Genealogy Spot

About GenealogySpot.com

Simplifying the Search for the Best Genealogy Resources Online

You will find this site to be a useful and time-saving tool for researching your family history online.

"What's nice about GenealogySpot is the editorial picking-and-choosing that guides the site's content."
- Family Tree Magazine

"GenealogySpot finds references around the Internet that will help you with your genealogical searches."
- Ancestry.com

GenealogySpot.com is a free resource center that simplifies the search for the best online genealogy resources for beginners and experts alike. Sites featured on GenealogySpot.com are hand-selected by our editorial team for their exceptional quality, content and utility.

From the site, quickly and easily find the best resources to perform ancestor searches by state, country, ethnicity and religion, browse historical records, access reference tools, locate lost family members, join genealogy communities and much more.

Surname Distribution Maps

Enter a surname (last name) into the form on this link and you'll get a map of the United States showing the distribution of people with this surname within the 50 United States.

Family Tree Searcher

Easiest way to search family trees

Use Active Searches. This allows you to search major sites by entering your information just one time. Also, this determines the best type of search for you at a particular site (all sites are not created equal).

World Vital Records

Internet Genealogy Magazine Reviews WorldVitalRecords.com

Internet Genealogy, July 2008 We simply couldn't have said it better ourselves! The most recent issue of Internet Genealogy magazine includes a 4-page article by Diane L. Richard detailing the incredible growth and benefits of an online subscription to the worldvitalrecords.com content collection. Read the entire article. Here are a few quotes:

"UK BMD and Census Records. The addition of these records helps make the World Collection comparable to Ancestry's World Collection."

"Each subscription service on its own was just a bit too narrow for my limited needs, or had enough overlap with other databases that I currently subscribe to, to make it hard to justify individual subscriptions. That is now a moot point as I can 'one-stop-shop' at WorldVitalRecords.com"

FamilySearch Affiliates and Product Certification

FamilySearch Certified Affiliates are third-party companies and organizations that provide products and services with features that are compatible with FamilySearch programs. Certification indicates the affiliate’s declaration of compliance with FamilySearch requirements. Note that these products and services are independently developed and supported by their respective organizations, not by FamilySearch.

Certified PAF Add-Ins are programs that allow PAF users to access, print, update, and sync with online information in the new FamilySearch program. These add-ins are intended primarily for patrons who wish to use their PAF 5 program to read and write PAF 5 and Gedcom files in conjunction with the online family tree at new.FamilySearch.org

Summary of Certified Features
Access - Search and read new FamilySearch family tree

Print - Print multiple reports using data from new FamilySearch family tree

Update - Publish to new FamilySearch family tree in addtion to Access. Also includes request to combine matched individuals.

Sync - Sync both ways, match/combine persons in addition to Access and Update

Ability to keep FamilySearch family tree current with Affiliate's application for selected persons and information ("Sync-up")

Ability to Affiliate's application current with FamilySearch family tree for selected persons and information ("Sync-down")

Multi-Language - Ability to have Navigation, Content, Help and all messaging translated in at least the languages supported by FamilySearch family tree. These translations, when available, can be easily installed by users.

PAF Add-In - This Add-In to FamilySearch PAF program makes it possible for the PAF program to Access, Print, Update, and Sync with new FamilySearch family tree. PAF user can continue to load and save information to the PAF file format.

Civil War Soldiers & Sailors

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database containing very basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of the CWSS is the Names Index Project, a project to enter names and other basic information from 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives. The facts about the soldiers were entered from records that are indexed to many millions of other documents about Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Other information includes: histories of regiments in both the Union and Confederate Armies, links to descriptions of 384 significant battles of the war, and other historical information. Additional information about soldiers, sailors, regiments, and battles, as well as prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records, will be added over time.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a cooperative effort by the National Park Service (NPS) and several other public and private partners, to computerize information about the Civil War. The goal of the CWSS is to increase the American people's understanding of this decisive era in American history by making information about it widely accessible. The CWSS will enable the public to make a personal link between themselves and history.

Civil War Soldiers & Sailors

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database containing very basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of the CWSS is the Names Index Project, a project to enter names and other basic information from 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives. The facts about the soldiers were entered from records that are indexed to many millions of other documents about Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Other information includes: histories of regiments in both the Union and Confederate Armies, links to descriptions of 384 significant battles of the war, and other historical information. Additional information about soldiers, sailors, regiments, and battles, as well as prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records, will be added over time.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a cooperative effort by the National Park Service (NPS) and several other public and private partners, to computerize information about the Civil War. The goal of the CWSS is to increase the American people's understanding of this decisive era in American history by making information about it widely accessible. The CWSS will enable the public to make a personal link between themselves and history.

Free GEDCOM Estimator

The GEDCOM Estimator was developed by Vegard Brox as part of his 3rd year project at University of Newcastle upon Tyne during the academic year 1999-2000. The supervisor for the project was Professor Brian Randell.

At this page, you can get information about the GEDCOM Estimator, download the program, view the help pages, download source code and even view the dissertation for the project.

Google Your Family Tree

Table of Contents

Following are the chapter headers as they appear in the Table of Contents for Google Your Family Tree. The 352-page text includes numerous screen shots, tables, and other diagrams that combine to make this a must-have book for every family historian — hobbiest or professional.

Foreword by Paul Allen, CEO of FamilyLink.com, Inc.; Co-Founder Ancestry.com, Inc.
Introduction by Dan Lynch

Chapter 1 — Search Engine Basics
Chapter 2 — Interpreting Web Search Results
Chapter 3 — Advanced Search Techniques
Chapter 4 — Language Tools
Chapter 5 — Google Books
Chapter 6 — Google News Archive
Chapter 7 — Blog Search
Chapter 8 — Images & Video
Chapter 9 — Google Alerts
Chapter 10 — Google Maps
Chapter 11 — Google Earth
Chapter 12 — Google Notebook
Chapter 13 — The Google Toolbar & Google Chrome
Chapter 14 — Other Tips & Tricks
Appendix A — Getting Started in Genealogy
Appendix B — Top Sites for Genealogists
Appendix C — Other Internet Search Engines
Appendix D — Web Search Engine Defined
Appendix E — Syntax Summary & Quick Reference
Index