My own personal favorite online resource for performing genealogy is Ancestry.com, which requires a monthly subscription fee to access most records. They do offer a free 14 day trial to new users, which may be something a beginning genealogist may want to consider, but if you do not remember to cancel before the end of the trial, your account will be billed their normal monthly fee. There are many other websites available online that are completely free of charge. Here is a list of some of what I consider the best free genealogy websites.
I consider RootsWeb to be the best free genealogy website. They have so much information available to genealogists that I can still discover new information after almost eight years of my own genealogy research. Some areas of the website that are particularly helpful are:
– Getting Started at RootsWeb (An excellent read-through for newcomers to the site)
– RootsWeb Surname List/RSL
– Social Security Death Index (SSDI)
– WorldConnect Project (where other genealogists have posted their own family trees)
My other favorite free genealogy website is FamilySearch, which is put out by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). Members of the LDS have been researching and microfilming genealogical records for many years. These records are now available to search for on their website.
The WorldGenWeb Project is a large database of genealogical and historical information that has been added by many volunteer contributors. You can locate information in a particular country, state, province, county, city, etc.
Olive Tree Genealogy is a wonderful free genealogy resource for genealogists researching immigration from countries, such as Canada, England, and Germany. Other free genealogical records that can be found on the website are military records, ship passenger lists, old photographs, and more.