Michigan is the “Great Lakes State”. The edges of the state touch four of the Great Lakes. Genealogists who have ancestors who lived in Michigan might be searching for a way to reach out and touch the vital records that tell more about those ancestor’s lives. Here are several Michigan genealogy websites that can help you to do that.
Ancestry.com has a page that is filled with links to all of their Michigan records collections. In order to access these records, you need to have an Ancestry.com membership. Sometimes, a few collections will be offered for free. Return to their page often. Ancestry.com does a great job of making it clear when a collection is new, has been updated, or is currently being offered for free.
Interment.net has cemetery records online. You can put your ancestor’s name into the search engine at the top of their page. Or, you can select one of the links to individual counties in Michigan. If there is a link to the county, it means that there is information about individual cemeteries within that county.
FamilySearch has a Wiki page about Michigan. They have a link to each and every county in the state. Click a link, and it will take you to a FamilySearch Wiki page that is specifically about the county. Scroll down, and you will find a bunch of links to more of their Wiki pages about a particular group of records that pertain to Michigan.
GeneaLinks has a search engine that you can put your ancestor’s first and last name directly into. Select the record type you want to search for: vital, birth, death, marriage, divorce, or “Genealogy”. GeneaLinks also has helpful information for genealogists who are new to Michigan genealogy. Did you know that the official collection of most documentation in Michigan began in 1915?
Cyndi’s List is the most comprehensive collection of genealogy links on the internet. They have a page called “United States – Michigan”. You can start by clicking on any of the categories in their index. Choose from: “Birth, Marriage, Death”, “Census”, “Counties”, “Military”, “Newspapers”, and more.
The Michigan Genealogical Council is celebrating it’s 40th Anniversary year. They have a newsletter and Society Periodicals. There is a helpful list of Michigan Genealogy Resources, complete with links to each one. There also is a blog, but it hasn’t been updated in a while.
Image by Mike Bowler Sr. on Flickr