LibGuides: Genealogy Resources: Web Resources

Web-Based Resources

There are many excellent guides to genealogical sources available on the web. Some, such as Cyndi's List, are free, and others, such as Ancestry.com, require a subscription. Here are a few places to check out:

FamilySearch
Probably the largest, freely-available resource for genealogical information. Includes census enumeration forms, indexes, catalogs, family trees, tutorials, an in-depth encyclopedia of genealogy, and more.
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See their very useful wiki for more help.
Ancestry.com
Subscription-based Internet genealogical resource with access to a wide variety of sources, including military and immigration records, census information, and newspaper archives. While the University of Illinois Library does not subscribe to this resource, access is available through the Champaign County Historical Archives, housed at the Urbana Free Library.
Cyndi's List
Contains thousands of links to Internet-based genealogy resources, organized by regional and subject categories.
USGenWeb Project
Portal to free web-based United States genealogical sources, organized by state.
WorldCat
Use WorldCat to find books and other library resources not available at University of Illinois or through I-Share. WorldCat is a union catalog of more than 9,000 libraries from around the world. North American libraries most heavily represented.
Government Resources for Genealogy
Emphasizes U.S. Federal Government resources, and Illinois resources.
National Archives and Records Administration: Resources for Genealogists
Tutorials, guides, and some digitized records.

University Library Resources

These are resources that the Library subscribes to. They are available from any public computer in any of the campus libraries, or from anywhere by current students, faculty, and staff with a net id.

HeritageQuest
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A subset of the record collections in Ancestry.com. Includes: U.S. Decennial Census enumeration forms (1790-1940); city directories (1821-1989); 1850 and 1860 slave schedules (from the Seventh and Eighth U.S. Decennial Censuses); Indian census rolls (1885-1940); U.S. Decennial Census Mortality Schedules, 1850-1885 (availability of records varies by state); and U.S. Decennial Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 (emphasis on agriculture schedules and manufacturing/industry schedules).
HeritageHub
Newspaper obituaries, the bulk of which are from the past thirty years, with some coverage back to 1704. Formerly called America's Obituaries and Death Notices.
Biography and Genealogy Master Index
Identifies biographical entries in hundreds of reference sources, many available only in print. Especially useful for locating biographical information on obscure individuals, or people not well represented in the major biographical reference works.
Find Newspapers
Guide to finding newspapers at the University of Illinois Library, with an emphasis on historical newspapers and digitized, historical newspapers.
World Biographical Information System
8.5 million biographical entries, on over 6 million people, from encyclopedic reference works, published from 1559 to the end of the 20th century. The complete contents of K.G. Saur's famous World Biographical Archive series, which include: the African Biographical Archive; the American Biographical Archive Series I through III plus Supplement; the Arab-Islamic Biographical Archive Series I through II; the Archives Biographiques Françaises Series I through III plus Supplement; the Archivio Biografico Italiano Series I through IV; the Archivo Biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica Series I through IV; the Australasian Biographical Archive Series I plus Supplement; the Baltic Biographical Archive Series I through II; the Biografisch Archief van de Benelux Series I through II; the Biographical Archive of the Classical World; the Biographical Archive of the Middle Ages; the Biographical Archive of the Soviet Union 1917–1991; the British Biographical Archive Series I through III; the Canadian Biographical Archive; the Cesky biograficky archiv a Slovensky biograficky archiv; the Chinese Biographical Archive; the Deutsches Biographisches Archiv Series I through III; the Greek Biographical Archive; the Hungarian Biographical Archive; the Indian Biographical Archive. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka: the Japanese Biographical Archive; the Jewish Biographical Archive Series I through II plus Supplement; the Korean Biographical Archive; the Polskie Archiwum Biograficzne Series I through II plus Supplements; the Russian Biographical Archive Series I plus Supplement; the Scandinavian Biographical Archive Series I through II; the South-East Asian Biographical Archive; the South-East European Biographical Archive; and the Turkish Biographical Archive. Each "biographical archive" is a research-library level collection of biographical encyclopedias and dictionaries.
The Columbia Gazetteer of the World
Standard source for information on place names.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1867-1970: Illinois
Detailed descriptions of urban areas. The original maps were printed in color, and the digitized versions are low resolution black-and-white, resulting in significant loss of information. Full-color reproductions of the originals held by the University of Illinois Map Library are available here.

Other Community Resources

As the official repository for non-current Champaign County records, the Champaign County Historical Archives offers a wealth of resources for genealogy and local history. In addition to a rich collection of material pertaining to Champaign County, there are resources for other localities in Illinois and for many of the states east of the Mississippi River. In addition to print resources, the Archives maintains subscriptions to Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, the Digital Sanborn Maps for Illinois, and the ten-year archive of the News-Gazette.

The Champaign County Historical Archives is also an official lending site for the Family History Library (FHL). Resources you discover in the FHL can be requested at the Champaign County Historical Archives.