Here Are The Best Genealogy Websites.

The best genealogy websites are literally interspersed with thousands of others on the World Wide Web so picking good ones is a difficult task even on a good day. However, here are some things to think about when looking at these sites.

First of all, many sites are just links to more links!

It is easy to build a genealogy site. Just start a page and do a Google search for "genealogy" and then copy the thousands of links you get on the page, and you have a site. (At least that's what many seem to do.) Genealogists appear to love links.

However, you should try and find the best genealogy sites by finding ones that allow you to access real, valuable data quickly and easily or you can spend a lot of time spinning your wheels!

Why do so many sites look so basic?

I guess that the people who work in this area have little interest in good website design, because there seems to be an abundance of "bad-looking" sites. Remember, if you're going to recommend your best genealogy website to us, make sure it at least meets the basic site design necessities as outlined here.

Free Or Not?

There are many of both types on the Internet and I'll try and give you some of both. There are monthly and annual subscriptions and search costs and so on, so you'll likely run into some costs along the way. However, you may want to try some free ones first and see if you can find your best genealogy site there.

So, here are the best genealogy websites. If you know of another one that should be added, make sure it has these characteristics of a good website first and then tell us about it in the form below. I'll give you your own page to promote it if it is accepted.

Genealogy Today
Here is a free site. Of all privately created websites, this one is probably one of those that you could bookmark and use for all of your research needs. This site provides links to the usual resources like census data or death records. What makes this site stand above the rest are the more creative sources offered, such as funeral cards, ration books, criminal records and even business cards.

Genealogy.com
This is a major data site with good instructions and reference help. (It also has family trees for celebrities if you're interested in that kind of thing.)

MyFamily.com
It hosts family websites for sharing photos, family trees, and more but genealogy can be a part of it as well. The basics are free but feature upgrades will cost you a small monthly fee.

RootsWeb.com
This is one of those sites that has a collection of links to go to but at least they are all well organized! It may be free to join.

Family Tree Searcher
Here's another free site that was created by a private researcher. This site is unique in that some of the resources are actually interactive quizzes that allow you to customize your research method.

Ancestry.com
There is a 15-day free trial here, which means that you will eventually pay to use it if you like it. It is one of the leading genealogical data sites, with articles, instructions, and reference help.

Genebase
A DNA ancestry-cataloguing project, this may be where a lot of "roots" searching may end up. This new research technology is called genetic genealogy and lets you discover your ethnic background.

The Olive Tree Genealogy
Here is a free site that gives you a great "guide for beginners" that walks you through each step of finding your ancestors and gives you the specific resources you should check out first in order to conduct that research.

Distant Cousin.com
This site is an online archive of genealogy records and scanned images of historical documents from a wide variety of sources, such as newspaper obituaries, city directories, census records, ship lists, school yearbooks, military records, and more.

Access Genealogy.com
If you're from the U.S., here's a site for you. There are researchers in every State around the U.S. that walk through the oldest cemeteries and actually transcribe names along with birth dates, date of death and family members. This resource alone will hold your interest for hours. (Did I mention it was free?)

Do you know of any sites that we should add? Tell us in the form below. (Also let us know of any that should be removed.)

Best Genealogy Websites

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Happy Searching.