

  • Cemetery and Burial records

Canadian Virtual War Memorial

  • Registry of Canadians who have died serving in uniform

Canadiana

  • Digitized Canadian journals, books and other publications

CanGenealogy

  • Links to Canadian Genealogy websites

Castle Garden

  • Immigration records

Chronicling America

  • Digitized U.S. newspapers; over 20 million pages

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database

  • Civil War veteran records

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

  • U.K. World War I and II burials

Cyndi’s List

  • List of links to genealogy related resources

Danish Demographic Database

  • Danish genealogy collections

David Rumsey’s Historical Maps

  • 120,000 world-wide maps

Dawes Rolls

  • Native American genealogy collections

Dead Fred

  • Miscellaneous searchable photo database

Death Indexes

  • Links to death, cemetery, and obituary collections

Digital Commons Collections

  • College and University collections

Digital Library of Appalachia

  • Southern and Central Appalachian genealogy collections

Digital Library on American Slavery

  • African-American Collections

Digital Public Library of America

  • Search facility for genealogical collections and records

Digitalarkivet

  • Norwegian genealogy collections

Documenting the American South

  • Southern states genealogy collections

Elephind

  • Digitized world-wide newspapers; over 2,300 titles

Ellis Island

  • Immigration records

FamilySearch

  • Search facility for genealogical records

FamilySearch Catalog

  • Genealogical materials; mostly browsing

FamilySearch Wiki

  • Links and information for collections and records

Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies

  • Eastern European genealogy collections

FindAGrave

  • Cemetery and Burial records and tombstone photos

Free BMD

  • England and Wales birth, marriage, and death records

FreeCEN

  • UK Census Records

Freedmen’s Bureau Online

  • African-American Collections

FreeREG 

  • UK records from Parish Registers

Fulton History

  • Over 55 million digitized newspaper pages

Genealogy Trails

  • Transcribed U.S. genealogy records

Geni 

  • Collaborative Family Tree

GENUKI

  • United Kingdom and Ireland collection links

German Genealogy Group

  • Mostly New York records

Google

  • Genealogy resources search

Google Books

  • Digitized books

Google News Archive

  • Digitized U.S. and Canada newspapers; over 2,000 titles

Guild of One Name Studies

  • Worldwide Surname Research

Hathitrust

  • Digitized books and other printed materials

Historic Map Works

  • Historic digital map database

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

  • Primary Resources from HBCU libraries and archives

I Dream of Genealogy

  • List of links to genealogy related resources

Interment.net

  • Cemetery and Burial records

Internet Archive

  • Genealogy records, newspapers and related collections

Irish Genealogy

  • Variety of church & civil records including vital records

Italian Genealogical Group

  • New York City records

Jewish Gen

  • Jewish genealogy records

Jstor

  • Digital library of journals, books, and primary sources

Kartenmeister

  • German and Polish locations database

LDS Genealogy

  • List of links to genealogy related resources

Library and Archives Canada

  • Canadian genealogy records

Library of Congress Digital Collections

  • Genealogy collections and records

Linkpendium

  • List of links to genealogy related resources

Lowcountry Africana

  • African American Genealogy in SC, GA and FL

Midwest Genealogy Center

  • Regional genealogy plus railroad pension records

National Archives and Records Administration

  • Genealogy collections and records

National Archives of Ireland

  • Irish genealogy collections

National Archives Resources for Genealogists

  • Links to genealogical records and collections

National Cemetery Administration

  • Veterans cemetery records

National Library of Australia

  • Australian genealogy collections

National Library of Ireland

  • Irish genealogy collections

National Library of Scotland

  • Scottish genealogy collections

National Library of Wales

  • Welsh genealogy collections

Nationwide Gravesite Locator

  • Burial locations of Veterans and family members in VA national cemeteries

New Horizons Genealogy

  • Transcribed U.S. genealogy records, primarily New England

New York Public Library Digital Collections

  • Over 900,000 digitized items

Olive Tree Genealogy

  • Ship passenger lists and other genealogy records

One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse

  • Links to search genealogical records and collections

PastPerfectOnline Collections

  • U.S. and Canada digitized museum, library, and archive collections

Patriot and Grave Registry

  • Revolutionary War grave and patriot information

Reclaim the Records

  • Genealogy collections and records

RootsWeb.com

  • Huge genealogy community

Sanborn Maps

  • Fire Insurance maps that show building details

Smithsonian Digital Library

  • Miscellaneous collections

The Ancestor Hunt

  • Links to genealogical records and collections

The Newberry Collections

  • Chicago-based genealogy library

The Official Land Records Site

  • Federal land title records from 1788

The Portale Antenati

  • Italian genealogy collections

U.S. Census Bureau

  • Miscellaneous census-related collections and information

UK National Archives

  • UK genealogy collections

US GenWeb

  • Transcribed U.S. genealogy records

US GenWeb Archives

  • Transcribed U.S. genealogy records

Veridian Newspapers

  • Digitized world-wide newspapers, over 85 million pages

Volksbund German War Graves Commission

  • Germany World War I and II burials

Wie Was Wie

  • Dutch genealogy collections

WikiTree 

  • Collaborative Family Tree

WorldGenWeb

  • World-wide genealogy records

Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

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