On-Line Genealogy Resources
Posted on February 28, 2011 by bob in DiscoverYou
Over the past decade, the growth in the popularity of genealogy, together with the expansion of the internet, produced the perfect stimulus for numerous online research sites. Some sites offer records, indexes, and information free of charge, while others are subscription-based, but entice exploration by providing access to some records at no cost. Many state archives now offer digital records and indexes on their web sites; other sites, created solely by volunteers, offer family history information for every state in the United States.
One place to begin your online research is the Genealogical Society of Utah’s web site – www.familysearch.org.
The GSU is responsible for microfilming, and now digitizing, many records from courthouses and numerous organizations across the United States and around the world.
It also is making the records available free of charge on the web site. Explore the “Records Search Pilot”. Other free sites offering genealogical information include the USGenWeb Project – www.usgenweb.org; RootsWeb – www.rootsweb.com; and, one of my favorites, www.FindAGrave.com . This great site offers millions of cemetery records.
Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com, and Footnote.com are three of the most popular subscription-based web sites. All offer digital images of millions of historical records, some free of charge. Family tree information is also accessible and provides opportunities to connect with others researching the same families.
The Alabama Department of Archives and History has a partnership with Ancestry.com. Ancestry is digitizing and indexing a number of the Archives’ most popular records collections, images of which will be on the Ancestry.com web site. Records already available are the 1820-1866 Alabama State Censuses and the Alabama Civil War Muster Rolls. ADAH provides access to Ancestry.com free of charge in the Research Room.
The ADAH web site – www.archives.alabama.gov – offers several searchable databases, including the Civil War Soldiers database and the 1867 Voter Registration database, and many historical records, photographs, newspapers, and books in the Digital Archives.
Nancy Dupree is Senior Archivist at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. If you have a question for Nancy, email us at primeeditor@gmail.com
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