Genealogy Deep Dive
Beyond Ancestry — military records, newspapers, ship manifests.
Newspaper archives
- Newspapers.com — 800M+ pages. $20-40/month. Find obituaries, weddings, family events.
- Chronicling America (Library of Congress) — FREE. US newspapers 1777-1963. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
- Newspaper Archive — 14,000+ papers. $20/month.
- Your library\'s subscription to Newspapers.com — often FREE with library card.
- State archives — search "[state name] historical newspapers".
Military records
- Fold3 — military records 1700s-1990s. $90/year. Civil War extensive. WWI/WWII pension files.
- National Archives (NARA) — request records FREE if 62+ years old at archives.gov.
- Find A Grave — free cemetery records. Many veterans have headstone photos.
- The American Civil War Museum records.
- VA Records — for living veterans only.
Census + immigration
- FamilySearch (FREE) — all US censuses 1790-1950. Ship manifests, naturalization.
- 1950 Census — newly released, fully searchable. Find your parents/grandparents.
- Ellis Island Foundation (libertyellisfoundation.org) — FREE. 25M passenger arrivals 1820-1957.
- Castle Garden (castlegarden.org) — FREE. Pre-Ellis Island arrivals.
- State naturalization records — many state archives have them digitized.
DNA + family connections
- AncestryDNA — biggest database, best US matches.
- 23andMe — strong on health + ethnicity.
- MyHeritage DNA — best for European matches.
- FamilyTreeDNA — strongest for Y-DNA (paternal line) and old-world Jewish matching.
- Upload your DNA file FREE to GEDmatch and DNA.land — find more matches.
More free resources
- HeritageQuest — Census + city directories. FREE through libraries.
- USGenWeb — free state/county historical records.
- Find A Grave — cemetery photos and records.
- Cyndis List (cyndislist.com) — directory of every genealogy resource.
- RootsWeb — old-school free message boards. Great for getting unstuck.
- Local genealogical society — often have unique local records.
Best research strategy
Start with FamilySearch (free) and FamilyTreeDNA (test). Add Newspapers.com via library subscription. For specific brick walls, post on the FamilySearch community or r/Genealogy on Reddit. Real volunteer experts answer.