Access Genealogy
This page provides a wealth of information, including a fine set of links on Native American genealogy.

Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
More than 236,650 links, categorized and cross-referenced in more than 150 categories.

Family History Internet Sites
Genealogist Kip Sperry presents an alphabetically arranged list of genealogy links.

Family Search Internet Genealogy Service
A very useful resource from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Be sure to search both the FamilySearch database and the Family History Library catalog.   Note: The Fairfax County Public Library's Virginia Room staff teaches a class in how to use this important resource. Call the Fairfax City Regional Library  for the next available date.

Genealogical Publishing Company Index
Surname and subject indexes for many, but not all, books from Genealogical Publishing Company. Especially strong on Colonial era sources not indexed on other major services. Many of their books and CDs are available in the Virginia Room and can be identified in the library's catalog.

RootsWeb.com
One of the most comprehensive genealogy sites.

USGenWeb Project
Links to state and county sources. See especially the VAGenWeb portion of this site.

African American Resources

Blacksheep Ancestors
Selected prison, court and asylum records for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Ethnic Groups and People
Cyndi's List provides links to genealogical information on ethnic groups, nationalities, countries, immigration and migration.

Gallaudet University Archives
Deaf students from across the nation and around the world attended Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. This site strives to preserve the memory of the nationwide Deaf Community. This searchable collection includes lists of alumni, vital records information from insurance policies, images of The Silent Worker newspaper, and personal and organizational manuscripts.

Jewish Resources

United Kingdom Resources

The WorldGenWeb Project
A growing effort to provide genealogy links for points near and far, with helpful links for region-specific research.

Ancestry.com
A free search of message boards by surname, locality or topic.

GenForum
Search message boards by surname, place or topic.

Maryland State Archives
Very well put together. Be sure to search the Archives' library by family name to find published genealogies.

National Archives and Records Administration — Genealogy
The National Archives preserves and provides access to many federal government records of value to genealogists. Archival databases containing information on Irish famine immigrants, military records and more are among their available online resources.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
Search NUCMC to see if any archives or societies report owning letters, diaries or other papers left by family members.

Repositories of Primary Sources
The University of Idaho provides this excellent site for linking to special collections of primary resources around the world.

State Archives on the Web
The National Archives' Archives Library Information Center provides contact information and links to the Web sites of state archives, many of which feature valuable research materials and databases.

UNESCO Archives Portal
The UNESCO Archives Portal provides access to national, regional, municipal and university archival resources throughout the world.

Allen County Public Library
One of the largest genealogy collections in the country. Click on "Genealogy" to read more about their collections and browse their extensive links. Click on "Catalog" to search their collection.

Daughters of the American Revolution Genealogical Research Library
The catalog of the library's broad holdings is online, as is the new Genealogical Records Committee National Index. If you believe a patriot is in your family tree, check into the free Patriot Index Lookup Service in the National Society section of their Web site.

Family History Library Catalog
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Library in Salt Lake City holds the world's largest collection of genealogy materials, and much of their collection can be borrowed through their local Family History Centers.

Library of Congress
See particularly the sections on the Local History & Genealogy Reading Room and the American Memory Project, which feature many records of value to genealogy researchers. A new feature allows users to search several of the library's collections from one search box.

Library of Virginia
This site includes the library's catalog and many digitized records. Many of the microfilmed records are available on interlibrary loan through Fairfax County Public Library.

Mid-Continent Public Library
Investigate the "Genealogy from the Heartland" collection, which this library loans free-of-charge across the country.

Newberry Library
A premier genealogical collection in Chicago.

New England Historic Genealogical Society Research Library
The New England Historic Genealogical Society's Web site, provides access to the NEHGS library catalog, as well as fee-based access to databases generated from primary and secondary resources vital for New England ancestry research.

St. Louis Public Library
Now holds the collection of the National Genealogical Society Library.

The Official Land Patents Record Site
The Bureau of Land Management provides access to millions of Federal land title records for public lands both east and west of the Mississippi River. Includes images of original documents.

Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records
Online death indexes by state and county. Included are death indexes, obituaries, probate indexes as well as cemetery and burial indexes.

Social Security Death Index
Send for a copy of the deceased's social security application, which provides the names of parents and birthplace.

Tombstone Transcription Project
Prepared by USGenWeb volunteers. Includes a link to their Tombstone Photo Project.

U.S. Railroad Retirement Board
The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board administers a federal retirement benefit program for the nation's railroad workers. The Board will provide information from its records on deceased persons for the purpose of genealogical research. The records begin in 1937, but the site includes links to other information sources about railroad employees.

African American Cemeteries Online
A growing site that can be searched by name or place.

Africana Heritage Project
The Africana Heritage Project assists African Americans who are researching their family histories. The site's mission is to rediscover valuable records that document the names and lives of slaves, freedpersons and their descendants. Includes an online archives with records from many states, including Virginia.

Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware
This online version of Paul Heinegg's book includes family histories, colonial period tax list and census data, as well as photographs.

Freedmen's Bureau Online
The Freedmen's Bureau, established in 1865, supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen. Among the records selected for this site, are lists of residents at refugee camps, marriages, orphans, employment and crimes against residents. Records for Fairfax County and Northern Virginia are listed under "Washington, DC" rather than Virginia.

American Battle Monuments Commission
The commission maintains lists of those interred in American military cemeteries overseas and those Missing in Action from World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In addition, information describing commission-administered cemeteries and war memorials worldwide is available.

Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System
This National Park Service database contains information from 6.3 million soldier records from 44 U.S. states and territories. The data was taken from the General Index Cards in the National Archives and Records Administration's Compiled Military Service Records. Navy records will be included in the future, although about 18,000 African American sailors are already cataloged. The site also has information such as regimental histories and links to descriptions of nearly 400 significant battles.

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
More than 7,000 ship histories, from the earliest days to Vietnam and beyond. Includes some Coast Guard vessels, revenue cutters and the Confederate Navy.

National Personnel Records Center
The National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records is the repository of millions of military personnel, health and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century.

National Registry of Service
The Library of Congress Veterans' History Project was created to honor our nation's war veterans for their service and to collect their stories and experiences. The project focuses on World War I (1914-1920), World War II (1939-1946) and the Korean (1950-1955), Vietnam (1961-1975) and Persian Gulf (1990-1995) wars, and includes all participants in those wars — men and women, civilian and military.

Nationwide Gravesite Locator
Search for burial locations of more than 3 million veterans and family members in Virginia national cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries and various other military and Department of Interior cemeteries. Interments at Arlington National Cemetery since 1999 are included. A new feature adds 1.9 million veterans buried in private cemeteries when the grave is marked with a government grave marker, but includes only burials from 1998 to the present.

Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
Formal reports, both Union and Confederate, of military operations in the field, with the correspondence, orders and returns relating to the action. The full text is completely searchable.

Old Naval Hospital, Washington DC
The Friends of the Old Naval Hospital plan to transcribe the estimated 20,500 pages of records of patients admitted and treated in the Naval Hospital from 1866 to 1906. The site currently includes almost 500 images of these handwritten records, for patients admitted in 1866 and 1867, as well as photographs and historical information.

Service Personnel Not Recovered Following World War II
The list of unrecovered service personnel from WWII includes those from all military services, including the Merchant Marine. Those buried at sea are listed in a separate section.

Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
The National Graves Registration Project of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is a searchable database of both Union and Confederate burials.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial
This interactive memorial to veterans allows users to view names and summary records for any of the 58,256 veterans killed or missing in the Vietnam War.

WWII Registry
The World War II Registry is part of the National World War II Memorial. It includes veterans, those killed or missing in action and some civilians on the home front. It is not a complete listing of WWII soldiers.

American Family Immigration History Center
Database of Ellis Island arrival records that have been transcribed by Latter Day Saints volunteers. Be sure to try various spellings and permutations of both the first and last names (including just using a first initial), and bear in mind that errors have been found in the transcriptions.   Note: Free registration is required.

Castle Garden
CastleGarden.org offers free access to information on 10 million immigrants who arrived in New York from 1830 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. Alternative search strategies for this database are available at One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse.

Directory of Passenger Ship Arrivals
This database pulls together the data from various passenger ship lists published on the Internet. Search alphabetically, by vessel name or by U.S. port of arrival.

Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
Though still a work in progress, this database of passenger lists transcribed by the guild is a truly invaluable resource. Search passenger lists by date, ship's name, port of departure or arrival, or even passenger's or captain's surname.

One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse
Steve Morse offers indexing and search strategies for accessing data in the passenger lists of Castle Garden, Ellis Island, Baltimore, Boston, Galveston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

The Ships List
A growing list of resources for those seeking the details of their ancestors' ships: passenger records, contemporary immigration reports, newspaper records, ship wreck information, ship pictures, etc. Seeks to present information not included in other immigration sources. Includes an excellent Frequently Asked Questions section that explains the basics of immigration searching.

RootsWeb's West Virginia
Links to information on West Virginia counties and genealogical and historical societies.

West Virginia Vital Research Records
This database includes over a million West Virginia birth, death and marriage records. Search indexes and view scanned images of the original birth, death and marriage records from six counties, some as early as 1853, as well as most statewide death certificates from 1917-54.

Indexes to the Soundex and Census Schedules Microfilm
The National Archives and Records Administration has produced these online indexes to the microfilm copies of the federal censuses. Use them to identify the microfilm publication and roll numbers you will need in your research.

The Soundex Indexing System
Describes the coding rules for this system based on the sound of a surname as opposed to its spelling. It is used to index the post-1880 U.S. census records.