Step 3 – Use These Family History Website Internet Bookmarks

These Family History Bookmarks make working on your family history SO easy…that otherwise lovey-dovey couples often end up fighting over who gets to use the laptop first. Just remember: no fighting over the laptop during family home evening or Sacrament Meeting (unless you’re sitting on the back row where no one can see you).

Now that you’re all organized, it’s time for Step 3 which is to get yourself set up to use these Family History Bookmarks (or Favorites).

You can either:

1)..Bookmark the following Family History Websites page and visit the sites from that page.

…OR…

2)..Import the bookmarks as a folder on to your browser.

The Internet is an amazing family history resource. However, there are a zillion family history sites (maybe even two zillion). And it’s easy to get lost in the maze. The purpose of this step is to have the main family history websites you’ll use 90% of the time right at your fingertips — making it easy to research your family.

For more on the Internet, see Researching On The Internet
and Types of Family History Websites.

(these websites are listed this other page, ready to be bookmarked)

Family History Is Fun — your step-by-step guide to starting your family history
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CHECKLIST (these 13 sites are the ones listed on the Research Checklist)
01 Family Tree— Church’s main family history collaboration & temple submission site
02 FamilySearch — the Church’s premier family history site
03 Ancestry.com — the premier family history subscription site
04 RootsWeb — database of 441,000 family histories (732 million names)
05 Google — Internet’s largest search engine (excellent for family history research)
06 GoogleBooks — a treasure trove of old scanned family & county histories
07 FamilySearch Books — over 100,000 family histories & county histories
08 Family History Library Catalog — catalog of Salt Lake’s 2.5 million rolls of microfilm
09 US GenWeb — resources for every county in America
10 World GenWeb — resources for countries throughout the world
11 RootsWeb Message Boards — for posting messages, queries or requests
12 GenForum Message Boards — for posting messages, queries or requests
13 Ancestry.com Immigration — search numerous immigration records from one spot
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FAMILY TREE
Family Tree — Church’s main family history collaboration & temple submission site
Family Tree Practice Site — practice using Family Tree without goofing anything up
Family Tree Training — Family Tree videos, guides, lessons and webinars
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FAMILY SEARCH
FamilySearch — the Church’s premier family history site
FamilySearch Blog — updates on FamilySearch & family history topics
FamilySearch Classes — research courses for different countries and records
FamilySearch Community Trees — compiled genealogies from localities
FamilySearch Indexing — home site for FamilySearch indexers
FamilySearch Indexing Resources — helps and training for FamilySearch indexers
FamilySearch Labs — beta versions of new FamilySearch projects
FamilySearch Microfilm Ordering — for ordering microfilmed records
FamilySearch Research Assistance — free, live research help for different localities
FamilySearch Search — the records search page for FamilySearch
FamilySearch Support — help for FamilySearch’s family history tools
FamilySearch Videos — FamilySearch’s family history videos
FamilySearch Wiki — 78,000 articles on various family history topics
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FAMILY HISTORY
Billion Graves — search millions of grave records (also submit cemetery records)
County Finder (box on right) — tells you what county a town is in
Cyndi’s List — the premier family history “link” site
Date Calculator — calculates birth dates, ages, death dates
Ellis Island — database of 25 million immigrants thru Ellis Island (1892-1924)
Family History Callings — guides & training for various family history callings
Find A Grave — database of 115 million grave records
Find My Past — 1.7 billion records from the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand
Genealogy Glossary — glossary of old words, phrases, occupations
HeritageQuest — superb collection of family/county histories and military records
LDS.org — the Church’s main website
My Heritage — huge international database of billions of records
Research – Foreign — step-by-step and country specific overview on foreign research
Research – Helps — research guides and foreign word lists
Research – Records — explains main types of family history records you’ll encounter
Research – U.S. — step-by-step overview on how to research your U.S. ancestors
RootsTech — annual family history & technology conference (archived presentations)
Steve Morse Searches — easy, one-step advanced search engines
Translator — translates foreign words and websites into English
Vital Records 1 — where to write for U.S. vital records
Vital Records 2 — where to write for U.S. vital records
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FAMILY HISTORY SOFTWARE
Ancestral Quest — PC-based, syncs with Family Tree
Legacy Family Tree — PC-based, syncs with Family Tree
RootsMagic — PC-based, syncs with Family Tree
MacFamilyTree — Mac-based, syncs with Family Tree
MobileFamilyTree — iPhone/iPad-based, syncs with Family Tree
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