More great websites
Usefully, there’s a complete directory of state-level archives at statearchivists.org/connect/resourcesstate, while the General Land Office Records website ( glorecords.blm. gov) offers free access to a wealth of data. Essentially this is a bit like the Land Registry and provides access to Federal land-conveyancing records – including images of more than five million land title records issued from 1788 to the present day. It isn’t likely to be the kind of website you’d start with, but it’s a valuable resource to keep in mind.
Ancestry.com is a behemoth where US records are concerned, but to access them with a UK account you will need to upgrade to a Worldwide subscription. Findmypast.co.uk has made inroads, and there’s also the military records site, Fold3 ( fold3.com), which has millions of digitised documents through partnerships with the likes of the US National Archives including military pension records from the American Civil War.
USGenWeb ( usgenweb.org) is GENUKI’s spiritual brother, with a sprinkling of FreeREG. It was started in 1996, when Ancestry was still little more than an online newsletter, and is a volunteer-led project that attempts to provide a free directory of genealogy help and information for every state and county. There’s lots that might be found elsewhere, such as the FamilySearch wiki for example, but it’s great for tracking down local sources, county histories, maps and links, and transcribed records and projects.
Another free source, AfriGeneas ( afrigeneas.com), focuses on researching African-American roots and includes information on birth, marriage and death records, plus some online slave databases.
Civil boundaries can cause confusion in the UK, and it’s no different across the Atlantic. Step forward the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries ( publications.newberry.org/ahcbp), which features an interactive map that allows you to see how boundaries have changed over time, and should help you confirm the correct county for your ancestor’s address.
Of course Ellis Island and Castle Garden were not the only points of entry, and you can use the free tools on Stephen P Morse’s One-Step Webpages ( stevemorse.org) to find immigration records from other ports, alongside census records, vital records and more.
FamilySearch comes in useful here, too – for example, you can search border crossings from Canada to the USA between 1895 and 1956 at bit.ly/us-bordercrossings.
Other general sites to keep in mind (some subscription) include cyndislist.com, findagrave.com, genealogybank.com (strong on historical newspapers) and worldvitalrecords.com.