Local History & Genealogy Web Resources
- Comprehensive Sites
- Professional Organizations
- Libraries and Archives
- Cooperative Projects
- Ethnic & Specialty Sites
- Tools & Vendors
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
Cyndi Howells' list of over 91,000 links
for genealogists is categorized and cross-linked in over 100 easy
to understand subject categories and frequently updated.
URL: http://www.cyndislist.com/
This site is done by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can search Ancestral File,
the International Genealogical Index, Pedigree Resource File, Vital
Records Index, and family history web sites.
URL: http://www.familysearch.org
This site offers "gateways"
for various areas of genealogy including military, obituary, ethnic,
family, and more. Each gateway offers numerous links to web
sites for further research. In total there are over 50,000 sites
listed on this web site.
URL: http://www.gengateway.com
Has links in 13 major categories. One
of its best features is a "What's New" section updated weekly,
and a "What's Really New" section updated daily.
URL: http://www.genhomepage.com
Genealogy Resources on the Internet
This concise site covers has numerous
web links.
URL: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cgaunt/gen_web.html
Professional Organizations
Federation Of Genealogical Societies
Find out about upcoming conferences
and genealogical events and workshops all around the country.
URL: http://www.fgs.org/
Lots of helpful information for
beginners, including numbering systems for your genealogy, preservation,
George Archers's Netguide: Genealogist's Guide to the Internet, the
USGS Geographic Name Server, an online catalog of the society's Library,
etc.
URL: http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/
Wisconsin State Genealogical Society
The state's oldest and largest
statewide genealogical organization.
URL: http://rootsweb.com/~wsgs/
Libraries and Archives
A clear explanation of what types of
resources are found in the Family History Center In Salt Lake, identifying
the closest Family History Center, why genealogy is important to the
Mormons, and some basics for starting your research.
URL: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHL/frameset_Library.asp
Immigration History Research Center (IHRC)
This is an international resources
on American immigration and ethnic history, including searchable archival
materials such as personal papers, organizational records, pamphlets,
and newspapers. Particularly strong in eastern, central, and southern
European and Near Eastern ethnic groups.
URL: http://www1.umn.edu/ihrc/
The nation's Library; many changing exhibits,
searchable catalogs, etc.
URL: http://lcweb.loc.gov/
LIBWEB--Library Information Severs via WWW
This site links you to WWW pages
for various libraries.
URL: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/
Electronic indexes to many archival
collections, with the ability to order copies of records online.
URL: http://www.uwm.edu/dept/Library/arch/
National Archives and Records Administration
NARA offers a Soundex machine for
finding your Soundex code for the censuses, and also has catalogs
of their microfilm publications online including immigrant and passenger
arrivals and census records. They also offer workshops and have a
microfilm rental program. For military records including downloadable
request forms, try NARA's
National Personnel Records Center.
URL: http://www.nara.gov/
This illustrates the types of resources
archives are starting to put online. Searchable databases include
transportation records of convicts sent from Ireland to Australia
and a searchable index of the records of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland.
URL: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
Gateway to the RLIN AMC file, links to
other archives and manuscript collections. Reading the search instructions
is a must for successful searching.
URL: http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmc.html
Ready, 'Net, Go: Archival Internet Resources
This site links you to over 2,100 websites
of archives and manuscripts repositories around the world.
URL: http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/ArchivesResources.html
Wisconsin Historical Society, Archives Division
Find out about the hours, services,
and collections of our richest resource in Wisconsin.
URL: http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/archives/
Wisconsin Historical Society Library
Find out about the hours, services, and
collections of our richest resource in Wisconsin, containing a wealth
of census records, passenger lists on microfilm, and an extensive
newspaper collection.
URL: http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/Library/index.html/
Cooperative Projects
Wisconsin Local History Network
This site has volunteers
transcribing information from a wide variety of primary sources. It
aims to complement the information provided in projects such as the
Genweb project.
URL: http://www.wlhn.org/
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
This new site (October, 1998) has
volunteers transcribing information from ship passenger lists. It
also has a litst of helpful web sites about names, occupations, and
reading old handwriting.
URL: http://istg.rootsweb.com/index1.html
Roots Genealogical Web Cooperative
This has a searchable database of over
400,000 surnames, other databases such as land records, and links
to over 3,191 e-mail lists dealing with genealogy.
URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/
Tombstone Transcription Project--Wisconsin
Volunteers in various counties
are surveying area cemeteries and copying the information off of headstones
and making it available online.
URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/wiscon.html
One of the most ambitious grassroots
volunteer projects being undertaken in the genealogical community.
The goal is to get a WWW page up for each county in the U.S., where
queries can be posted, volunteers will assist researchers who are
not local, lists of resources for the area can be posted, etc. Amount
and quality of information may vary from site to site since this is
strictly a volunteer project.
URL: http://www.usgenweb.org/
Wisconsin's contributions to the
US GenWeb Project are well underway.
URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wigenweb/
Since the US project has been so successful,
a worldwide effort has just gotten underway.
URL: http://www.worldgenweb.org/
Ethnic & Specialty Sites
Directory of Wisconsin Ethnic Organizations
Searchable web site for all Wisconsin
organizations relating to specific ethnic groups.
URL:http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/mkiLibrary/ethnic.htm
FEEFHS (Federation of East European Family History Societies) Web Site
Even if you don't think you have East
European ancestors (and they define it broadly!), check it out. You'll
find out the best search engines for genealogy, a search engine for
over 30 surname lists (& other) databases, maps, links to sites
for checking phone numbers, links to all of the Usenet genealogy listservs,
and a host of other information.
URL: http://feefhs.org
Genealogy in Belgium Home Page
Links to archives and libraries,
an on-line phone directory, surname database, etc.
URL: http://users.skynet.be/sky60754/genealbe/index.htm
Irish Genealogical Society of Wisconsin
Tap into the Library and other resources
of this helpful Wisconsin organization.
URL: http://www.execpc.com/~igsw/
Links to surnames, townlands, counties,
history, culture, etc.
URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irish/
Official Land Patent Records Site
This site provides live database and
image access to more than two million Federal land title records for
the Eastern Public Land States, issued between 1820 and 1908.
URL: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid (OCFA)
Searchable database containing
surnames, cemetery name and location of over 2 million interments
from over 3,800 locations in Ontario; important since many early immigrants,
particularly the Irish, stopped in Canada for a while on their way
to the U.S.
URL: http://www.islandnet.com/ocfa/
The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871
Little known outside of Wisconsin and
overshadowed by the great Chicago fire that occurred at the same time,
this site delves into the tragic fates of the many who perished.
URL: http://www.peshtigofire.info/default.htm
Polish Genealogical Society of America
Find addresses for Polish archives and
dioceses, translation guides, letter writing fuides, information about
Polish language newspapers in the U.S. and several searchable databases.
URL: http://www.pgsa.org
Ancestry Inc. offers free searching of
this wonderful resource for helping track down some of your more current
American family members that you may have lost track of.
URL: http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/vital/ssdi/main.htm
Along with the ongoing Genweb projects
is a searchable archive of full-text material. Special projects getting
underway include a census transcription project, a tombstone transcription
project, military records project, and a world genweb archives.
URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/
Tools & Vendors
Type in a url or plain text (up to a paragraph or two) and translate
from English to French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish and
vice versa. Caution: This is machine translation, so it's far from
perfect.
URL: http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
Telephone Directories of the World
This tend to be more for business
listings, but some directories are for residential numbers. Good foreign
coverage.
URL: http://www.infobel.com/teldir/default.asp