The advent of the internet and subsequent development of websites specializing in a variety of historical documentation, research, and connection opened a variety of convenient avenues for conducting genealogical research. Now, there are so many websites it’s sometimes hard to know where to start. Oftentimes, people will go straight to websites for conducting research rather than starting with their own knowledge and the resources closest to you – such as speaking to family members or family friends that have the knowledge to start branching out into deeper levels of facts.
Of course, if you don’t have access to family members to shed light on names and potential locations of relatives (parents, grandparents, siblings, etc), we start with ourselves through accessing our own documentation – birth certificates, birth announcements, medical records, etc.
All of that aside, we want to point you to our Resources page, which lists a variety of resources Tom and I have utilized over the years. Websites are hyperlinked, and we sort the resources by free versus paid platforms.
The reality is, paid platforms aren’t required, but they can provide easier access that saves you time. The ability to pay for a platform, such as ancestry.com, is a privilege. It costs money and saves you time, opening you up to conducting deeper research down other avenues. Oftentimes, local libraries or historical societies will pay for subscription services you can access, which does help offset some of those costs.
That said, the list of resources we include is not exhaustive. Tom and I have accessed a variety of other resources specific to our own research. I’ve had huge success, for example, with The Digital Archive. The Digital Archive is a searchable database of Norwegian records. It’s written in Norwegian, but Google Translate is a super helpful feature for those of us with ancestors in non-English speaking countries!
Also, there are a variety of databases we haven’t had a reason to access, because our ancestors weren’t part of a particular ethnic or racial group. Our ancestral backgrounds are primarily rooted in Western Europe, so we haven’t had any need (Yet! You never know what you’re going to find digging down a family line…) to access records specific to Japanese-Americans or Jewish-Americans. What we did instead was to include free resources that link you to organizations or websites where you might access genealogical records specific to a particular community.
So, take a look at our Resources page for ideas on what we have utilized in our research! Feel free to share other resource ideas, and where you’ve found research valuable to your projects!
Maiden Name Unknown 