Resources: U.S.A.

This page will continue to grow - check back!

Links  to every useful resource useful I have found in my family history research relating to the U.S.A.  will be listed on this page (so as not to lose track of something helpful). Hope you find something to help you, too. (State specific links towards the bottom - only the states I've found my relatives & ancestors in thus far.)

GENERAL
Ancestry.com - subscription database of family history databases. Massive amount of content.
US Genweb Project - free online genealogy help and information for every U.S. State and County
FindAGrave.com -  Free pictures of gravestones, info from grave registrations, plus memorials - often w/ lots of family info
Archives.com - subscription, vital records & newspapers, county records search
FamilySearch.org - free family history and genealogical records database- Church of the Latter Day Saints
Cyndi's List -  A free comprehensive, categorized, and cross-referenced list of links to genealogical research sites online. Over 300,000 links.
Google - frankly, I just Google lots of stuff
Worldcat.org - The world's largest library catalog, Find what you want in a library near you. I use it to see if I could possibly get the book through inter-library loan, drive to the nearest library that has it, or if I should just buy it. It also is searchable by subject and so can point me to books I never knew existed.
Olive Tree Genealogy - free genealogy records, variety of unique collections
American Ancestors - New England Historical Genealogical Society - online repository for more than 400 million searchable names covering New England, New York, and beyond.
One Step Webpages - "This site contains tools for finding immigration records, census records, vital records, and for dealing with calendars, maps, foreign alphabets, and numerous other applications. Some of these tools fetch data from other websites but do so in more versatile ways than the search tools provided on those websites."
GenealogyInTime's Genealogy Search Engine - records, newspapers, photographs (search the Google Newspaper Archive!)
The US GenWeb Project
Genealogy Inc.- State & County Genealogy Resources
Crestleaf.com - free family tree builder site with free access to 90 Million+ historical records.
Genealogy On Facebook - Katherine R. Willson’s Updated List (March 2015) of over 4,500 groups and pages that can help with genealogical research

Google Scholar – Searches doctoral dissertations, theses, academic papers, etc., targeting results from academic publishers, universities, professional societies and more.(Remember to read the footnotes – sources!)

HathiTrust.org - free, searchable database of over 13 million digitized books, magazines, and other scanned items, and also sound recordings, maps and other ephemera, from multiple libraries, both public and academic.Google Patent Search - This search engine indexes patents and patent applications from the U.S.A. back to 1790.

Native American Encyclopedia –  Articles on Native American History, Biographies, Tribes, Facts, Statistics. 

Internet Archive

Linkpendium - more than 10 million links to locality and surname site, and also has a genealogy search engine that covers 2.6 million genealogical data web pages.

Daughters of the American Revolution BibleRecord Database - over 40,000 Bible Records, created by the scanning and indexing of books created by DAR members over the years, many of which recorded Bible records. 

Top 80 Resources for Finding Your African-American Ancestors found at Crestleaf.com blog

Mennonite-Amish Mega-Search Engine by the website Many-Roads.com  

Top 100 Genealogy Sites Mega Search by the website Many-Roads.com 

Allen County Public LibraryGenealogy Center – the Allen County (Indiana) Public Library has one of the largest research collections available, incorporating records from around the world and specially trained, helpful staff. They’ve put portions of their collections online. 

Black Sheep Ancestors -  genealogical prison records and insane asylum records for the US, genealogical prison records for the UK. numerous links to historical court records, execution records and biographies of famous outlaws & famous criminals across the US, UK and Canada.

U.S. GOVERNMENT
Bureau of Land Management's General Land OfficeRecords website, patents, survey plats and other records showing the transfer of the land from federal ownership to individual ownership. (click on the Land Patent's Search Page to search by an ancestor’s name for Federal land conveyance records in the Public Land States)
Family History and Genealogy - jumping off point to several databases: Archives & historical Societies, by state; Census Finder (U.S., Native American, Canada, and United Kingdom); Ellis Island; locations of Federal Inmates Released Before 1982; Genealogy Resources, by State; Historical Records from the National Archives; Historical Records of Deceased Immigrants; immigration Records – Ship Passenger Arrival Records; Land Records; Military Service Records; National Archives Genealogy; Nationwide Gravesite Locator; Naturalization Records; Social Security Death Index; Tracing American Indian Ancestry; Vital Records.

