Free Genealogy Databases

For the beginning genealogist, you’re probably not sure if this is something that you’re going to want to continue in. Realistically you don’t want to spend vast sums of time and money until you’ve decided for sure that this is something that you’re going to be able t do and want to expend your time one. Equally realistically, if you’re here and you’re seeking out information on the family tree and how to compile your own family line, you’re already half way hooked on genealogy and you might as well give it up.

You’re in deep, you just don’t’ know it yet. For people like us, diggers-people who like to unearth things and unravel mysteries, genealogy is the obvious hobby or career. We’re going to require and use nearly every resource that the internet and other resources can offer us.

Fortunately the advent of the internet has given us new tools to work with and a new way to accomplish our mission. Free genealogy databases, free software, free census tools and other abundantly available things that you can find online are going to help you to make your way through the decades of your family… or someone else’s.

To begin with, when you start out to search for a family member, or find an ancestor, you will need to begin with yourself and move backward. In many cases, you’re going to do just fine until you get back a generation or two. Then what? How do you accomplish finding the family members for your family tree without expending a broad range of money on a wide range of web sites out there that promise you the moon and all with their paid services.

Frankly, there are so many free genealogy databases out there that spending a big sum of money just doesn’t make sense. From ancestry.com, which is largely paid but does offer some free services, to US Genweb project, to multiple other sites, you are going to find a large number of free genealogy databases online that house myriad types of information. There are many sites online which offer you free genealogy databases for your use if you join their site, while others won’t require that you even join the site. They offer their information not for pay, but to enhance the internet and to provide another tool for the arsenal of the genealogist.

You can, if you dig a bit, find a database to offer you free information about ships passenger logs, while the Ellis Island foundation will permit you to search their databases of immigrant information, also for free. Of course to use these you’re going to need some semblance of an idea about when your ancestors might have come to America, or where they came from, but even a rough idea will usually net you some kind of results.

A few free genealogy databases that you might be interested in for your first forays into the past of your family are listed below for your convenience. Please note that some of them have some restrictions about downloading and use of the entire lists on your web site so please be considerate of the work of others.

Ellis Island – FREE Port of New York Passenger Records Search

http://www.ellisisland.org

Canadian Passenger Ship Manifests for your use free of charge.

http://www.ancestralfindings.com

American Libraries free census reports

http://www.archive.org/details

GENWEB marriage Project.

http://www.freegendata.com
A project that offers actual transcriptions of marriage applications or marriage documents from multiple county courthouses, state archives and other places.

 
The free genealogy databases that are available online to assist you in compiling your own family tree are useful information that is given to you by other members of the genealogy community. IF you use them, drop them a line and say thank you.