Below you will find links to online resources to assist you with your family tree research. This is far from an exhaustive list. There are many other sites that contain historical and ancestral records but these sites are a good place to start. Links will open in a new window.
Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com is the largest repository of publicly-available original historical records and includes collections from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Ancestry.com also has specific African American, Jewish, and Native American collections.
Some records are available free of charge but most record collections require a paid subscription.
Family Search
FamilySearch is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) however you do not need to be a member of the LDS to access the site and it is free to use.
FamilySearch has record collections from a much broader range of countries than Ancestry.com, including countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, Continental Europe, Ireland, Mexico, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, South America, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However these records often do not include a scan of the original document.
FamilySearch offers online assistance and advice by booking an appointment with a staff member. FamilySearch also operates a network of Family History Centers which are physical locations where you can go to research your family tree and obtain assistance and advice from LDS members. You do not need to be a member of the LDS to use these centers.
Find A Grave
Find a Grave is one of Ancestry.com's many sister sites. As the name suggests the site allows users to search cemetery records from many parts of the world including Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia and Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. The records cover both cemeteries and war memorials. Records often include a photograph of the grave or memorial and many records contain obituaries or other biographical information about the deceased. The site is free to use.
Free UK Genealogy
FreeUKGenealogy offers free access to a range of UK records from both governmental, parish churches, and other institutions. Their records do not include scans of original documents but their collections include 228 million birth, marriage, and death records, 55 million parish records, and 44.5 million individual census records from 1841 to 1891.
UK General Register Office
You can obtain copies of original birth, marriage, and death records from England and Wales from the General Register Office dating back to 1837. There is a fee for each certificate but they can be useful in tracing your family tree as they will contain information not detailed in the birth, marriage, and death indexes available on sites like Ancestry.com or FamilySearch such as father's name and occupation on birth and marriage records and the name of the person who reported a death on a death certificate.
Scotland's People
Operated by National Records of Scotland, Scotland's People has collections of statutory (civil) records, church records, census records, along with a range of other records. Statutory records date back to 1851. Many of the records on the site are not available on other sites like Ancestry.com or FamilySearch. Searching the collections' indexes is free (which can be helpful in and of itself) but if you wish to view original records you will have to pay a fee.
Irish Genealogy
IrishGenealogy maintains collections of civil records (births, marriages, and deaths) for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. As the site is operated by a branch of the Republic of Ireland government, records for Northern Ireland are only available up to the Partition of Ireland in 1921. The site also maintains a small collection of church records for a number of parishes in the Republic of Ireland. Birth records date from 1864 to 1922, marriage records from 1845 to 1947, and death records from 1871 to 1972. For records for Northern Ireland after 1921 you will need to access Ni Direct.
NI Direct
NI Direct hosts the website of the General Register Office (Northern Ireland). The site is the Northern Ireland equivalent of England & Wales's General Register Office. You can obtain copies of birth, marriage, and death records. However, the site only allows you to view birth records over 100 years old, marriage records over 75 years old, and death records over 50 years old. You can view original documents online or order copies of certificates (both for a fee).
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia houses an eResources portal through which you can search the Library's collection of historic records as well as providing links to each state and territory's birth, marriage, and death registry. Access to birth, marriage, and death certificates in Australia is far more restricted than in the UK so you may find it difficult to order copies of relative's certificates. However, the Library maintains indexes for births from 1788 to 1922, marriages from 1788 to 1950, and deaths from 1787 to 1985. These can be searched via the eResources portal.
Australian Cemeteries Index
The Australian Cemeteries Index maintains an index of graves from cemeteries all over Australia. Some records are simply transcriptions of cemetery records however others contain details of grave inscriptions and photographs of graves.
National Archives of Australia
The National Archives of Australia houses a wide ranging collection of historical records including military records, passenger arrivals to Australia, and immigration and naturalisation records.
Ontario Vital Statistics
Ontario Vital Statistics holds records from the Office of the Registrar General of Ontario. The records include births from 1830 to 1917, marriage from 1801 to 1941, and deaths from 1869 to 1951. For records after these dates the person must be deceased and you will need to contact ServiceOntario and prove your relationship to them.
National Cemetery Administration
The National Cemetery Administration is operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and contains records of military burials dating back to 1862 when the first National Cemeteries were established.
Figure 1: DNA molecule - Original work created using PyMol and the PDB dataset from:
Drew, H., Wing, R., Takano, T., Broka, C., Tanaka, S., Itakura, K., & Dickerson, R. (1981, May 21). Structure of a B-DNA dodecamer: Conformation and dynamics. Retrieved from The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB) Protein Data Bank (PDB): https://www.rcsb.org/structure/1BNA
