welcome to the ancestral findings podcast this is episode 243 do you
need some excellent free sources of online genealogy records join me today and I'll give
you three websites that are totally free and extremely useful for any genealogists
it's wonderful that we live in an age where a lot of genealogy research can be done online we don't
have to drive long distances and pay large sums of money to get access to many different record
sets anymore while there is no substitution for in-person research to find all of the available
records concerning your ancestors and to get the true story of who they were and
how they lived you can still find out so much online while many of the best-known genealogy
websites are subscription-based it doesn't mean you are forced to pay large amounts of money to
do online research there are some really good free genealogy websites that can give you some
excellent information that will help you get to know your ancestors better these are some
of the best free genealogy websites for bringing your ancestors back to life in your research and
writings one Jenn Webb the Jenn Webb is one of the original free genealogy websites and
has been around for a long time it is a volunteer effort with people in different regions around the
world contributing records that pertain to their areas to the appropriate subsections of the Jen
web it is a site that explores genealogy around the world divided by country and then regions
within the countries you will find a lot you can put to good use there if you are researching
foreign genealogy you might find some records in languages you don't know so be prepared to run
them through an online translator if you're using the u.s. gen web for United States research know
that it is divided by state and then by county within each state each county has a volunteer
who coordinates the documents people submit to it and keeps the sub section organized some counties
are orphans which are currently without a volunteer or never had one if you live in
the area of an orphan County you can volunteer to take care of it if it interests you whatever
section of the gen web you are searching you will find unique thing that may not exist anywhere else
online newspaper articles old family Bible records marriage records will and probate records personal
family records and photos and so much more can be found here all for free to familysearch.org
the Church of latter-day saints aka the Mormons own and operate this large free website full of
all kinds of genealogy records from all over the world this is because genealogy is a big part of
their religion so compiling these records is a sacred endeavor for them whether you are a
Mormon or not you can benefit from their record collection which is one of the largest in the
world while a trip to their huge family history library in Salt Lake City Utah is usually a must
on the traveling plans of any serious genealogist you can still get the benefit of many of those
records that are digitized and available through their website the website is searchable by name
or you can look through their list of record collections which is in alphabetical order
then choose the one you want and search by name within that collection the more you can narrow
down where you want to look the easier will be to find the records you're hoping to locate be
aware that not every database is indexed some of them are only browsable but if you have the time
to search manually through hundreds or thousands of digitized pages of records you may be rewarded
with a spectacular genealogy discovery three old Fulton post cards this website started as a free
database of historical newspapers from New York not just the city but the whole state while it
is still mostly that it has expanded to include a lot of newspaper records from other places in New
England particularly Connecticut Pennsylvania and Massachusetts the records go pretty far
back sometimes to the early 1800s or even mid to late 1700s if you have ancestors from this
area look them up in the searchable database on the site and see what results you get you will
sometimes find stories about your ancestors that aren't located anywhere else this allows
you to piece together their lives in even more detail which is a priceless genealogical gift
do you have birth records of your ancestors if you've been doing genealogy even a short
time you likely do join me the next time as we talk about how to use them to enhance your
genealogy thanks for joining me today I'll see you next time on the ancestral findings
podcast and for further info you can visit us at ancestral findings com