Favourite Web Sites

This is an updated version of a post that I wrote a few years ago in response to a survey at Genea-Musings. We were asked to rank eight Web sites in order of importance to our research. I don't use some of the American sites listed in the survey, so I have substituted sites that are important to me.

1. Google for general searching, blogs, and Google Alerts.


2. GENUKI - best starting point for UK/Ireland genealogy.


3. FindMyPast for indexes, transcripts and images of original documents, with (usually) more accurate indexing than Ancestry.


4. Discovery for records held by The National Archives (UK) plus 2,500 archives across the country. Over 9 million records are available for download.


5. Trove for searchable digitised Australian newspapers and much more.


6. Cyndi's List for the biggest list of genealogy links worldwide.


7. FreeBMD for civil registration indexes (England & Wales); and see how to use FreeBMD Postems to find distant relatives.


8. FamilySearch for its catalogue (especially good for finding out what records exist for a town or parish), genealogy guides, indexes, European records, etc.

Other sites that I use frequently:

• LostCousins (for Britain, Canada and the USA).


• CuriousFox (gazetteer, maps and message board system for the United Kingdom, Ireland and USA).

Although I've had great success with some of Ancestry's databases, especially the National Probate Calendar (an index of wills and administrations that shows the names and whereabouts of vast numbers of people in other countries), I cannot bring myself to rank Ancestry in the Top 8 because its indexing is often inaccurate and I don't like the way it presents search results.

Which Web sites do you find essential for your research?

Newspapers, birthdays and Christmas gifts

What was happening in the world on the day your grandfather was born?

A good family history is one that includes historical context, and newspapers are an obvious resource. My 'list of things to do' includes 'Find a newspaper for the day each of my direct ancestors was born and died'.

I once researched a person who died in Sydney NSW at the age of 103. Normally I would have expected to find a short paragraph in the newspaper, but the death was completely overshadowed by reports of the dramatic opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

A few years ago, as Christmas gifts for my father and sisters, I laminated A3 photocopies of the front page of a major local newspaper for the day each of them was born. My father was born in 1919, and his page was filled with stories about the aftermath of World War I. My youngest sister was born during a cyclone, and the newspaper reports prompted Dad to tell us some interesting tales about rushing to the hospital in cyclonic conditions.

I hasten to add that important documents should never be laminated, as explained in 'Step away from the laminator!' The A3 pages I laminated were not for long-term preservation. They were just inexpensive gifts (which are used as place mats for informal family meals!)