Do you like to search for genealogy records for your ancestors for Free? Duh. I have about 100 websites that I use, some frequently, some infrequent. Some have digitized records in their collections. Some have links to collections that can be searched or browsed. Some include transcribed records. And some have useful genealogical educational information. They are from the U.S., Canada, and a few from Australia, the UK and Europe.
All of the 100 websites in this list are free to use to your heart’s content.
| 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 worldwide 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 States 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 | Genealogy records, newspapers, and related collections |
| 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 | Southern and Central Appalachian Genealogy Collections |
| 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 (currently offline) |
| 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 |
| Trove | Australian Records, over 6 billion |
| 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 | List of links to genealogy-related resources |
One reply on “The Ancestor Hunt’s Top 100 Free Genealogy Websites”
This list of websites is a great resource for anyone interested in genealogy. I have a collection of name ideas that could help when researching family histories: thebestnameideas.com. It’s essential to have the right names to trace ancestry accurately.