AccessGenealogy

This bag of free genealogical records continues to grow.

Allen County Public Library.

Although this library is located in Indiana, its online capabilities are much more extensive, reflecting its status as the second largest genealogical library in the country.

Ancestry Finds.

This site offers free searches of marriage, birth, death, immigration, land, military and census records in dozens of different resources.

Ancestry Library Publishing

Your local library can offer you access to immigration, census, vital and other Ancestry.com documents through Ancestry Library Edition. The library, of course, has to pay, but it’s free for you as a patron.

Books we own.

The next best thing to having important genealogical resources is to find someone who has what you need and will do a free search for you.

Family Search.

Over 2,000 online collections make this the Internet’s largest home for free genealogical data.

Genealogy Deals.

This site directs thrifty genealogy professionals to online deals ranging from promotions and webinars to discounts on subscriptions and resources.

Gopher Genealogy.

Smart, intuitive searches are the hallmark of a partnership with FamilySearch, which quickly processes 80,000 digitized books.

HathiTrust

To make the most of this digital library, you must log in with the credentials of a participating institution (such as a university). But there’s plenty here for the general public, too.

HeritageQuest Online.

HeritageQuest is free for home computers thanks to a library card through participating institutions. It is now “maintained” (but not owned by) Ancestry.com.

Library of Congress.

The National Library, while not specialized in genealogy, has much to offer online. The library’s genealogical collection began back in 1815 with the purchase of the Thomas Jefferson Library.

Midwest Genealogy Center.

This site from the Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, Missouri, has one of the largest genealogy collections in the country.

National Archives and Records Administration

Read all about the genealogical treasures at the National Archives, order military and other records, and view historical maps and photographs.

Olive Tree Genealogy.

Since its launch in 1996, this humble Web site has evolved into a useful collection of instructions and databases.

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGC)

For research tasks at a remote library or archive, check out this directory of volunteers and places where they can perform research tasks. (Note that you may be asked to reimburse small expenses such as photocopying or postage.)

RootsWeb

This venerable free site still serves articles with practical tips, U.S. surname and location databases, mailing lists, genealogy files, and more, making it old but useful.

We’re Late.

Here authors collaborate to build a unified genealogical tree with pages for more than 2.8 million people and 400,000 locations. Sign up to add your tree; upload your genealogy tree as GEDCOM; and share documents, photos, and stories.

WorldCat / ArchiveGrid.

Find your family history in the 2 billion items in 10,000 world libraries, then click to see the collections closest to you with WorldCat. (You can also borrow books you discover through interlibrary loan.)

Its ArchiveGrid branch searches more than 4 million archival document descriptions from 1,000 different institutions. Learn about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and other materials that may mention your ancestors. An interactive map makes it easy to find archives near you.

The post Totally free genealogy sites appeared first on Gen-Home.

Health. It is not for nothing that doctors ask about certain medical conditions. With the example of grandparents and great-grandparents, it is easy to trace the main diseases that appear with age, and to prevent their development. As well as suggest the difficulties your children may have.

Destiny. Every person is a product of upbringing. The main patterns that define our lives are those we have adopted from our parents. Therefore, the stories of fathers and mothers about your and their childhood, values and relationships within the family will shed light on the reasons for the formation of many of your beliefs and help you find direction for changing yourself and your life for the better.

Community. The process of finding information about your roots brings you closer together. People who are aware of their commonalities are not alone. They always have brothers, sisters, nephews who are like them and can understand.

Understanding yourself and those around you. If most of your relatives on your father’s or mother’s side have a technical mindset, have worked and are working as engineers, programmers, technologists, you too may find yourself with similar abilities, start searching for priority areas for self-development, and prefer an unloved profession to the one you have always been drawn to.

Building self-esteem. This aspect is especially important for young children. They feel a much sharper sense of community and feel more confident when they have something to be proud of, when they can admire their relatives and cite them as an example. Stories about the worthy deeds of family members are very useful for the formation of the child’s personality.

Stories about the ancestors, their strengths and peculiarities of life help to better understand the world. The deeds of these people are evaluated differently, through the prism of unity. All the good and bad things about loved ones evoke more vivid emotions: pride, admiration or surprise, confusion, disappointment. The experience of someone who is related to you by blood ties has a much stronger impact on your worldview.

Knowing your blood ties is useful from a practical standpoint. Maintaining relationships with people from other cities, different professions can be a good reason and support for travel, a source of new experiences and acquaintances.

Therefore, even if you are not looking for distinguished ancestors and prefer to be proud of your own achievements, information about your family in its entirety will be useful to you.

The post Why you need to know about your ancestors appeared first on Gen-Home.