What are the top websites to use when researching your family tree?

Dear bigrob27-ga;

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. I have
done some extensive work on my own genealogy and found a number of
sites quite productive. Your request for the ?top? sites, of course,
solicits an opinion since there is no official ?list? of top sites.
Therefore I will endeavor to offer mine based on personal experience.
Furthermore, what sites prove to be beneficial to you might also
depend greatly on where your search ultimately takes you. For example,
if your ancestors are of European origin some sites that prove helpful
to you might not be as helpful to someone who has African ancestors,
etc. With that in mind I will try to show you some sites used
frequently by researchers that often aid in general information
searches:

One of my favorites, and often the most expansive and accurate, is
FAMILY SEARCH. If you are not familiar with genealogy data, this data
is compiled by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which
has made it a point to try and record every person where possible. The
database contains millions of names dating back to, well, forever I
guess.

http://www.familysearch.org/


CINDI?S LIST is another site that is just packed with resources. Many
people find it particularly beneficial. In this one link you will find
literally hundreds, if not thousands of databases, lists and
directories to search:

http://www.cyndislist.com/

Another similar site with multiple links and databases is KINDRED TRAILS

http://www.kindredtrails.com/

GENFORUM is an excellent place to begin is you already known multiple
surnames from your past. There are about 14,000 forums where people
just like you are discussing and sharing information about known
surnames:

http://genforum.genealogy.com/
http://genforum.genealogy.com/surnames/

The NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION (NARA) is yet another
excellent place to begin a search:

http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/

Likewise, the US CENSUS BUREAU and various off-site census related
links contain a treasure trove of records:

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/

Genealinks
http://www.genealinks.com/census.htm

US GenWeb Census Project
http://www.us-census.org/search.html
http://www.usgenweb.org/

ABOUT.COM
http://genealogy.about.com/od/census/

The SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX is a good database for verifying names:

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/


As for premium (subscription access) services, ANCESTRY.COM,
ROOTSWEB.COM, GENEALOGY.COM and ELLISISLANDRECORDS.COM are probably
the best known if not the most famous:

http://www.ancestry.com/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.genealogy.com/index_r.html

http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/
(In the case of this database some of the records can be freely searched)

I realize it doesn?t "seem" like much in answer to you question but in
reality, once you start examining these links in detail, you?ll find
that what I have provided you with is easily enough databases to keep
you very busy for a LONG, LONG time.

I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

Family tree

Genealogy

Resources

Databases

Links

Thank you so much. This list of resources is a great place to get the
research startred.