Who are your ancestors?

As an African American, your pedigree may be one of diverse heritage made up of African, European, Native American or “Other”.

Genealogy the study of family lineage answers the question of who your ancestors were.

Free Genealogy Sites

1. FamilySearch: largest collection of free genealogical records in the world

2. WikiTree: enormous collaborative family tree

3. Fulton History: historical newspapers from the US and Canada

4. Find a Grave: locate your ancestors in cemeteries across the globe

5. Google News Archive: millions of archived newspaper pages

6. US National Archives: official US National Archives site, many free genealogy databases, and resources

7. Automated Genealogy: indexes of the Canadian census

8. FreeBMD: civil registration index of births, marriages, and deaths for England and Wales

9. USGenWeb Project: massive free genealogy resource directory by US state and county

10. WorldGenWeb Project: genealogy resources by country and region, not to miss

11. Cyndi’s List: highly respected directory of free genealogy resources and databases online

12. Library and Archives Canada: official archives of Canada, census records and more

13. Ellis Island: immigration records, free indexes and original records, fee to download copies

14. FreeReg: baptism, marriage, and burial records from parish registers of the UK

15. Crestleaf: various genealogy records

16. RootsWeb: world’s largest genealogy community, huge amount of free information

17. Castle Garden: immigration records, pre-Ellis Island

18. Chronicling America: giant database of archived US newspapers from the Library of Congress

19. Dead Fred: genealogy photo archive

20. African Heritage Project: records on former slaves, freedpersons, and their descendants

21. Immigrant Ancestors Project: emigration registers for locating birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries

22. Daughters of the American Revolution: military service records and more

23. JewishGen: Jewish ancestry research

24. FreeCEN: transcribed census records from the UK

25. Access Genealogy: vast family history directories and more, good Native American resources

26. British Library, India Office: records on British and European people in India pre-1950

27. Guild of One-Name Studies: extensive surname research site

28. Geneabloggers: massive directory of genealogy-related blogs with a huge amount of free information

29. NativeWeb Genealogy: list of Native American genealogy resources and searchable databases

30. Viximus: member submitted biographical information

31. WieWasWie: for researching ancestors from the Netherlands (in Dutch)

32. UK National Archives: official National Archives of the UK

33. The National Archives of Ireland: official National Archives of Ireland

34. GENUKI: reference library of genealogical resources for the UK and Ireland

35. German Genealogy Server: German ancestry research (many sections in German)

36. Preserve the Pensions: War of 1812 pension records access

37. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System: Civil War records from the National Park Service

38. LitvakSIG: Lithuanian-Jewish genealogy databases and resources

39. Italian Genealogical Group: Italian American genealogy resources and databases

40. Internet Archive: a large amount of information useful to genealogists, but you’ll need to do some digging

41. Billion Graves: headstone records

42. Open Library: good place to find family history books, search for surnames or locations

43. GenDisasters: for researching disasters and other events your ancestors might have been involved in

44. RomanyGenes: Romanichal ancestry research

45. Patriot and Grave Index: revolutionary war graves registry and patriot index from the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution

46. Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection: vast number of archived US newspapers

47. Seventh-day Adventist Obituary Database: hundreds of thousands of obituary entries

48. Släktdata: genealogy records for Sweden (in Swedish)

49. Hispanic Genealogy: wonderful list of resources for researching Hispanic ancestry

50: Free Genealogy Search Engine: search hundreds of free genealogy resources at one time on Family History Daily

51: SOVA:Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives: Access 25102 descriptions of personal papers and other records