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Free Genealogy Websites
Free Research on Subscription Websites
FamilySearch Features
Free Genealogy Records
Free Genealogy Software
Free Resources from Family Tree
Totally Free Genealogy Websites
Finding your ancestors for free seems like an impossible task. Everywhere you turn, subscription-based access seems to be the only way to gain the family tree information you’re desperately seeking. But before you take out that second mortgage, take some time to do research on these totally free genealogy websites. We’ve included websites where you can build your family tree, search records, find genealogy books to borrow and reach out to volunteers who may help you with some of your genealogy research—all for free.
AccessGenealogy
Find free records and research guides at this website, which especially strong for American Indian research.
Allen County Public Library
Though based in Indiana, this library’s online reach extends much further—reflecting its status as the nation’s second-richest genealogy library.
BillionGraves
Both Billion Graves and Find a Grave inventory millions of user-submitted gravestone images. Tombstone transcriptions and GPS coordinates make the entries even more useful.
Books We Own
The next best thing to owning essential genealogy resources is finding someone who has what you need and will do a free lookup for you.
Cyndi’s List
Cyndi Ingle has spent more than 25 years curating some 300,000 links to genealogy websites, helpful organized into categories.
FamilySearch
Records, books, how-to articles, and a massive online family tree—this site should be your first stop. See below for more on this helpful site.
Genealogy Bargains
This site points frugal genealogists to deals across the web—from free records access promotions and webinars to discounts on subscriptions and resources.
Geni
Both Geni and WikiTree are sites that take the “one-tree” approach to online tree-building, offering free places for users to add family members and share research.
Internet Archive
It’s true that nothing on the Internet ever really goes away—the Internet Archive sees to that! Find digitized books, maps and audio clips from throughout history, plus “historical” site screenshots logged by the Wayback Machine. Some institutions even make the Internet Archive their official repository for online records.
Library of Congress
You don’t have to visit Washington, DC to access the Library’s free databases of historical photos, maps and city directories, not to mention the newspapers available through Chronicling America database.
Midwest Genealogy Center
This site from the Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, Mo., taps one of the nation’s largest genealogy collections.
National Archives and Records Administration
NARA is the official custodian for many key US record sets, including military records, immigration and naturalization documents, Social Security paperwork and US censuses. Ordering specific records may require a fee, but the site’s free finding aids and records guides alone make it worth visiting. National archives for other countries have similar offerings: Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom to name a few.
One-Step Webpages
Easily search multiple databases using this free tool, which also offers calendar and foreign-language tools. Note that search results may be hosted on subscription websites.
RootsWeb
Though owned by subscription website Ancestry.com, this crowdsourced database of local history sites, transcribed records, and how-to pages remains free.
USGenWeb
Volunteers from around the United States collaborate on the thousands of state- and county-specific research websites.
WeRelate
Contributors here collaborate to build a single, unified family tree, with millions of pages for people and places. Register to add your tree; upload your family tree as a GEDCOM; and share documents, photos and stories.
WorldCat/ArchiveGrid
Find your family history in 2 billion items at 10,000 of the world’s libraries, then click to see holdings nearest you using WorldCat. (You may also be able to borrow the books you discover using interlibrary loan.)
Its offshoot ArchiveGrid searches more than 4 million descriptions of archival records from 1,000 different institutions. Learn about historical documents, personal papers, family histories and other materials that may mention your ancestors. A clickable map makes it easy to find archives near you.
