Toolbox

Here is a long list of resources that I find helpful in my research.  These are my general research resources.  I have my state and country specific resources saved on Pinterest here. I have to give a shout out to two people: 1) Cyndi of Cyndi's List who is the original creator of a research toolbox, if you can't find it on Cyndi's List, it doesn't exist!  and 2) Thomas MacEntee, who has to be one of the most helpful and selfless people I know.  He shares freely and I used his research toolbox as a starting list and then tweaked it to make it my own.  Thank you both for all that you do to promote excellent genealogical education and resources.

Books and Libraries Resources

250 Killer Archives
http://oedb.org/library/features/250-plus-killer-digital-libraries-and-archives

Allen County Public Library
http://www.genealogycenter.org

Ancestry Card Catalog
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/alldblist.aspx

Archive Grid

https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/

Bentley Historical Library-University of Michigan

http://bentley.umich.edu/

Family Search Books
https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/

Google Books
http://books.google.com

Hathi Trust
http://www.hathitrust.org

Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University

https://lib.byu.edu/

Internet Archive Texts
https://archive.org/details/texts

Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org

Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Newberry Library
http://www.newberry.org

Open Library
http://openlibrary.org

PERSI
https://www.genealogycenter.info/persi/

The Online Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/archives.html

WorldCat 
http://www.worldcat.org

Calculators and Tools

Atlas Hist County Boundaries
http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/

Birth Date Calculators
http://www.cyndislist.com/births.htm#Birthdate

Calendar Converters
http://www.cyndislist.com/calendar.htm#Converters

Citation Builder

https://cite-builder.com/

Cousin & Relationships
http://www.cyndislist.com/cousins.htm#Charts

Geographical Names
http://geonames.usgs.gov/

Inflation Calculator
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

US Dollar Historical Value
http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/

Weather History
http://www.weatherbase.com

Wolfram|Alpha
http://www.wolframalpha.com 

Cemeteries, Death Records, and Obituaries

Ancestors at Rest
http://ancestorsatrest.com/

Find A Grave
http://www.findagrave.com

Internment
http://www.interment.net

Legacy

https://www.legacy.com/

Online Searchable Death Index
http://www.deathindexes.com

SSDI Social Security Death Index
http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693

Tributes
http://www.tributes.com

US Military Grave Locator
https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/ngl/index.jsp

City Directories

City Directories of the US
http://www.uscitydirectories.com/

Eve & Don City Directories
http://www.donslist.net/PGHLookups/DirM.htm 

Online Historical Directories
https://sites.google.com/site/onlinedirectorysite/Home

DNA 

DNA Resources

https://www.americanancestors.org/tools/dna-resources

DNA Weekly 
https://www.dnaweekly.com/

Family Tree DNA

https://www.familytreedna.com/

ISOGG Wiki

https://isogg.org/wiki/Wiki_Welcome_Page

Your DNA Guide-Diahan Southard

https://www.yourdnaguide.com/

Genealogical Education

Board of Certified Genealogists (BCG) Skillbuilding

https://bcgcertification.org/learning/

Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (GenFed)

https://www.gen-fed.org/

GRIP Genealogy Institute

https://grip.ngsgenealogy.org/

Lansing (MI) Family History Seminar

National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair

https://www.archives.gov/calendar/genealogy-fair

National Genealogical Society (NGS)

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/home

New England Regional Genealogical Consortium (NERGC)

http://www.nergc.org/

Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS)

http://www.ogs.org/

Roots Tech

https://rootstech.org/?lang=eng

General Genealogy Research

Ancestry.com
http://www.ancestry.com 

FamilySearch
http://www.familysearch.org

FindMyPast
http://www.findmypast.com 

Fold3
http://www.fold3.com

Google
http://www.google.com

Google Newspapers
http://news.google.com/newspapers

Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com

Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org

Mocavo on Find My Past
https://www.findmypast.com/page/mocavo

MyHeritage
http://www.myheritage.com

NARA
http://www.archives.gov

US Gen Web
http://www.usgenweb.org

World Gen Web
http://www.worldgenweb.org

Immigration

Castle Garden

https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/ny-castle-garden-ellis-island

Cimorelli Immigration Manisfests Online

https://www.cimorelli.com/safe/shipmenu.htm

Ellis Island

http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild

http://www.immigrantships.net/

One Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse

http://stevemorse.org/

Olive Tree Genealogy

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/

Ship Passenger Lists

http://www.searchforancestors.com/records/passenger_tousa.html

Steamship Historical Society of America

http://www.sshsa.org

The Ships List

https://web.archive.org/web/20240813092428/http://www.theshipslist.com/

Land Records
Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/

Bureau of Land Management
https://glorecords.blm.gov/

Early American Roads and Trails

https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~gentutor/genealogy/trails.html

 Maps

David Rumsey Map Collection
http://www.davidrumsey.com

Historic Map Works
http://www.historicmapworks.com/

Norman P Levanthal Map Collection

https://www.leventhalmap.org/

Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection

https://maps.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html

Military

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (no longer maintained and updated)

http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm

Daughters of the American Revolution

http://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search/?Tab_ID=1

Online Military Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide

http://www.militaryindexes.com/

Newspapers
Chronicling America

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

Gale Digital Collections

https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/historical-newspapers

Genealogy Bank
http://www.genealogybank.com

Newspaper Archive
http://www.newspaperarchive.com

Northern NY Hist Newspapers
https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/

Old Fulton Postcards
https://www.fultonhistory.com/

Online Historical News
http://sites.google.com/site/onlinenewspapersite/Home

Readex: A Division of NewsBank

http://www.readex.com/collections

US News Archives on the Web
http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/internet/archives.html

Social History

Eyewitness to History

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html

Fashion Era

http://www.fashion-era.com/

Feeding America

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/index.html

I Do: Love and Marriage in 19^th Century Canada

https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/i-do-love-and-marriage-in-19th-century-canada-library-and-archives-canada/bgLiMJCC4hcnLw?hl=en

New York Public Library Digital Gallery

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

Old and Interesting

http://www.oldandinteresting.com/

Social Media

Genealogy on Facebook list

https://socialmediagenealogy.com/genealogy-on-facebook-list/ 

Facebook for Canadian Genealogy

https://genealogyalacarte.ca/?page_id=10169

Updated 21 April 2025