Everything on this page is free to search. No trials that quietly renew, no "free" pages that stop at a paywall two clicks in. Where a free account is needed to see images, we say so. We check these links ourselves and keep the list current — when a well-known site goes offline (as the old CastleGarden.org database did), we note it here and point you to the free replacement.
New to all of this? Read our first-steps guide before diving into databases — you'll search far better with three generations already penciled in.
Start here
FamilySearch
familysearch.org • free account required for some imagesWhat to search here: almost everything — censuses, births, marriages, deaths, immigration, military. The largest free record collection in the world and the best free home for your tree. If you use one site from this page, use this one.
FamilySearch Research Wiki
familysearch.org/en/wikiWhat to search here: not records but maps to records — a free encyclopedia page for every U.S. state and county telling you which records exist, for which years, and where they're kept. Search "[your county] genealogy" here first.
WikiTree
wikitree.comWhat to search here: one shared, sourced world tree built by volunteers. See whether a distant cousin has already researched your line — then verify their sources, as always.
Census records
National Archives — Census Records
archives.gov/research/censusWhat to search here: the official guide to every released census, 1790–1950, with links to free search options — including the Archives' own free 1950 census site. Censuses go public 72 years after they're taken.
1950 Census (National Archives)
1950census.archives.govWhat to search here: the newest public census, free, no account. Find a relative who was alive in April 1950 and see the whole household — the perfect first record for a beginner.
HeritageQuest Online — through your library
ask at your public libraryWhat to search here: censuses, local histories, and books — often available free from home with a public library card. One call to your branch tells you if you already have it.
Immigration & ship passenger lists
Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation Passenger Search
statueofliberty.org • free account to view manifestsWhat to search here: arrivals at the Port of New York from 1820 to 1957 — the Ellis Island years and the earlier Castle Garden era. Search free, open the scanned manifest, meet your immigrant ancestors on paper. Full walk-through in our passenger list guide.
Steve Morse One-Step Search Tools
stevemorse.orgWhat to search here: the same New York arrival data through much smarter search forms, including sound-alike name matching. When a misspelled name is hiding, this free tool usually finds it.
National Archives — Passenger Arrival Records
archives.gov/research/immigrationWhat to search here: the authoritative rundown of which passenger lists survive, port by port and year by year — check it before hunting a pre-1892 or non–New York arrival.
Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
immigrantships.netWhat to search here: thousands of complete ship manifests typed up by volunteers, browsable by ship, port, or year — handy for reading a whole voyage once you know the ship's name.
Military records
WWI Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 (FamilySearch)
familysearch.org • free accountWhat to search here: about 24 million men — nearly half the adult male population of the time — registered for the WWI draft, whether or not they served. Cards list birth date and place, address, occupation, and next of kin. If your male ancestor was 18–45 around 1917, he's probably here.
National Archives — WWI Draft Registration
archives.gov/research/militaryWhat to search here: the official explanation of the three 1917–1918 registrations and what each card contains — useful for decoding what you find.
National Archives — Veterans' Service Records
archives.gov/veteransWhat to search here: how to request a 20th-century relative's military service file (some records require being next of kin; requesting information is free, copies may cost a fee).
Cemeteries & obituaries
Find a Grave
findagrave.comWhat to search here: millions of volunteer-photographed headstones with dates, maiden names, and family links. Check who's buried in the surrounding plot — cemeteries keep families together.
BillionGraves
billiongraves.com • free tierWhat to search here: a second big headstone database with GPS-tagged photos — worth a look whenever Find a Grave comes up empty.
Legacy.com
legacy.comWhat to search here: recent obituaries (roughly the last 25 years) from thousands of newspapers and funeral homes — the fastest way to document a modern death date and surviving family.
Historic newspapers
Chronicling America (Library of Congress)
loc.gov/collections/chronicling-americaWhat to search here: tens of millions of digitized newspaper pages from the 1700s through 1963, free from the Library of Congress. Search a name in quotes plus a town — obituaries, weddings, and wonderfully nosy local columns await.
Your state's digital newspaper project
search "[your state] digital newspapers"What to search here: most states run a free newspaper archive beyond what Chronicling America holds — for example, New York, Texas, California, and Colorado all have large free collections. Your state library's site will point the way.
Fulton History
fultonhistory.comWhat to search here: a legendary one-man archive of tens of millions of newspaper pages (strongest for New York). The interface is old-fashioned — persevere, the content is worth it.
Land, books & everything else
BLM General Land Office Records
glorecords.blm.govWhat to search here: free images of federal land patents — the documents that gave your homesteading ancestors their land, searchable by name and state.
USGenWeb
usgenweb.orgWhat to search here: volunteer-run free pages for every U.S. county — cemetery transcriptions, local records, and lookups you won't find anywhere else. Old-school and priceless.
Internet Archive
archive.orgWhat to search here: digitized county histories, city directories, and yearbooks. Try your surname plus the county name — 19th-century local histories loved to profile families.
Google Books
books.google.comWhat to search here: the same trick with a different index — published genealogies and town histories, many fully readable free.
Digital Public Library of America
dp.laWhat to search here: one search box across the digitized collections of hundreds of U.S. libraries, museums, and archives — photographs, letters, and local documents.
Cyndi's List
cyndislist.comWhat to search here: a categorized directory of genealogy links maintained for decades. When you need something oddly specific — Czech church records, Quaker meetings — start here.
Free databases move and sometimes vanish. If a link on this page lets you down, please tell us — we check this list by hand and we'll fix it and find the free replacement.
Print the Starter Kit before you dive in
A tree chart, family group sheet, interview questions, and a research log to track which of these databases you've already searched — free, in large friendly type.
Download the Free Kit (PDF)Guides to use with this list: Start your family tree for free • Find ship passenger lists • Genealogy without the Ancestry bill