Resources
Please feel free to use the information here to assist you on your journey of better understanding yourself through a better understanding of your ancestors. Resources are ever evolving, so check back often. This list is by no means exhaustive. The current list is focused on American Records and Jewish Records.
Chronicling America: Free Newspaper Resource from The U.S. Library of Congress.
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Ellis Island Foundation: If you believe your ancestors may have entered through Ellis Island, The Ellis Island Foundation has a number of ship manifests indexed and ready to be searched.
Family Search: Family Search is a great, free resource. You must register but then you have access to a number of free records. Even records that are locked can be freely accessed at an affiliated Family Search Library.
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Find a Grave & Billion Graves: Trying to figure out where an ancestor is buried, try either of these free sites. You can even help others by locating graves in your area.
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Genealogy for Children : List of Free Resources for children interested in genealogical research. Resource given to me by a Boy Scout who was enjoying genealogy and felt a link for kids could be helpful.
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United States Census Bureau: Census data and information can give you insight into your ancestors dates of birth, family structures, occupations, housing situations, languages known and more. Even the neighbors may have something to say.
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United States National Archives: The national archives have free indexed records, some of which have been digitized. There are free tutorials on the site to get you started. Requesting archives may be time consuming and will involve a fee, but it can be worth the look and time.
FREE GENEALOGY WEBSITES
The websites listed below are free websites that can allow you to begin your genealogical adventure. They are geared towards finding American Records.
Ancestor Roundup: Curated list of free resources.
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Cyndi's List: Cyndi's list is one of the most exhaustive genealogical list sites that I am aware of. She breaks here links down by state, country and movement patterns. I would recommend an ad blocker but the information organized here is another gold mine.
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FamilySearch Research Wiki: Yes, this is part of Family Search, but this link will take you to a wealth of information about records in particular locations. Just go to the country or state where your ancestor may have lived and get research ideas.
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Steve Morse: Stephen Morse has compiled a number of links and tools to help in your ancestral journey. If you are interested in finding an enumeration district on a Census document for a specific street for instance, Steve Morse has a great tool to help with that. He also has links to better assist in searches for passenger ships arriving in Boston, Baltimore and Ellis Island amongst other locations. There is much more to be explored with this great resource.
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USGenWeb Project: Links to local repositories and resources throughout the United States.
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FREE SITES W/MORE LINKS & TOOLS
The links from the sites listed below have been curated over time by genealogists to assist in finding, accessing and understanding records.
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Historical Jewish Press: Website initiated by Tel Aviv University and the National Library of Israel to encourage continued digitizing and publication of Jewish Newspapers. Multiple Languages in archive.
Jewish Gen: Jewish Gen can assist you on finding information about your Jewish Roots. There is a powerful search feature that searches multiple databases of information that will allow you to seek information based on a surname. One of my favorite tools to use is TownFinder, which is currently located under "Discover." It makes it easy to see all names and countries overseeing a town from before WWI to today.
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Routes to Roots Foundation: Do you have Jewish ancestors? Miriam Weiner constructed a record site where you can begin your search via surname. You could also look for records for a specific town. You will also see a familiar name listed as the Web Master (Stephen P. Morse)
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Steve Morse: Stephen Morse has compiled a number tools to help with finding your Jewish ancestry. He has links to information explaining the Jewish, Julian and other notable Calendars, links for translating Heberw, Yiddish, Russian & how to use phonetic matching to find your ancestors via surnames.
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Yad Vashem: Searchable database of Holocaust victims' names
Free Jewish Genealogy
Here is a list of a number of websites that can get you started with your Jewish Genealogy. I have completed mostly Ashkenazic research but the links below do have some Sephardic Jewish Genealogy as well.
Ancestry.com: Create a family tree and find records. Ancestry has digitized original records, transcriptions and indexes. Some public libraries have library access for free.
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Find My Past: Especially Helpful for British and Irish Ancestry. Currently offers a 7 day free trial. The library edition is available at limited libraries.
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Fold3: Focus is on military records but other records are available. Fold3 was purchased by Ancestry.com in October 2010.
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Genealogy Bank: Newspaper Repository.
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My Heritage: Create a family tree and find records. This site (at this time) does offer a 14-day free trial.
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Newspapers.com: Search through a large database of newspapers. This repository is in the family of companies associated with Ancestry.com.
Paid Sites
Sites with repositories of information that are subscription based.
Ancestry.com: While most of Ancestry.com is subscription based, they do offer free, printable forms to help in organizing your information. Tutorials are also available.
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Cyndi's List: Cyndi's list is on here again as it is a great place to find links to forms and charts.
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Family Search Wiki: Links to more forms that can be used to gather evidence.
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National Archives: Several forms to assist you in your family history journey.
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National Genealogical Society: Does Require Free Subscription. They have Pedigree Charts and a Family group sheet that is fillable via pdf.
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Pinterest: Number of free genealogy printables.
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Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness: Blank charts you can fill in as you find information.
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RESEARCH TOOLS & GUIDES
The links below take you to places that have charts, forms and other interesting information pertaining to genealogy.