Links

Search engine tips:
+ (and, not always necessary)
- (not)
"****" (phrase, can cause problems by missing some sites but helps narrow down the search). Be as exact or vague as you want)
* (wildcard, if you don't know the complete date. Example: 187*)

site: (search just on website. Example: site:www.mydomain.com John Doe)

Example:
Cemetery; "doe, john" +birth year +death year +state +town
Regular search; "john doe" +birth year +death date +state

Favorite Multi Search Engines:

Why limit yourself to just 1 search engine when you can search several at the same time?

http://vivisimo.com (clusters results to make it easier narrow your search & in Advance Search you can chooses which search engines you want to use)
http://dogpile.com/ (another Multi Search Engines)

Using Someone Else's Info:

Verify, Verify, Verify & try to find different source than what others have used.
Whenever using someone else information contact them when possible.
I don't like importing gedcom file, I have had too many problem that way. Not all program's gedcom are the same & if they have an error you just make it worse by passing it on to someone else. Make a separate database & copy/paste the info into your data base, most programs will let you have more than 1 widow at once.

Links

BYU Idaho Western States Marriage Records Index:
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Other States
http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/fhc/gbsearch.htm

Land Patent Search (government land sales)
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/

Many of the original documents are online

TRS-Data

Converts Land description into Longitude & Latitude for the 17 western states or links to topo & aerial maps

http://www.esg.montana.edu/gl/trs-data.html

Elis Island immigration:
http://www.ellisisland.org/

Easier to use search engine:
www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/ellis.html

Immigrant Ships Transcribes Guilds:

http://www.immigrantships.net/

United States Newspaper Program

http://www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html

Good place to start to see if a certain state historic newspapers online.

Utah Digital Newspapers:
http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/

Wonderful site to search & view old newspapers in Utah

Utah State Burial & Cemetery Search:
http://history.utah.gov/apps/burials/execute/searchburials

Not all cemeteries but most

Roots Web:
http://www.rootsweb.com

Free & lots of info, but has lots of popups

Stephen P. Morse's Search Engines:
http://www.stevemorse.org/
Immigration, Census, Births, Deaths, and other Vital Records, Calendar, Sunrise/Sunset, Maps, Dealing with Characters in Foreign Alphabets, Holocaust and Eastern Europe, Creating your own Search Forms, Search Engines, and Databases, and much more. Some free, some pay sites but the pay sites are clearly marked.

WorldConnect:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/

Same "Ancestry World Trees" that are on ancestry.com. Free but has lots of popups. Email address listed on the top of pages. I suggest ALWAYS contacting the person, sometimes they have notes & source not listed or they can get you in contact with the person that they got their info from.

GenCircle:
http://www.gencircles.com/

Another genealogy sharing site. Smaller site but NO POPUP!!!! Makes for more enjoyable research.

US GenWeb:
http://usgenweb.org/

State/County Pages Project, USGW Archives, Census Projects, USGW Tombstone Project

World GenWeb Project:
http://worldgenweb.org/

Like US Genweb but has many pages for different countries

Colorado Digitization Program
http://www.cdpheritage.org/
Great site to search old search old newspapers

The Denver Public Library

http://denverlibrary.org/

Western History/Genealogy Research Tools and Links. Useful links.

http://www.denverlibrary.org/research/genealogy/index.html

The Denver Public Library online. Search Colorado marriages from 1975 to present & Colorado divorces/dissolutions from 1851 to 1939 and 1968 to present.

Alabama Department of Archives & History:
www.archives.state.al.us/dataindex.html
Databases of newspapers, maps & photos.

Alaska's Digital Archives:
http://vilda.alaska.edu/
Digital pictures & documents

Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates
http://genealogy.az.gov/
Births 1887-1929
Deaths 1878-1954

Indiana Genealogy Internet Links:
http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/isl/indiana/genealogy/links.html

Indiana Marriages Through 1850
http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/isl/indiana/genealogy/mirr.html

Genealogy in the Illinois State Archives:
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html

States archive (different states websites)
http://www.ils.unc.edu/archives/archive7.html

Kansas State Historical Soc.:
http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/index.htm

I have only used their newspaper microfilm through the interlibrary loan at my local library

Massachusetts Archives Searchable Collections:
• Massachusetts Archives Collection Database (1629-1799) http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/RevolutionarySearchContects.html No actual documents, but a good index.
• Passenger Manifest (1848-1891) http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/PassengerManifestSearchContents.html
If listed it contains: Name, Title, Age, Gender, Birth City, State, Country, Germany, Destination City, State, Country, In USA, Occupation, Citizen, Condition, Arrive With, Residence, Date, Port, Ship Name, List Number, Comment.
• Vital Records (1841-1910) http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/VitalRecordsSearchContents.html Right now only has a death index. The information you will get is Last Name, First Name, Town, Years, Volume, Page & Type.

Missouri Death Certificates, 1910 – 1955:
http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/

New Jersey Archives & Records Management:
http://www.njarchives.org/links/archives.html

• Searchable Databases: which include Supreme Court Case Files 1704-1844, Marriage Records 1666-1799 & Index to Marriages 1848-1867. More being added soon.

• Imaged Collections: Portraits of Soldiers, Historic Structures, Sites and Parks, New Jersey Institutions, Transportation and Public Works, Military Monuments & Military Service Records.

