There was a time when the tools for genealogy were the libraries, court houses, county and state archives. Back in those days, you would write a letter or fill out a form, put a stamp on it and wait for a reply. Today these resources are very much alive and well!

In your neighborhood you may find a LDS church that has a genealogy library. You can use their computers and order microfilms to borrow. 

If you ever get a chance, it is well worth your effort to travel to Salt Lake City to the Family History Library and check out seemingly endless resources. 

The Mid-Continent Library in Independence, MO is another place to put on your genealogy bucket list. 

Check out your local Genealogy Society, they are full of very helpful folks that usually are volunteers that will go out of their way to help you. 

Then came the Internet!

In just a quarter of a century, the world has adapted to the thing we call the Internet. I assure you that not everything is on the Internet. More than that, not everything on the Internet is true.

You have heard the term, “Google it in”, search engines have been around since the beginning and Google is not the only search engine out there. So… go ahead and Google it in, “history of search engines” and see what the results are. You can use any active search engine and get results that are useful in researching genealogy. And yes, Google comes up on my screen by default and I type in whatever I am interested in; someone’s obituary, an ancestor’s city, genealogy societies and the list goes on. Before I know it, time gets away from me. 

When it comes to genealogy and family history, you have an abundance of places on the Internet to go. Let’s start with a free site that you can obtain research records for your family. 

  • Familysearch.org– Here you will need to create a free account to be able to explore this wonderful resource. 
  • Find a grave – This website has over the years from it’s beginning evolved into a good resource for genealogist. Many folks have contributed their time and input. Very often you can find a relative that someone has attached information such as an obituary.

Let me stop here and say a little something about the above resources. Family Search is a wonderful place to obtain records such a Federal Census records, court records, genealogy books, and other valuable information. One problem with the website is the ability to contribute information about your genealogy. You really have to keep this in mind when researching your family, and where the information came from. In other words, be very careful to study the resources of what you find. As I was in Salt Lake City researching at the Library, one of the precious volunteers trying to help me made the comment, one of the best things about familysearch is anyone can contribute and one of the worst things is anyone can contribute.

Find a grave is a little scary to me. For example; I went to the website and did a search for my father. Two separate results showed up. One with a picture of my father’s grave marker (before my mother was added) and information on his burial plot location and the source of the contributor with ID (if you click on it, it will tell you about the contributor). The second result was very interesting in that it included my fathers obituary and also information (links) about his family members (parents and wife). I clicked on the picture of my mother and it took me to her find a grave entry. There was her obituary and information about family members also. In both of these results, the contributor was unknown to me and I was amazed at how much information was connected. Find a Grave is heavily laden with advertising such a Ancestry.com and links to flowers shops and other products. Another thing that is interesting to me is that when you click on the source, you will see at the bottom of the page, the date when you accessed the site. In other words, there is an algorithm capturing my click and access. All this technology is wonderful and useful, but it makes me wonder about what other information is being collected. I should actually take the time and read the “terms and conditions” section more often.

Okay, moving on, there are hundreds of free website to explore and possibly find information to enhance your genealogy and family history. The list below are just a few that have help me.

Subscription Sites

There are plenty of websites that will cost a little money to access. It is up to you to weigh the cost verses the benefit. Two websites that I subscribe to are related to historical records.

  • Genealogybank – has a database for historical records and obituaries.
  • Newspapers – This has an association with Ancestry.com for obituaries.

See the Genetics section for more explanations on the below list of companies.

  • Ancestry.com – Subscription cost, Gives access to records.
  • MyHeritage.com – Subscription cost, Gives access to records.
  • 23 and Me – One time fee, no records, DNA matching
  • Familytreedna – One time fee, no records, DNA matching
  • Living DNA – One time fee, no records, DNA matching

Home Page

This page is still a work in progress, stay tuned.