Software Reviews and Comparisons

RootsWeb links to a useful comparison site (National Genealogical Society), now somewhat out of date. It will give you an idea of what kinds of features to look for in a software package.

Legacy 5

A very full-featured commercial software program absolutely free.

Personal Ancestral File (PAF)

This is an old standby from the LDS Church.

LDS site: Family Search

This site has to be your first stop in beginning your online genealogical research. It has several major services, which can all be searched at once. This is also where you can download Personal Ancestral File (PAF), a very good and inexpensive genealogical software package.

Family History Library

This catalog can be searched online. Microfilm can be borrowed through a local Family History Center

International Genealogical Index(IGI)

Massive index of birth and marriage registers from all over the world. Volunteers have transcribed information from the microfilms of original records collected by the FHS. In addition to the extracted information, names of ancestors that are submitted by LDS members to have ordinance work done are also included in the IGI.

Ancestral File

Ancestral File is a collection of genealogical data that has been submitted to the Family History Society since approximately 1981. There are approximately 35 million names in the file.

SSI

Index of records of the Social Security Administration. An important source of information for mid-twentieth century Americans.

 

FamilyTreeMaker or their new site, Genealogy.com

One of the largest commercial sites. They're the publishers of Family Tree Maker software and 100s of CD-ROMS of indexes. Their site has a search engine which acts as an index to their CD-ROM collection, as well as many free resources.

Ancestry

Ancestry is the source of the popular TV series. Searching is free but access to much of the data is limited to subscribers. But the subscriber service is reasonable and impressive. Ancestry has teamed up with Netscape, and it's now Netscape's official genealogy site.

Heritage Quest

Another big commercial site. HQ has been scanning census schedules and then converting them into indexed and searchable text. It also has a wide range of microfilm resources, many of which can be rented.

Cyndi's List

The largest collection of genealogical lists on the Web today, Cyndi's List is now almost the "official" Web genealogy site. It's so big it can be difficult to use, but perserverence pays off. We'll try looking for some information about Quakers, then you can try it out.

Genealogy.Com.

I've pulled this out of the Genealogy.Com site listed above because it seems to be a good rival to Cyndi, although organized somewhat differently.

RootsWeb

RootsWeb is one of my favorite sites. It's completely free (although now closely connected with Ancestry.com), and runs on volunteer labor. There is a lot to explore here. RootsWeb is the supporting organization for thousands of surname discussion lists. It also features many primary documents that have been transcribed or scanned by volunteers and made searchable in the GenWeb Archive. These include obituaries, county histories, tax lists, cemetery lists, etc.

For use with the Census, RootsWeb has a Soundex Converter.

USGenWeb

The USGenWeb Project consists of a group of volunteers working together to provide Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. The Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free access for everyone.

Organization is by county and state, and this website provides you with links to all the state websites which, in turn, provide gateways to the counties. The USGenWeb Project also sponsors important Special Projects at the national level and this website provides an entry point to all of those pages, as well.

GenForum

What RootsWeb is to discussion lists, GenForum is to bulletin boards. The list of names is impressive. This is a great way to find other people working on your family and to share information.

American Memory

American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.

Ellis Island Records

This is a great place to search if you have immigrant ancestors who came through Ellis Island. Go ahead and register. There's no cost and registration allows you to view complete records.

National Archive and Records Administration.

This site can be used to locate microfilm rolls. The archival search engine, ARC, is of limited utility for surname searches but useful for broader searches.

JewishGen

This is just one of many ethnic and country pages. I've listed a few more, but you'd have to use a resource like Cyndi's List to see them all. Watch for various tutorials on ethnic genealogy offered by the major sites.

African American

An excellent African American site with a full range of services: chat, message boards, surname lists, etc.

Ireland

One representative site, with some helpful material, but obviously out for a profit.

Genealogical Research at Cornell

This is OKU Reference Division's guide to doing genealogy in the library. The online catalog information will soon be outdated (and will be updated as soon as possible), but much of the information should be useful, even for online users.

Making of America

Search the full-text of dozens of 19th century magazines, history books and the War of the Rebellion; Official Records of the Union and Confederate armies!

Archives USA

Other archival resources

• RLIN Eureka Requires a Cornell ID or on campus connection. A catalog of the holdings of about forty major research libraries, but also several hundred archival repositories.
• OCLC Worldcat You need a Cornell ID for this if you're coming from off campus, but OCLC, the nearest thing we have to a national online catalog, is also available from most public and academic libraries.

