Genealogy

Directories & Indexes | Beginner's Guides & Aids | Genealogy Tools

Government Sites, Archives & Local Resources

Directories & Indexes

Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet: This megasite is a great starting point for amateur genealogists. Includes over 22,850 links, cross-referenced and organized into more than 70 categories.
Yahoo! Arts: Humanities: History: Genealogy: Resources on the Web for genealogical research are subdivided into useful categories, including guides, organizations, lineages and surnames, regional and ethnic resources and more.
Genealogy Spot: An easy to use directory of genealogical research resources, how-to guides, articles, tools, records, specialized searches, and more.
Rootsweb: Extensive, free genealogy megasite. Includes beginner's guides, search engines and databases, tools and reference resources, links to the U.S. GenWeb project, and much more. Includes links to some fee-required databases.

Beginner's Guides & Aids


Guide to Tracing Family Trees: From Rootsweb. Tutorials for the beginning family researcher, with information about finding vital records and other suorces, interviewing family members, tips for different ethnic groups, and more.
How to Start Your Family History: Another tutorial for the beginner, from FamilySearch site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The tutorial highlights non-Internet resources, including family members and outlines recordkeeping and forms.
Genealogy Citation Guide: These citation guide pages represent some foundational thoughts on how to cite sources for genealogical research; includes a brief outline of the standard elements of a citation, an expanded citation guide that includes examples and a page of simple cut and past citation templates for commonly used genealogical resources online. From ProGenealogists.
Massachusetts GenWeb: Archives of various volunteer projects for genealogists interested in Massachusetts records. Search by county. The Hampden County section has a wealth of information about churches, clubs, high schools, cemeteries, and towns in the county.
JewishGen: Primary Internet resource for Jewish genealogy research. FAQs, files, tools, guides, discussion groups, volunteer opportunities, links to associations, more.
Mayflower Web: Lots of information here on the first settlers of Massachusetts, who landed off Plymouth in 1620. Includes genealogies of the passengers, online documents, wills, history of the Mayflower, societies, and more. Find out if you're a descendant!
Heraldry on the Internet: Introduction to researching heraldry with links to coats of arms, dictionaries and glossaries, reference resources, surnames, chivalric orders, arms and armor, flags, and more.
Roots-L: Homepage of the largest e-mail discussion list devoted to genealogical research. Join the list or browse the genealogy aids included here, including state-specific resources.

Genealogy Tools

Social Security Death Index: This site can be used to determine information about deceased persons, including place of death, last residence and date of death. Based on the U.S. Social Security Administration's Death Master File. A free service from Rootsweb.
Family Search Internet Genealogy Service: Search the extensive genealogical databases of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).
Cemetery Junction: Directory of cemeteries in the United States, listed by state. Incomplete listing, but still a good starting point when looking for location of a cemetery.
Geni: Geni enables families to connect, share, and preserve their lives. Users can build their family tree through a simple interface. Relatives who are added to the tree can join Geni and add other relatives. This makes it easy to grow your tree. Requires free registration.
American Family Immigration History Center: This massive database contains records of over 22 million passengers who entered the U.S. through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924. Requires (free) registration. Includes a virtual program on the immigrant experience and other features.
MassLive Obituary Search: Recent obituaries from the Republican (formerly the Union-News) of Springfield are online; use 'select all' to search today, 7 days, or all death notices.
Springfield Republican Archives Search: An (incomplete) online index to the Springfield newspapers from 1877 - 1963. Please note that the library does not have access to the online archives prior to 1988.
Internment.net: Cemetery transcription library. Search for records of burials in cemeteries throughout the US and other countries. Compiled from records transcribed by volunteers.
1901 Census of England and Wales: Search a database of the official 1901 UK Census for England and Wales (Scotland and Ireland are not included). Searching the index is FREE. Viewing transcribed data costs 50p for an individual and then 50p for a list of all other people in that person's household. Viewing a digital image of the census page costs 75p.

Government Sites, Archives and Local Resources

National Archives and Records Administration: Genealogy Page of the agency responsible for overseeing the records of the Federal government. Although there are no genealogical services online, there are catalogs of information available at the facility in Washington D.C., descriptions of research guides available at the bookstore, online tutorials and links to the NARA home page which includes other archival services, such as the JFK Assassination Records Collection.
Springfield Genealogy and Local History Archives: Located in the Museum of Springfield History, the library contains a wealth of material on Western Massachusetts history and genealogy, particularly for local families and ethnic groups. Research assistance is available. Review their website for details.
Silvio O. Conte National Archives: The Northeast Region facility of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is located in Pittsfield. Check here for driving directions, contact information, and an overview of the materials available here for genealogical research. Visit the Friends of the Silvio O. Conte National Archives website for research aids and additional information about the archives.
Western Massachusetts Jewish Genealogical Society: Information on new local group for people interested in researching their Jewish roots.
U.S. Army Center of Military History: Medal of Honor citations for Medals awarded from 1861 to date, including full text of the original citations.
Massachusetts City and Town Directory: Directory of town and city halls throughout the Commonwealth, with contact information and hours of operation. Useful for tracking down birth, death and marriage certificate information.
Franklin County Publication Archive Index: Ongoing project to index the Greenfield Courier and Gazette newspapers and other historical Franklin County publications.

Massachusetts Historical Society: Includes information about the Society's mission, collection and research assistance, an online catalog, and exhibits.
Genealogy Libraries on the WWW: A directory of genealogy libraries throughout the world, with links to their websites. From Librarians Serving Genealogists.
Vital Records Information: Information about where to obtain vital records information (birth, death and marriage certificates) for the United States, states and territories.
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System: Search the extensive database for members of the military during the US Civil War in the Union and Confederate forces. Includes information on battles, prisoners-of-war, Medal of Honor recipients, regiments, cemeteries, and national parks. From the National Parks Service.
American Battle Monuments Commission: The Commission maintains several databases of war dead from World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, in addition to listings of war dead and veterans of the Mexican War, Civil War and Spanish-American War.
Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page: Information about the Wall, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC. Includes a search engine for casualties listed on the Wall, an alphabetical list, state and county summaries, maps, photos and more.

Top

updated : August 16, 2010