Week 3 – Free Online Genealogy Tools

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 Image by asenat29 from Flickr under Creative Commons Licence


Free online genealogy tools are like gifts from above. Which one are you most thankful for? How has it helped your family history experience?

I do like a list.  I do.  I do.


A couple of weeks ago, Genealogy in Time released a list of Top 100 Most Popular GenealogyWebsites.

They were quite specific about what they would and would not class as a genealogy website. For example:
NOT
  • Library, museum and general archive websites.
  •  University websites.
  •  Wide-ranging government websites.
  •  General knowledge websites (such as Wikipedia).
Sniff.

Well, my list is going to include a library website.  And I bet every red-blooded, Australian Genealogist knows which site I'm going to pick.  Yes.  Dear old Trove.   If you haven't heard from your genealogist friend recently, you can bet pounds to peanuts they're buried up to their neck in lubberly newspaper articles.  I thought I knew everything about my husband's great-grandfather - Thomas Daw - the butcher.  Barp.  Wrong.  He was also a Councillor at Windsor Shire Council in Brisbane.  Trove helped me discover that.

Other free genealogy tools are my Society's Quiklinks page or my Library's Genealogy page.  I guess they're both a bit like Cyndi's list really - the place you go when you can't remember where you want to go!!  They have all sorts of useful links.  Cyndi's list is Number 30 on Genealogy in Time's Top 100 list but I find it a bit messy to navigate. 

But the site that I blather on most about to all and sundry who will listen is GENUKI

I found out about it at a QFHS workshop.  It's great for helping you with your research in the UK.  I'm a bit of a hopeless git when it comes to being familiar with the geography of the UK.  I know where Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales are in relation to each other but then I vague out when it comes to counties.  This site is fabulous.  It helps you drill down according to places/counties and leads you to what resources are available in each place via links.....very, very, useful.  It is as they say, a virtual reference library of genealogical information.  It rates Number 52 on the Top 100 list.

Let's not forget the Family Search Research Wiki either.  Fabulous for when you're really stuck.

Last but not least the other website which I should use more is British History Online.   Gill Blanchard at Pharos recommended this site to us.  It is very rich in content and more deserving of my time. 

Enough from me.  What about you?  Which are your favourite free online tools?


Comments

GeniAus said…
Can't beat our nation's treasure, TROVE.

Must say I agree about Cyndi's list.
January 16, 2012 at 11:25 AM
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