Historical Newspaper Databases from Cornell

Historical newspapers online

Palmer's index to The Times [London], the Official index to The Times, and the Historical index to the New York times in electronic form. This resource enables searches of early issues of the New York times and the Times of London across years and across subjects which would be immensely time-consuming, if not impossible, with the printed editions.

Paper of record

Paper of Record is an historical archive of full-page newspaper images dating from the 1700's - a collection that increases the value of individual or institutional offerings. This digital archive gives "old news" new life by facilitating access to the wealth of fact and opinion captured by historical newspapers. With Paper of Record, the major, minor, national, global, and local events of the last several centuries are available to explore.

ProQuest historical newspapers

This database offers full-text and full-image articles for newspapers dating back to the 19th century. For most titles, the collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue, cover to cover, in downloadable PDF files. The database is an ongoing project. The New York Times, 1851-2001 -- The Wall Street Journal, 1889-1987 -- The Washington Post, 1877-1988.

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild

Transcription of over 4000 ships' registers. An ongoing project.

Land Ownership Maps

Very few of these are online, but there are some. The link is to a catalog of those available from the Library of Congress. Cornell has this collection (counties east of the Mississippi only) on microfiche.

An impressive online example of landownership maps is from Historic Pittsburgh. This site is an excellent example of a highly developed local resource with access to census records, archives and electronic texts of historic books.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Access to this collection of historic insurance maps is limited to the Cornell Community. Detailed maps of thousands of localities in the US over successive years.

National Genealogical Society

One of several national societies

New York Genealogical and Biographical Society

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, popularly known as the "G & B," was founded in 1869. As a non-profit educational institution, its purpose is to collect and make available information on genealogy, biography and history, particularly as it relates to the people of New York State.

New England Historical and Genealogical Society

Extraordinary collection from which they will lend to members. In fact, membership is required for almost all access.

Library of Congress

One of the great genealogical collections in the world. Access, however, is mostly local, although some material is online, and the catalog is available over the internet.

New York State Library

There are many primary documents available at the New York Public Library. This link to their genealogy research room will give you an idea.

Allen County, Indiana, Public Library. Genealogy Section

There are many primary documents available at the New York Public Library. This link to their genealogy research room will give you an idea.

Steele Memorial Library

A local resource with a large genealogical collection. Particularly noteworthy is the collection of NYState and US census microfilm.

Evaluating Web Sources

The Source: a guidebook of American genealogy. Edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking. Salt Lake City : Ancestry, c1997.

Genealogy Online For Dummies by Matthew L. Helm and April Leigh Helm. 2nd Edition (May 1999)

Web Sites for Genealogists, 4th edition, 2000

The Genealogists Virtual Library : Full-Text Books on the World Wide Web Thomas Jay Kemp, 2000

Virtual roots : a guide to genealogy and local history on the World Wide Web. Kemp, Thomas Jay. Wilmington, Del. : Scholarly Resources, 1997.

1. Start with what you know. Collect as much information from relatives as you can, then get it organized, preferably with some genealogy software package, before turning to the internet. When you're organized you'll be able to take advantage of what the internet offers.

2. Evaluate! Nowhere is the computer adage GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) more true than in online genealogy. Almost all the material must be doublechecked. Many web genealogies are strings of wishful thinking repeated from other strings of wishful thinking. This includes information from LDS's Ancestral File, FTM's World Family Tree and Ancestry's Ancestry World Tree. Very few online genealogies are documented. Treat online information as hints to guide further research, not material to copy blindly into your genealogy.

3. Don't fire off e-mail with general questions to historical societies, libraries, discussion lists, etc. Many organizations (academic libraries) will not do genealogical research, but will help you use or locate material that is unique to them.

4. Don't ignore print resources! Electronic resources are useful portals to information--but often you will still have to order microform, photocopies of records, etc. Many print resources will not appear online for many years. Don't wait!

5. Lurk on discussion lists and observe the traffic and how queries are phrased. Often there are specific rules for subject lines. Some common surname lists may distribute dozens of messages a day. A subject line such as "Got anything on John Smith?" will get some surprising answers.

Cornell Reunion, June, 2004
Bob Kibbee rk14@cornell.edu