The Library of Congress 

MILITARY
Fold3.com - Historical U.S. Military Records, originals digitized
National Park Service Soldiers and Sailors database - Civil War
Illinois Regimental and Unit Histories, Civil War
Missouri Soldiers Records: War of 1812- WW1
American Prisoners of the Revolution
WW2 U.S. Army Enlistment Archive
PA ARIAS - Pennsylvania veterans archives
Dept of Veteran's Affairs Gravesite Locater
Prisoners of WWI 
War Service Reference Guide - timeline of US conflicts and birth year guide as to what conflict your ancestor may have served in
United States Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications, 1800-1900 (FamilySearch.org)

United States Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (FamilySearch.org)

Understanding Civil War Pensions – Contains text of  the  various pension acts (it liberalized over the years), example of petitions and supporting documents, etc.

Rosters of the New York Volunteers during the Civil War from the website of the New York State     Military Museum and Veterans Research Center

Sons of the American Revolution Patriot & Grave Index  - database of Revolutionary War patriots gravesites 

11 Free Genealogy Sites to Research Americans Who Died in Military Service

New York National Guardsmen, periodical archives  - “The New York National Guardsman was a magazine published monthly from April, 1924 to August, 1940 when much of the New York National Guard was federalized for duty. It is a good source of photographs and biographical information on higher-ranking officers.”

IMMIGRATION
The Ships List - hundreds of passenger lists to Canada, USA, Australia and even some for South Africa, immigration reports, newspaper records, shipwreck information, ship pictures, ship descriptions, shipping-line fleet lists and more.
Castle Garden - "This free site offers access to an extraordinary database of information on 11 million immigrants from 1820 through 1892, when Ellis Island opened."
Ellis Island - over 51 million passenger records
Immigrant Ancestors Project - BYU, uses emigration registers to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries, which is not found in the port registers and naturalization documents in the destination countries.
German Immigrants 1850's - records of passengers arriving at Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. Listings include names of ships, dates of passage, ports of entry, occupations, children and marriage, birth years, age and other personal identifying characteristics, country of origin, ethnicity, destination, etc (Note: names recorded only as good as person who wrote them down - try last name and variations.)
Immigration/Emigration - History of...with pictures

HISTORY
American Migration Fact Sheets
History of the Great Lakes States
Amish History
Amish Histoy: A timeline
Amish-Menonnite History
Poorhouses by State
GenDisasters - USA & Canada. Genealogy site compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents our ancestors endured. Database and records searchable by surname.
Women and Naturalization, ca. 1802-1940
OldandInteresting.com - History of housekeeping & domestic parenphenalia
Chronology of Germans in America (Library of Congress)
Understanding Your Ancestors - Who Came and Why: German Immigration

NEWSPAPERS & OTHER PERIODICALS 
The Ancestor Hunt/Newspapers - links for finding digital newspaper archives
Library of Congress: Chonicling America - free digitized newspapers 1836-1922
Newspapers.com - Subscription, 1900+ newspapers across U.S. 1700s-2000s
NewspaperArchive.com - subscription, 1607-today, U.S. + 10 other countries
Old Fulton NY Postcards site/ fultonhistory.com - the name doesn't match the content.. A searchable repository of historic newspapers published in New York State between 1795 and 2007. Frequently updated. Also includes a handful of U.S. newspapers outside of NYS & a few from Canada. Excellent resource - quirky search: read the FAQs. Free. Run by one man.
California Digital Newspaper Collection
Genealogy Bank - 6900 newspaper 1690-today
NewspaperCat - Catalog of Digital Historical Newspapers
Cass City MI Chronicle &  Cass City MI Enterprise newspapers, dating back to 1800's
TimesMachine - 129 years of New York Times newspapers
GenealogyInTime's Geanealogy Search Engine - search the Google Newspaper Archive
Genealogy Blog Finder - currently tracks 1781 blogs (but apparently not mine - two other "Climbing My Family Tree" blogs [not as original as I thought] but not mine )
Genealogy Blog Roll, from Geneabloggers.com - over 3,000 genealogy and family history-related blogs (this one includes mine)
PERSI (PERiodical Source Index)   on Findmypast.com. While Findmypast is a fee-based site you can search and view PERSI results for free and if you find an image you want, you can make a one time payment for a detailed indexed entry and any digitized content, or subscribe for full access. Not all entries are digitized yet. They are working on that. [PERSI indexes articles in 11,000 periodical titles (including 3,000 defunct titles) published by thousands of local, state, national and international societies and organizations, arranging 2.25 million entries by surname or location and 22 basic subject headings; it was originally created by the Allen County Public Library in Indiana.]

