Genealogy Basics | Starting Places | People and Places | Documents and Records | New Jersey Genealogy
Premium resources
Ancestry Library Edition (In library use)
Provides access to a number of genealogical and historical resources, including images of the U.S. census from 1790-1930, military service records,oral histories, city directories, and more.
This collection assembles U.S. federal census through 1930, banking and military records, genealogies, local histories, primary source materials, and genealogical and local history serials. The site is fully searchable and includes digital images of all source material.
Genealogy Basics
How to (from Cyndi’s List)
http://www.cyndislist.com/how-to
Extensive list for beginners including educational opportunities, general genealogical guides, Family History Centers, mailing lists, publications and software, citations and footnotes and a section for young people.
Information for Researchers (from US Gen Web)
http://www.usgenweb.org/research/index.html
Contains researching help for maiden names, how to find immigration and passenger arrival records, genealogy vocabulary, and old occupations. Also includes how to care for old documents and publishing.
National Archives and Records Administration: Mid Atlantic Region (Philadelphia)
http://www.archives.gov/philadelphia/
Includes information about the services offered by this regional facility including its extensive microfilm and archival holdings, hours, and directions. Periodic workshops are offered for the public on census records, passenger lists, naturalization records, and military records.
Rootsweb Guide to Tracing Family Trees
http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
One of the best sites for beginners to genealogy and family history to learn the basics of research. There are guides on sources, record types, using technology, immigration, country and ethnic groups, and much more.
Starting Places
Cyndi’s List
http://www.cyndislist.com
A collection of over 100,000 links that have been organized and cross-referenced in over 100 categories. This site is one of the richest resources for genealogy studies.
RootsWeb
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/rootsweb/
Billing itself as “The Oldest & Largest FREE Genealogy Site,” RootsWeb includes search engines and databases, family trees (over 70 million names), surname and geographical mailing lists, and message boards. The site also hosts other volunteer projects such as the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild and Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.
People and Places
FamilySearch
https://familysearch.org/
This is The Church of the Latter-day Saints search engine. It includes millions of names from the Ancestral file and millions of names from the International Genealogical Index. You can search by surname and keyword or perform a custom search for surnames, Web sites, books, and more.
Surname Distribution Maps
https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Surname_Distribution_Maps
These maps graphically display locations where surnames occurred at different periods in time.
WorldGenWeb
http://www.worldgenweb.org
“The goal of the WorldGenWeb Project is to have every country in the world represented by an online website and hosted by researchers who either live in their own country or who are familiar with their country’s resources.”
Documents and Records
Ellis Island: Passenger Search
http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger
Now you can research the passenger records from ships that brought 22 million immigrants through Ellis Island and the Port of New York between 1892 and 1924 and view the original manifests with passengers’ names.
National Personnel Records Center–Veterans Service Records
http://www.archives.gov/veterans/
The National Personnel Records Center, Veterans Service Records is the repository of millions of military personnel, health, and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century. Information from the records is made available upon written request (with signature and date) to the extent allowed by law.
Soundex Conversion Program
http://resources.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/soundexconverter
“The Soundex system is the means established by the National Archives to index the U.S. censuses (beginning with 1880). It codes together surnames of the same and similar sounds but of variant spellings. Soundexes are arranged by state, Soundex code of the surname, and given name.”
Vital Records Information: United States
http://vitalrec.com/index.html
Includes how to obtain both U.S. and foreign vital records information, other vital records links, and adoption resources.
New Jersey Genealogy
Burlington County Resources
http://explore.bcls.lib.nj.us/genealogy
List of sites from the Burlington County Library.
The New Jersey Historical Society’s library collections contain manuscripts, reference books and rare books, photographs, maps, broadsides, pamphlets, mass-produced prints and other materials that document the cultural and historical heritage of New Jersey from the colonial era through the 20th century.
New Jersey State Archives Collections Search
http://nj.gov/state/archives/search.html
Access to searchable databases, collection guides, and image collections at the New Jersey State Archives.
Searchable New Jersey Publications
The New Jersey State Library has digitized a number of publications helpful to genealogists, including rosters of men who served in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.