Commercial sites generally offer the greatest wealth of genealogy data, drawn from records around the world. This information comes with a price tag, however, in the form of subscription or pay-per-view access. When evaluating a commercial genealogy site, consider whether the payment is worth the return in terms of the unique databases or records you will gain access to, or the time you will save by being able to access them from your home.
The largest commercial online source for family history information, with more than 1.3 million subscribers, is Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com). More than 5 billion digitized historical documents are available to subscribing members from over two dozen countries, including the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. As a subscriber to Ancestry.com, you can:
Search for historical records. Ancestry.com has more than 5 billion records available online, including census records, immigration records, historical newspapers, military records, vital records, school yearbooks, and a variety of other resources. Advanced search features allow you to search across all databases at once.
View digital images of original records. Ancestry.com places a focus on scanning and digitizing historical documents for online viewing. This organization's efforts made it the first site online to offer indexes and images of the complete U.S. census from 1790 to 1930. It also offers digitized passenger lists, British and Canadian census records, the England & Wales National Probate Calendar, a collection of more than 60 million school yearbooks, and U.S. military records such as Civil War pension application cards and WWI draft registration cards.
Connect with others researching the same ancestors. The large genealogy community at Ancestry.com offers numerous chances to benefit from the research of others. The majority of the community features at Ancestry.com are free and available to even nonsubscribers, including user-submitted family trees and family history message boards.
Some databases at Ancestry.com and RootsWeb offer a special Post-em Note feature to help you connect with other researchers interested in the same family. This electronic equivalent of a yellow sticky note allows you to attach information such as your name and e-mail address or corrected data to a record. A slightly different version of the feature can be found listed in some Ancestry.com databases as Comments and Corrections.
Ancestry.com is a subscription-based site, offering unlimited access to records for a monthly or annual fee. A special subscription version for libraries, called Ancestry Library Edition, may be available to you for free through your local library, but you'll only have access from the library computers. This database is not available for remote access from home with a library card. Ancestry.com also offers free access to patrons at the Family History Library and select larger Family History Centers, through a special arrangement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS or Mormon Church).
GenealogyBank
NewsBank offers online access to millions of records from its digital vaults through a service geared specifically to genealogists. Known as GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com), the subscription-based product, launched in 2006, offers access to more than 480 million articles from more than 4,300 historical U.S. newspapers, plus historical documents and the Social Security Death Index. The biggest draw for genealogists is the historical newspaper collection dating back to 1690, plus the 28+ million contemporary obituaries (dating back to 1977). Unlimited access is available for a monthly or annual subscription, and there is a money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied. A similar service called America's GenealogyBank is available for library subscription, so check with your local or state library before you subscribe. You may already have access to this database through one of these sources.
Digital images of original records found online are considered by most genealogists to offer a reasonable substitute for the original record in almost every research situation. In other words, if you've accessed a digital image of a census enumeration or military record from a reputable source, it's generally not necessary to also view the original record.
Footnote.com
Content at subscription-based Footnote.com (www.footnote.com) is a mix of historical documents and newspapers, with the bulk of the content digitized through a partnership with the National Archives. Footnote is best known by genealogists for its U.S. military records collection, including Revolutionary War Pension records, Civil War service records, and Army and Navy JAG Case Files. Other interesting collections among its 67 million — plus images include FBI Case Files, records of the Southern Claims Commission, U.S. naturalization records, and interactive editions of the 1860 and 1930 U.S. census, which allow users to create profile pages for any enumerated individual.
Footnote.com can be searched by name or keyword across all available records, or you can browse or search by collection or historical era. Results can be further narrowed by collection title, category, place, name, and year. The flash-based site is beautiful and easy to navigate, but searching can be awkward at times. For the best results with more common names, browse directly to the collection/title of interest and then search within that collection. Footnote.com offers both monthly and annual subscription rates, as well as a seven-day free trial.
AmericanAncestors
The flagship website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (www.americanancestors.org) hosts a large collection of online databases for individuals with New England ancestry, such as Massachusetts vital records and full text issues of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (from 1847). There is also a growing collection of records for other areas, including resources for mid-Atlantic, Irish, and African American research. Annual membership includes access to more than 3,000 online genealogical and historical collections, plus subscriptions to American Ancestors magazine and The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.
WorldVitalRecords
WorldVitalRecords (www.worldvitalrecords.com), a product of FamilyLink.com, offers both free and paid family history content. The company is headed by former MyFamily.com founder, Paul Allen. Most of the free content — including the Social Security Death Index, the Bureau of Land Management Records, World War II Army Enlistment Records, and select state death indexes — is also free elsewhere online. Unique content available at WorldVitalRecords includes the SmallTownPapers collection, content from the Everton Genealogical Library, English parish registers, and other genealogical data. WorldVitalRecords stands out for its focus on unusual and less frequently used family history sources from all over the world and its inexpensive subscription price.
Genealogy Today
This relatively inexpensive subscription-based site specializes in unique records of interest for social and family history. Databases available at Genealogy Today (www.genealogytoday.com) include school yearbooks, association membership rosters, orphanage records, church records, railroad seniority rosters, farm directories, donation lists, and insurance claims. Most of the information has been transcribed by hand from documents and books found in estate sales, used book stores, eBay, and so on. The content primarily spans 1830 to 1930 from U.S. sources.