10,000 Free US Historical Newspaper Links from TheAncestorHunt.com.

HRVH Historical Newspapers - provides access to digitized copies of historical newspapers from the Hudson River Valley region of New York State.

NYS Historic Newspapers 

Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections 

OldMagazineArticles.com – fascinating site! “The old articles, essays, poetry, cartoons and photographs that can be found on the site have all been collected from a number of different libraries, bookshops and yard sales throughout the United States and Europe.”

New York National Guardsmen, periodical archives  - “The New York National Guardsman was a magazine published monthly from April, 1924 to August, 1940 when much of the New York National Guard was federalized for duty. It is a good source of photographs and biographical information on higher-ranking officers.”

EBOOKS

Internet Archive - Free Ebooks, etc (great for old county histories and such)
Books on Google Play - Free and paid ebooks (great for old county histories and such)
Digital Public Library of America

Genealogy Gophers - Genealogy Gophers provides us with searchable access to one of the world’s largest collections of online, searchable, genealogy-only books and other family history publications, 

ILLINOIS
State Digital Archives - Illinois - links to Illinois digital archive databases (Illinois has A LOT online)
Federal Township Plats of Illinois 1804-1891
Clay Cty, IL Land Tract Sales
Illinois GenWeb
Clay County, Louisville Township History
History of the Great Lakes States
Illinois Poorhouse History by County - with links
Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections 

INDIANA
Digital State Archives - Indiana links to Indiana digital archive databases
Indiana GenWeb Project
Indiana Poorhouse History - with links
History of the Great Lakes States

KENTUCKY

The Kentucky Digital Library is made up of thousands of digital documents found at 20 libraries, archives and institutions in Kentucky, but through this portal all collections are searchable at once.

MARYLAND
Digital State Archives - Maryland inks to Maryland digital archive databases
Maryland GenWeb

MICHIGAN
SeekingMichigan.org - Michigan Historical Center, digital archive collections
Michigan GenWeb Project
History of the Great Lakes States
Michigan Poorhouse History - with links
Michigan Family History Network
Michigan Genealogy
Sandusky District Library / Genealogy - including  newspapers, obituaries, scrapbooks, yearbooks, etc.
Lapeer County Genealogy - lots of links
Osceola County, a MI GenWebProject
Sanilac County, a MI GenWebProject
Sanilac County Local History & Genealogy
Michigan, Probate Records, 1797-1973 (FamilySearch.org)

"Michigan Fever" - history of Michigan's settlement boom 

"Michigan Fever"/ Scottish immigrants - the story then of Scottish families who left their native land and came directly to a section of southeastern Michigan.

Michigan in Brief  

Genealogical Death Indexing System Michigan Family History

MISSOURI
Missouri Digital Heritage

NEW YORK
New York Genealogy - oodles of links  to records for NY genealogical research (not all online, sometimes instructions on how to get them offline)
Old Fulton NY Postcards site/ fultonhistory.com - the name doesn't match the content.. A searchable repository of historic newspapers published in New York State between 1795 and 2007. Frequently updated. Also includes a handful of U.S. newspapers outside of NYS & a few from Canada. Excellent resource - quirky search: read the FAQs. Free. Run by one man. (See also my Resources: Etc. page for links to several blogs with instructions on how to use this site)

HRVH Historical Newspapers - provides access to digitized copies of historical newspapers from the Hudson River Valley region of New York State.

