Coni's Genealogy Resource Master List

Welcome to the treasure chest

Three shelves in one bookcase: my own guides first, then the master list itself — hundreds of archives, libraries, societies, and record collections, each link verified working — then the source guides those destinations came from, with full credit to the generous researchers who made them. The descriptions are my own words. Click any title to visit the original.

How to use this list: type in the search box above to find anything instantly, hop with the buttons to a part, or browse each part by subject. Broken links don't make the cut — everything here was verified working before it earned its place.

✎ Part 1 — From Coni’s Own Desk

Before anything else: my own guides, made at my own desk for conidubois.com. These headline the collection because they’re home-grown — everything else below comes from generous fellow researchers.

Tips for Beginning Genealogists

An original guide by Coni Dubois

Coni’s own starting-point guide — the gentle, plain-spoken advice she gives every new researcher, gathered from thirty-plus years at the records.

Coni’s Originals

A Curated Journey Through Generations: The Master Genealogist’s Comprehensive Checklist

An original guide by Coni Dubois

Coni’s master checklist for the serious researcher — a guided journey through the generations, built from a lifetime of doing this work by hand.

Coni’s Originals

🌐 Part 2 — The Master List

The heart of the page: every destination those guides point to — archives, libraries, societies, and record collections across the country — each link opened and checked working. Organized by kind of place; the search box above searches them all.

National Archives & Government State & Local Archives Genealogical Societies Libraries & Digital Collections Photo & Artifact Archives Vital Records Immigration & Naturalization Social Security Maps & Directories Books & Publications General Research Tools Other

National Archives & Government — 27 destinations

The nation’s attic — military files, census originals, land patents, and the archivists’ own help desks.

State & Local Archives — 31 destinations

State archives, college collections, and local libraries — where your ancestor’s county keeps its memory.

Genealogical Societies — 120 destinations

The societies that hold what the big websites don’t — local indexes, manuscripts, and volunteers who know the county by heart.

Libraries & Digital Collections — 105 destinations

Great libraries’ digital shelves — millions of books, photos, and manuscripts, free to browse.

Photo & Artifact Archives — 8 destinations

Mystery photos waiting to come home — search by surname and you may see a face you know.

Vital Records — 13 destinations

Birth, death, cemetery, and obituary indexes — the shortcuts to the records that prove a life.

Immigration & Naturalization — 16 destinations

Passenger lists, passports, and naturalization papers — the records of the journey over.

NUMIDENT and Social Security files — applications in your ancestor’s own hand, naming parents and birthplaces.

Maps & Directories — 4 destinations

Old maps and city directories — find the street they lived on and the ground they walked.

Books & Publications — 3 destinations

County histories and family books, free to read — the volumes that name your people.

General Research Tools — 35 destinations

The workhorses — big databases, wikis, and link collections for whenever you’re stuck.

Other — 7 destinations

Old disease names and medical terms — the decoder ring for cause-of-death lines.

📖 Part 3 — Source Guides

The guides this master list was built from — thirty-eight of them, each checked by hand. They belong to the generous researchers who made them, and every one deserves the credit. Titles link straight to the creator’s own page.

Newspapers Vital Records Census & Directories Military Land & Property Immigration & Naturalization Native American Records Libraries & Archives Digital Collections & Websites Photos & Artifacts Genealogical Societies State Research Toolkits Institutions & Old Illnesses Social Security

Newspapers — 5 guides

10 Clever Ways to Find More Ancestor Newspaper Articles — The Ancestor Hunt
21 Do’s and Don’ts When Researching Historical Newspapers (PDF) — The Ancestor Hunt
8 Ways to Mess Up Your Newspaper Research — The Ancestor Hunt
Hidden Clues About People Found in Newspaper Legal Notices — The Ancestor Hunt
Using FamilySearch Full-Text Search for Newspapers & Periodicals — The Ancestor Hunt

Vital Records — 3 guides

32 Ways to Find Ancestor Birth Information — The Ancestor Hunt
Finding Your Ancestors in Death Indexes — The Ancestor Hunt
When Were State Birth Records Started and Required — The Ancestor Hunt

Census & Directories — 2 guides

Abbreviations Found in Census Records — The Ancestor Hunt
280 Old Occupations Used in the Census and Newspapers in the U.S. and U.K. — The Ancestor Hunt

Military — 2 guides

Researching Your Ancestors in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database — The Ancestor Hunt
Finding Revolutionary War Patriots Using the SAR Patriot Research System — The Ancestor Hunt

Land & Property — 2 guides

13 Reasons to Include Tax Records in Your Genealogy Research — The Ancestor Hunt
Finding Your Ancestors in the Official Federal Land Records Site (BLM GLO Records) — The Ancestor Hunt

Immigration & Naturalization — 1 guide

19 Reasons Why You Should Research Passport Applications for Genealogy — The Ancestor Hunt

Native American Records — 1 guide

Finding Your Ancestors in the Dawes Rolls — The Ancestor Hunt

Libraries & Archives — 8 guides

16 Places Where You Can Find Genealogy and Family History Books — The Ancestor Hunt
500 Free Library of Congress Digital Collections — The Ancestor Hunt
Finding Your Ancestors Using the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center — The Ancestor Hunt
Finding Genealogical & Historical Sources in the Smithsonian Digital Library — The Ancestor Hunt
Finding Unexpected Genealogical Sources in JSTOR — The Ancestor Hunt
Finding Hidden Genealogical Sources Using Google Scholar — The Ancestor Hunt
Researching Your Ancestors with Google Books — The Ancestor Hunt
What Is Online in the National Archives Archival Databases — The Ancestor Hunt

Digital Collections & Websites — 4 guides

Using The Internet Archive for Genealogy Research — The Ancestor Hunt
Using DP.LA for Family History Research — The Ancestor Hunt
History Hub – A Crowdsourced History and Genealogy Research Platform — The Ancestor Hunt
The Big List of Genealogy Pages — Carly Morgan, Family Tree Notebooks

Photos & Artifacts — 1 guide

Using Dead Fred Genealogy Photo Archive to the Fullest — The Ancestor Hunt

Genealogical Societies — 1 guide

United States Genealogical and Historical Societies — The Ancestor Hunt

State Research Toolkits — 3 guides

Maine Free Online Genealogy Research Toolkit — The Ancestor Hunt
Utah Free Online Genealogy Research Toolkit — The Ancestor Hunt
Rhode Island Free Online Genealogy Research Toolkit — The Ancestor Hunt

Institutions & Old Illnesses — 4 guides

24 Reasons to Research Institutional Records and Where to Find Them — The Ancestor Hunt
State Hospitals and County Asylums — The Ancestor Hunt
Orphanages and Children’s Homes — The Ancestor Hunt
Old Illnesses and Modern Equivalents — The Ancestor Hunt

Using NUMIDENT to Search Free Online Social Security Applications, Claims, and Death Records — The Ancestor Hunt

More treasures coming. This list grows as each new resource is checked and verified — only working links earn a place here. Send me your finds and I'll put them through the same careful check.