Free Genealogy Research Guide

1. Start with What You Know

Write down every name, date, and place you already know in your direct line. Interview the oldest living relatives first — their memory of names, dates, and ports of entry is the cheapest research tool you have. Save photos and documents to a single cloud folder before they get lost.

2. Vital Records (Birth, Marriage, Death)

Civil registration of births and deaths is generally a 20th-century phenomenon. Order modern certificates from your state vital-records office — see vital records by state. For older events, look to church registers, family Bibles, and county courthouse marriage registers.

Tip: A death certificate is the single most useful genealogy document — it usually lists parents’ names, spouse, last residence, occupation, and place of burial.

3. Federal Census (1790–1950)

The U.S. census is the workhorse of American genealogy. Each release adds new questions: 1850 added every household member’s name, 1880 added relationship to head of household, 1900 added month and year of birth, 1930 added home value. The most recent open census is 1950.

Free indexes:

NARA 1950 Census — National Archives, free, full images
FamilySearch 1950 Census — free, name-indexed
NARA census home for 1790–1940

4. Immigration & Naturalization

Ellis Island (1892–1957) records are free at libertyellisfoundation.org; Castle Garden (1820–1892) at castlegarden.org. Naturalization papers are filed in the federal or county court that handled the case — check the SearchSystems court records directory by state. NARA holds a free naturalization records guide.

5. Military Records

Service records, pension files, and draft cards are gold for connecting generations. Highlights:

Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American — NARA, all free indexes
WWI draft registration (1917–18), WWII draft (the “Old Man’s Draft” 1942) — FamilySearch, free
WWII enlistment — NARA Access to Archival Databases
Browse nationwide military records

6. Land & Probate

Land patents, deeds, and wills tie families to places. The Bureau of Land Management hosts a free land-patent search covering 5+ million federal land grants. State land records (the 13 colonies plus Hawaii, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of Vermont and Maine) are at state archives. For wills, the county Surrogate Court / Register of Wills holds probate files.

7. Cemetery & Obituary Indexes

Free volunteer-built sites cover almost every U.S. cemetery:

FindAGrave — 200M+ memorials, free
BillionGraves — GPS-tagged headstone photos, free
Legacy.com — newspaper obituaries, free
Newspapers.com free archives — certain historical papers free

8. Best Free Online Genealogy Sites

FamilySearch — run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, free, 9 billion+ names indexed
U.S. National Archives
USGenWeb — volunteer-run, county-by-county
Cyndi’s List — 350,000 categorized free links
WikiTree — collaborative single family tree, free
Your local public library — Ancestry Library Edition is usually free on library computers

9. DNA Testing

Autosomal DNA tests (AncestryDNA, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage) find cousins out to about the 4th–5th generation. Y-DNA traces the direct paternal line (men only); mtDNA traces the direct maternal line. Upload raw data for free to GEDmatch for cross-database matching.

DNA results are not private — matches are visible to other testers. Read the privacy policy before testing.

10. Archives & Libraries

Most state archives publish free indexes online: see the National Archives directory of state archives. The Library of Congress catalog includes city directories, county histories, and family histories. The FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City and its local FamilySearch Centers offer free access to billions of records.

↑