HELPFUL GENEALOGY WEBSITES
Paul Rose is a dedicated historian and registered genealogist, has passionately pursued genealogy since his teens, tracing his ancestry back to 1100.
Paul would love to discuss some points of interest with you at prose0849@gmail.com
💻 HELPFUL GENEALOGY WEBSITES
Explore a list of websites our group has used or referenced in past meetings. A great starting point for your family history research!
| Category | Website Name | Website Address | |
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Ancestry | Ancestry.com or Ancestry.ca |
| A human-centered platform enables users to unlock their family history, uncover personal stories, and gain insights into their ancestry through historical records and a vast DNA network. Customers can preserve family legacies, connect with kin, and enrich lives by embarking on a journey of self-discovery. User fees required. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | www.facebook.com | |
| A social media site that is public domain. A good source to trace, research and contact living relatives. Copying and posting pictures and posts may infringe on privacy issues. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Family Search | www.Familysearch.com |
| Search billions of ancestor profiles, photographs, and historical documents at once—absolutely FREE. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Find A Grave | www.findagrave.com |
| Find the graves of ancestors, create virtual memorials or add photos, virtual flowers and a note to a loved one’s memorial. Search or browse cemeteries and grave records for every-day and famous people from around the world. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Findmypast | www.Findmypast.com |
| Findmypast is a UK-based online genealogy service owned, since 2007, by British company DC Thomson. The website hosts billions of searchable records of census, directory and historical record information. It originated in 1965 when a group of genealogists formed a group named “Title Research”. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Fold3.com | https://www.fold3.com/login |
| Fold3® features premier collections of original military records. These records include the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served in the military. Many of the records come from the U.S. National archives, The National Archives of the U.K. and other international rec | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | FreeBMD | www.freebmd.org.uk |
| FreeBMD is a UK-based charitable organisation and website founded in 1998, and established as charity in 2003 to create a free transcription of the indexes to Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales from 1837 to 1983. It also provides on-line access to images of the pages of the BMD indexes. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Genealogy Bank | www.genealogybank.com |
| GenealogyBank.com is an online subscription genealogical service that provides access to records useful in family history research. GenealogyBank is one of the largest collections of digitized U.S. newspapers, dating back to 1690. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | My Heritage | www.Myheritage.com |
| MyHeritage is an online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and software products and services, | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Newspapers.com | www.newspapers.com |
| The largest online newspaper archive, established in 2012. Used by millions for genealogy and family history, historical research, crime investigations, journalism, and entertainment. Search for obituaries, marriage announcements, birth announcements, social pages, national and local news articles, sports, advertisements, entertainment, fashion and lifestyle pages, comics, and more. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | wikepedia | www.wikepedia.com |
| Encyclopedia Britanica online: What a wealth of knowlge is available here. If any of your family has a tie in history look them up. Captains of ships, artists, film and TV stars, the list of possibilities is endless. | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | Wikitree | https://www.wikitree.com/ |
| WikiTree is a free, collaborative, and open-source genealogy website focused on building a single, shared family tree for the world. It emphasizes accuracy and collaboration, encouraging users to contribute and connect with others to build a comprehensive and verifiable family history | |||
| M | Major Genealogy Research Sites | WorldGenWeb | www.worldgenweb.org |
| Provides genealogical and historical records and resources for world-wide access. The goal is to have every region in the world represented by a website and hosted by researchers who are familiar with the region. | |||
| A | Australia | National Library of Australia | |
| Explore cemetery records, find addresses and occupations, migration records, convict listings, arrivals and departures, military records, Family stories and Biographies. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | BMD Registers: | https://bmdregisters.co.uk/ |
| This site has millions of nonconformist records from The National Archives, which were deposited with the registrar general in 184 | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Baptist History | https://www.baptisthistory.org.uk/ |
| The Baptist Historical Society’s site includes all kinds of information about the early history of this nonconformist denomination | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | A Dictionary of Methodism | https://dmbi.online/ |
| The dictionary contains information relating to the nonconformist denomination of Methodism in Britain and Ireland | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Expert’s Choice: Dissenting Academies Online | |