• Todate Document Treasures only has the New Jersey State Constitution online.

Ohio Historical Soc.,

http://www.ohiohistory.org/dindex/

Searchable death records.

Wisconsin Historical Soc.,

• Pre-1907 Vital Records. Search birth, death, and marriage records by last name, first name, county, and/or year http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/vitalrecords
• Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleSearch.asp
• Wisconsin Historical Images http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/advancedSearch.asp
• Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 www.wisconsinhistory.org/roster/

Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta:
Mennonite Brethren Herald Obituaries
http://www.mennonites.ca/mhsa/projects/mb_herald_obituaries/

Amish and Mennonite Obituaries:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mennobit/

Obituaries from the Herald of Truth (1864-1908), Gospel Witness (1905-1908), and Gospel Herald (1908-1998), the weekly newspaper(s) of the Mennonite Church in North America.

Online Death Indexes & Records

http://www.deathindexes.com/

I usually don’t like mentioning sites the have links to pay sites, but these are clearly marked & have told me of some free links I never tried.

Linkpendium
http://www.linkpendium.com/
Good collection of links to other sites. Easy to maneuver through.

American Local History Network (ALHN)
http://www.alhn.org/
Unsure if it is just link to other sites or hosts State & County sites.

American History and Genealogy Project (AHGP)
http://www.ahgp.org/
Some of the stuff is their website, but I usually ended back on US Gewnweb.

GeneaNet
http://www.geneanet.org/
Looks like a collection of other peoples family trees, on & off site.

Distant Cousin
http://www.distantcousin.com/
Interesting, some on & off site information.

Dead Fred
http://www.deadfred.com/
Genealogy Photo Archive. I haven't had much luck here, but do like this site.

Gravestone Photo Project

A nice gravestone photo project. Not as large as some, but I really enjoy it & have contributed some of my own photos. If you would like to contribute I recommend doing your own cropping & resizing, the program doesn't do the best job. Crop so the inscription is easily read & resize it so it is no larger than 450 pixels either horizontal or vertical.

Arizona Gravestones

http://arizonagravestones.org/

Colorado Gravestones

http://coloradogravestones.org/

Illinois Gravestones

http://illinoisgravestones.org/

Iowa Gravestones

http://iowagravestones.org/

Maryland Gravestones

http://marylandgravestones.org/

Nebraska Gravestones

http://nebraskagravestones.org/

New Brunswick Gravestones (Canada)

http://newbrunswickgravestones.org/

New Mexico Gravestones

http://newmexicogravestones.org/

New York Gravestones

http://newyorkgravestones.org/

Ohio Gravestones

http://ohiogravestones.org/

Oregon Gravestones

http://oregongravestones.org/

Pennsylvania Gravestones

http://pennsylvaniagravestones.org/

Virginia Gravestones

http://virginiagravestones.org/

Utah Gravestones

http://utahgravestones.org

Find A Grave
http://findagrave.com/
I have found several headstone pictures on this site. Use the "Search 7 million grave records" on the right, I haven't had much luck with the searches on the left.

Interment.net
http://interment.net/
Another burial data base, I have a little bit of luck here.

Cemeteries of Texas
http://www.cemeteries-of-tx.com/
Cemeteries of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma & Cemeteries of Louisiana

Family Search:
http://www.familysearch.org/
Some errors in the Ancestral File & Pedigree Resource File, but that is a common in these types of genealogy sharing projects. Big thing is VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY!!! Be careful before sharing your gedcom here. I know someone that donated their gedcom to the Pedigree Resource File & quoted info from mailing lists, the list administer banned that person from that list because the church charges for the purchase of the CD. Myself, I look at it like this, access to the CD is FREE at the nearest FHC. I suggest rewording notes before donating your gedcoms with notes, words can be copywrited, thoughts cannot. Nice Catalog search of books & microfilm, microfilm can be ordered the nearest FHC for a small postal fee. Information on the Family History Library (FHL), Family History Center (FHC) & Catalog can be accessed at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHL/frameset_library.asp

Free Maps On The Library Of Congress Website:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?format=Map
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html

Looking For Volunteers For Lookups

Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness:
http://raogk.org

Rules: Read this page http://raogk.org/faq-requesters.htm
RAOGK must appear on subject line

US Genweb:
http://usgenweb.org/

Click on The Project's State Pages, find the state & county page. On the county page you will find lookup listed there if there is any.
Post A Query can be done on the State or County page or http://boards.rootsweb.com/
Mailing lists can be joined on state/county pages. Or http://lists.rootsweb.com/ & chose from Surnames, USA, International or Other

Books We Own:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~bwo/

Volunteers that own book that will do lookups. Includes Surnames, Locations, etc...

World GenWeb Project:
http://worldgenweb.org/

Same as US Genweb

Family Search:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Share/Preserve/frameset_preserve.asp

Family Search also has e-mail collaboration lists. There are surname & location mailing lists.

Other Help

Questions And Ancestors:
http://byub.org/questionsandancestors/episodes.asp
Radio broadcast of genealogy that will help with your research.

Dear Myrtle:

http://www.dearmyrtle.com/

A lot of helpful information & I really enjoy her "Family History Hour"