Castle Garden in New York City was one of the processing centers where immigrants from all over the world passed through when they immigrated to the United States. Castle Garden immigration records are available for the 10 millions plus immigrants to the United States passing through this port even before Ellis Island was opened. Castle Garden was in operation from 1830 to 1892, which was when Ellis Island was opened.

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The most well known site on the Internet for finding your ancestors in free passenger lists is the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG). The ISTG has been online since September 1998 with a few volunteers who transcribed passenger lists. The ISTG now has over 500 volunteers who are completing this important work to be published on their website. As of today, there are over 9,000 passengers lists that have been transcribed! The lists that they transcribe are mainly from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm collection.

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Rootsweb is perhaps the largest and oldest free genealogy community online. It used to be entirely run by volunteers but in 2004 was acquired by Ancestry.com which provides the funds to support it. Never fear, however, as all of the genealogy records on Rootsweb still remain free to access by anyone. If you haven’t made you way to Rootsweb before, then add it to your to-do list. You won’t want to miss the free genealogy resources! Read more »

Family Tree Magazine recently recognized Virginia as one of the top 10 states for genealogy research. Once you visit the Library of Virginia online (or in person) you will agree that it is one of the best free Virginia genealogy resources available to you. Virginia can be called the ancestral home of millions of Americans so chances are, you might have a Virginian in your family tree! Several of my lines originated in Virginia and I now call the state home (by coincidence!) and have personally been to this wonderful library in Richmond.

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It’s not a surprise that Ancestry.com has come up with a new gadget to help you find your ancestors. Recently, Ancestry.com released a new toolbar which you can install to your web browser. What the toolbar allows you to do is grab information off any genealogy website you might be looking at and add it your your free family tree. It can also help you organize any information you have found online and access your family tree very quickly, in the event you don’t have that information at your fingertips (perhaps while you are surfing the Internet on your lunch break at work).

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County vital records are one of the most sought after pieces of genealogical information. Vital records are the official records left behind by your ancestors as they moved through life. These are the “facts” about your ancestor – when and where they were born, when and where they got married, when and where they died, and where they were buried.

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Those with Canadian ancestry can get all the information they need when undertaking a genealogy research project through the internet.  Canada genealogy information is available in a collection of databases developed by the Canadian Genealogy Centre in the Library and Archives Canada.  The Library and Archives Canada has a significant collection of cultural and historical information captured in documents and made accessible to genealogists and the general public.  Not only is this Canada genealogy institution responsible for collecting and preserving these records, audio-visual materials, photographs, and other pertinent documents, it is also responsible for acquiring and sharing the materials to as many people as possible. Read more »

The United States has been the destination for millions of immigrants. You can find out if your immigrants entered the United Stated through New York City by checking out Ellis Island immigration records. Ellis Island opened in 1892, taking over from the Castle Garden facility. There is a lot of information about Ellis Island immigration that is available to you on the Ellis Island website. Information such as the island’s history, its immigrants, and its immigration records can be found within it’s easy to use search functions.

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Cemetery burial records should not be overlooked in your research. Burial records can substitute for missing death records or add value in their own right to your research of your ancestors. There are many, many free genealogy websites that have transcriptions of burial records, however, most of them are on small sites that perhaps only cater to an individuals family research or maybe a particular county. Your best friend here is Google to try to ferret out those hard to find lists online. Read more »

The Gravestone Photo Project came into being from the brainstorming of one IAGenWeb county coordinator and his son. The first Gravestone Photo Project was from Iowa and now, at least 15 other states have their own Gravestone Photo Projects! As of today, those states include Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Utah! The code to create a gravestone project is free and available at the Gravestone Photo Project website. Read more »