| Dissenting Academies Online is a major database and encyclopedia for the study of these institutions between 1660 and 1860. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | GenUKI | https://www.genuki.org.uk |
| GENUKI provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland. It is a non-commercial service, maintained by a charitable trust and a group of volunteers. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Methodist Heritage | https://www.methodistheritage.org.uk/ |
| This is a great source of advice for researching Methodists. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | The National Archives | |
| Learn how to find nonconformist material at TNA, and archives and libraries across the UK. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | (The) Old Bailey | https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ |
| The Old Bailey is where all the court proceedings too place in London England in “the old days.” This website has a searchable database so you can plunk in your ancestor’s name(s) and learn if they were involved, as a witness, the victim, or the criminal. Even if you have no ancestors here, learning the severity of the punishment for crimes in the old days, is well worth the read. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Oxford Center for Methodism and Church History | |
| Sources held here include circuit preaching plans, issues of the Methodist Magazine, and Wesleyan Methodist student registers. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Quaker Collections | |
| Find out more about the key Quaker collections held at the library of the University of Leeds. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Quakers in Britain | https://quaker.org.uk/resources/library |
| The Library of the Religious Society of Friends in Central London holds a host of archives about the nonconformist Quaker community | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Quaker Family History Society | https://newtrial.qfhs.co.uk/ |
| This is a leading body for Quaker research. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Strict Baptist Historical Society | https://www.sbhs.org.uk/ |
| Find out more about the group’s library, events, meetings and publications. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Unitarian Historical Society | https://unitarianhistory.org.uk/ |
| If your ancestors were Unitarians or English Presbyterians, this is a great place to start. | |||
| B | Britain: Non-Conformist Family History | Wesley Historical Society | https://www.wesleyhistoricalsociety.org.uk/ |
| The society’s site is a useful stomping ground, with an introduction to Methodist genealogy as well as links to regional societies and archives. | |||
| C | Canada | Archives Canada | |
| The records here are minimal and mostly indexes of the microfilm you’ll find your information on. However, you can order military records, birth, marriage and death records, and you will find other records scanned an available to see, such as Attestation papers from WWI and other. | |||
| C | Canada | Census Research Tool Online | |
| The new Census Search is a one-stop-shop to search more than 44 million census records all at once rather than searching 17 census databases individually. It includes pre-Confederation and Canadian census records from 1825 to 1926. | |||
| C | Canada | Cemetery Sleuthing: Alberta Genealogy Society | www.abgenealogy.ca and www.edmontongenealogy.ca |
| C | Canada | Cemetery Sleuthing: Edmonton Public Library | www.epl.ca |
| C | Canada | Cemetery Sleuthing: Find A Grave | www.findagrave.com |
| C | Canada | Cemetery Sleuthing: Library and Archives Canada | www.library-archives.canada.ca |
| C | Canada | Cemetery Sleuthing: Newspapers.com |
Research Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald, etc.
www.newspapers.com |
| C | Canada | Cemetery Sleuthing: Provincial Archives of Alberta | www.provincialarchives.alberta.ca |
| C | Canada | Peel’s Prairie Provinces | https://library.ualberta.ca/peel |
| A digital collection of historical records, books, pamphlets, postcards, and other materials representing the diverse cultures and peoples that live in the Canadian Prairies. | |||
| C | Canada | RCMP: Genealogy and Archival Research | |
| Provides research into the Service Files, Genealogy, Photos, Archival Research and Annual Reports of RCMP Personnel. | |||
| C | Canada | Veterans Affiars Canada | https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance |
| Military records of Canadian soldiers | |||
| C | Canada – Alberta | Alberta Genealogy Society | www.abgenealogy.ca |
| C | Canada – Alberta | Alberta Genealogy Society – Edmonton | www.edmontongenealogy.ca |
| C | Canada – Alberta | Edmonton Public Library | www.epl.ca |
| C | Canada – Alberta | Provincial Archives of Alberta | www.provincialarchives.alberta.ca |
| C | Canada: Polish Immigration to Alberta | Polish Immigration to Alberta before the Second World War by Joanna Matejko | |
| A description of the waves of Polish Immigration to Alberta in the years 1895 to 1939. | |||
| C | Computers & Genealogy |
See Separate Chart on ‘Genealogy Software Packages: Comparisons, May 2024’
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| F | Family Trees and Name Searches | Geneagnet | https://en.geneanet.org/ |
| Geneanet is a genealogy website with 4 million members. The database consists of data added by participants and is intended for all genealogists. The website is collaborative and the data added by the members are available for free to any interested people. | |||
| F | Family Trees and Name Searches | Genforum | https://www.genealogy.com/forum/ |
