Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 17 May 2015.
I was rereading Mills’ Professional Genealogy this past week and the chapter on The Essential Library got me thinking of the resources that I consider must haves. Mills was referring to books on a shelf but I find myself using more online resources these days. Wish her books had a Kindle edition; it’s so clunky to carry around!
Besides the obvious Big 5 resources – Ancestry, Family Search, Fold3, Heritage Quest and American Ancestor – that I can access as a paid member anywhere or use at my local library for free, I find lots of good info at these FREE sites:
- Genealogy In Time Magazine in their words, “maintains the most complete list available on the internet of the newest genealogy record sets from around the world.” I love this resource for the time they save me in identifying newly posted internet records from around the world. See more at here.
- Crestleaf.com blog has innovative ideas and heartfelt and humorous stories. They email me links to their featured stories so I can quickly click what I’m most interested in. Here’s examples of just a few of this week’s offerings: 21 Ways to Know You Were Raised by Polish Parents – Infographic, 5 Simple Ways to Organize Your Digital Family Photos, 7 Useful Smartphone Apps for Genealogy Research, If You Grew Up in the 1960s, You Definitely Wore These Things, The Most Important Step Missing From Your Genealogy Research, and Simple Tips for Dating Old Family Photos Using Women’s Hairstyles-Victorian Era. Sign up at http://crestleaf.com/blog
- Paper.li allows me to create my own newspaper – daily, weekly or monthly – on the topics that I want to read about. I’ve entitled my own newspaper Genealogy@Heart.paper.li and it’s delivered to my email with interesting articles on history, genealogy and genetics. I love the professional formatting and the articles arranged by topics – for example, science, business, politics, etc. It takes only a few minutes to set up and it’s simple to add or delete sites. To create your own paper visit here.
- Linkedin –were you aware that there are genealogy groups at this site? There are 269 groups noted – some are open to all and some are private. Once you’ve created a profile go to interest areas and type in genealogy. Click on those that interest you https://www.linkedin.com/
- Facebook – I don’t use Facebook like most folks do; I rarely post anything about me but I definitely use the info that organizations have posted. Check out the Association of Professional Genealogists, Genealogy Buffs and ask to join Deciphering Genealogy Script, Lineage Society of America and Genedocs Templates. Also look for your local and state genealogy and historical societies.
Next time – 5 more free sites that are simply awesome for genealogy!