10 Genealogy Sites that Don't Require a Credit Card Number

*3-Minute Read*

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I'm one of many whose hobbies include genealogy research. I believe that you truly can discover who you are by digging into your family's past. While most of us probably think of joining Ancestry.com, it's not the only genealogical site. There are many others that are always free, some of which don't even require you to have an account.

These are ten of them:


1) Billion Graves
Anyone can edit this site that, clearly, focuses on ancestors' burial sites. It includes headstones all around the globe, but I wouldn't say that there are a billion graves recorded here.

2) Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
You can search for any ancestor who fought for the Union or the Confederacy in the Civil War on this database by the National Park Service. There are also lists of prisoners of war, medals of honor recipients, etc.

3) Ellis Island
There are 65 million passenger records of American immigrants. Without having to become a member of the site, you can learn the date and name of the ship your ancestor arrived on, as well as their last place of residence and/or birthplace.

4) Family Tree Now
While you can find some information on this site, Family Tree Now is best used to make your family tree. You create a page for each ancestor and, from there, you add links, photos, and notes as sources.

5) FamilySearch
Like Family Tree Now, this site allows you to create a family tree. Unlike Family Tree Now, other users can add or remove information to your tree. While this aspect could be viewed as either an advantage or disadvantage, there is no denying that having the world's largest free collection of a variety of records is a very beneficial attribute.

6) Find A Grave
This site has the same concept as Billion Graves. However, in my experience, Find A Grave has a larger number of profiles with plentiful information that isn't burial-related. An ancestor's page also may include links to his/her family members' pages.

7) Fulton History
Fulton's history consists of newspapers from the United States and Canada. I've noticed that the site has a large number of newspapers that were/are based in New York. The one downside is that it is extremely difficult to locate ancestors with common names.

8) Genealogie
This site is like Find A Grave but without the grave-site focus. In fact, most profiles don't state the individual's resting place. It is usually limited to one's birth and death information, but I've found relatives who were born in the 1500s!

9) RootsWeb
Even though some of the pages won't properly load at times, RootsWeb has a lot of free information on many generations down family trees. Anyone can sign up to add information but, although there is a place to add sources, it doesn't seem to be widely used.

10) WikiTree
Unsurprisingly, WikiTree also allows anyone to add genealogical information. It is extremely similar to RootsWeb in many other ways as well, though there seems to be a lesser amount of ancestors on WikiTree.


I hope that any of these are useful to you. If I missed any free sites, feel free to comment them. There's always information that's waiting to be discovered!

- Liv