NYS Historic Newspapers 

German Immigrant Ancestors in Syracuse and Onanadaga County NY  - lot of information

Wikipedia: Germans in Syracuse NY
NY GenWeb
Civil War Archive NY, Union Regimental Index
Return - A History of the St. Lawrence State Asylum, Ogdensburg NY
The Inmates of Willard State Hospital for the Insane 1870 to 1900 - more info than the title suggests, quite interesting
St. Lawrence State Hospital - asylum for the insane, history/description
NYS Poorhouse History by County - with links

Rosters of the New York Volunteers during the Civil War from the website of the New York State     Military Museum and Veterans Research Center

NYC Dept of Records Online Photo Gallery - 900,000 photos, the largest collection of New York City historical images

New York National Guardsmen, periodical archives  - “The New York National Guardsman was a magazine published monthly from April, 1924 to August, 1940 when much of the New York National Guard was federalized for duty. It is a good source of photographs and biographical information on higher-ranking officers.”

New York Heritage Digital Collections  an amazing list of links to a wide variety of digitized historical collections for New York State, from libraries, from museums, from businesses, from law schools, from colleges, historical societies, hospitals, etc.

NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina Digital Collections
NC GenWeb Project
Guide to the Cataloged Collections in the Manuscript Department of the Perkins Library of Duke University - contains information on 5991 archival collections acquired up to 1980, searchableState Archives of North Carolina
State Library of North Carolina
North Carolina Collection of the Wilson Library at UNC - variety of collections, linked.
NC Historic Overlay Maps

OHIO
State Digital Archives - Ohio - Links to Ohio digital archive databases
Ohio History: Biographies and Memoirs
Ohio Resources on Ancestry.com
Ohio Genealogy - oodles of links to records for OH genealogical research (not all online, sometimes instructions on how to get them offline)
Ohio History Connection 
Ohio GenWeb Project
Guide to Use of Ohio History Center - free download
History of the Great Lakes States
Ohio Poorhouse History by County - with links
Ohio History Central - "an evolving, dynamic online encyclopedia that includes information about Ohio's natural history, prehistory, and history."

Western Reserve Historical Society’s online databases, includes funeral home Indices, Cuyahoga County Cemetery Inscription Index, Jewish marriage & death notices, 1907 Voter Registration Index, Cleveland Servicemen Photo database, among others.

PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania Genealogy online - jumping off point to digitized PA records
State Library of PA, Genealogy Collection
Huntingdon County Historical Society - very helpful staff, local records (many not found elsewhere)
Pennsylvania's Electronic Library - collections of digitized material: books, newspapers, records, scrapbooks, yearbooks, college newspapers, military, etc.
Juniata College: Huntingdon County Historical Newspaper Collection
FamilySearch.org Somerset County PA page, with links
Pennsylvania Geography - formation of counties, lists of townships & boroughs, links to county histories and maps
Somerset County PA Anabaptist History

BOOKS USED
-History of Henry & Clay Counties, Illinois, published 1884; (Free Google ebook)
-History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties, Indiana: From the Earliest time to the Present; Together with Interesting Biographical Sketches, Reminiscenses, Note, etc. Chicago:              Goodspeed Bros. & Co., Publishers, 1881, (free Google ebook)-History of Kansas by William G. Cutler, published by A.T. Andreas, 1883 (Internet Archive)
-Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay, and Marion Counties, Illinois, Brookhaven     Press 1909 (free Google ebook)
-History of Wayne County Ohio, From the Days of the Pioneers and First Settlers to the Present Time,     by Ben Douglas, Robert Douglass, Publisher 1878
-History of Hancock County Ohio from its earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Together with Remeinisces of Pioneer Life, Incidents, Statistical Tables, and Biographical Sketches, by Daniel             Barna Beardsley, Republic Printing Co., 1881 (free Google ebook)
Nasa's Nuclear Frontier - The Plumbrook Reactor Facility, by Mark D. Bowles and Robert S. Arrighi