| GenForum is a part of Genealogy.com. It provides the ability to search and connect with other individuals searching similar family names. It is the ultimate research resource with over 14,000 online forums devoted to genealogy, including surnames, U.S. states, countries, and general topics. | |||
| F | France | French Genealogy | www.filae.com |
| Filae is the largest source of French archives: civil records, censuses, historical archives….. | |||
| G | Germany | Online German Genealogy Records | |
| German Genealogy Records | |||
| F | Jewish Genealogy | Jewish Genealogy | https://www.jewishgen.org/ |
| Explore millions of records from around the world, identify relatives, discover the towns of your ancestors, experience how they lived, connect with our global JewishGen community, and more! | |||
| M | Military | Common Wealth War Graves Commission | https://www.cwgc.org/ |
| Work on behalf of the Governments of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom to commemorate the 1.7 million men and women from the Commonwealth who lost their lives in the two World Wars. The cemeteries, memorials, graves, landscapes, and records in our care will be found at 23,000 locations and in more than 150 countries and territories. | |||
| M | Military | Military Abbreviations in Service Files | |
| Meanings/Descriptions of Military abbreviations used in Military Records. | |||
| M | Military | Personnel Records: WWI | |
| First World War Personnel Records database, LAC | |||
| M | Military | Personnel Records: WWII | |
| Personnel Records of the Second World War, LAC | |||
| M | Military | Research of Military Objects: Cdn Soldiers | https://canadiansoldiers.com |
| A referenced source regarding the organization, vehicles, weapons, uniforms, traditions, and insignia of Canadian soldiers in the 20th Century. | |||
| M | Military | Research of Military Objects: Veterans | https://veterans.gc.ca.en/remembrance |
| Stories, military history, memorials, medals and decorations of those who served. | |||
| M | Military | War Diaries: WWI | |
| War Diaries of the First World War, LAC | |||
| M | Military | War Diaries: WWII | |
| How to Search War Diaries of the Second World War and other collections, LAC | |||
| M | Military | War Diaries: Cdn Heritage | |
| Canadiana Heritage, Digitized War Diaries (some not digitally available through LAC) | |||
| P | Poland: Polish Archives and Databases |
Poland GenWeb; | |
| P | Poland: Polish Archives and Databases |
Polish Roots; | https://polishroots.com/ |
| P | Poland: Polish Archives and Databases |
Polish State Archives; | https://archiwa.gov.pl/en/ |
| P | Poland: Polish Consultants | Polish Origins | https://polishorigins.com/ https://polishorigins.com/blog/ |
| P | Poland: Polish Consultants | Your Roots in Poland | https://yourrootsinpoland.com/ |
| P | Poland: Polish Consultants | Polish Genealogy: Family History Research in Poland | https://polishgenealogy.net/ |
| P | Poland: Polish Consultants | Polish Researchers and Guides (others are listed here) | https://pgsa.org/polish-researchers-guides/ |
| P | Poland: Getting Started | Beginner’s Guide to Polish Genealogy | |
| P | Poland: Getting Started | Resources for Polish Genealogy, Geneanet | |
| P | Poland: Getting Started | 10 Websites for Polish Genealogy Research by Lisa A. Alzo | |
| P | Poland: Getting Started | Tracing Polish Family Ancestry | |
| P | Poland: Getting Started | Research Sources, Polish Genealogical Society of America | https://pgsa.org/research/ |
| P | Poland : Polish Organizations | Polish Genealogical Society of America | https://pgsgc.org/polish-genealogy-societies/ |
| P | Poland: Specific Collections | Ancestry.com Catalog: Poland | |
| P | Poland: Specific Collections | FamilySearch Records: Poland | |
| P | Poland: Specific Collections | MyHeritage Catalog: Poland | |
| P | Poland: You Tube Videos |
How to Trace Your Ancestors in Poland | |
| P | Poland: You Tube Videos |
Polish Genealogy #1: How to find the parish of my ancestors? | |
| P | Poland: You Tube Videos |
Polish Genealogy #2: How to find the correct location of the birthplace of your ancestors? |
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| P | Poland: You Tube Videos |
How to Find Your Ancestors Via the Polish Archives | |
| S | Scotland | Scotland’s People | https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ |
| The Official Scotland government site for search family history. The indexes cover birth, death and marriage registers, census returns, church registers, valuation rolls and legal records (like wills and testaments and coats of arms) and prison registers. | |||
| W | Wales | Baptist Union of Wales | https://buw.wales/ |
| This site includes a history of the union, which was founded at Llanwenarth on 21 August 1886. | |||
| W | Wales | Non-Conformity in Wales | https://welshchapels.wales/ |
| Learn the story of nonconformity in Wales from this Welsh Religious Buildings Trust website. | |||
| U | United States of America | USGenWeb Project www.usgenweb.org | https://www.usgenweb.org/ |
| The USGenWeb® Project a network of over 3000 linked websites, all individually created and maintained by a community of volunteers. Today you may find a variety of unique county and state resources including photos, maps, transcriptions, historical documents, helpful links, and much more. | |||
| U | United States of America | USA Passenger Record Collections | www.archives.gov/research/immigration/ports |
| Various NARA microfilm publications reproduce passenger arrival records and/or vessel crew lists from the water or land borders from 1800-1982. Discover what records have been digitized and are available for online use by selecting a location. | |||
