South Bay Cities Genealogical Society

Promoting Genealogical Education and Research in Southern California's South Bay

Links to Genealogy-Specific Resources

On this page are links sites of general genealogical interest. Also included are directories that may prove helpful in your research. Some of these sites are entirely free to access, others require paid membership for some or all of their information.

Free access is available to many of the paid sites from either a National Archives facility, or from a sponsoring library, school, or other institution. Please contact the individual institution for more information on the services to which they subscribe.

Please note that all of these will take you away from the SBCGS site.

Genealogical Societies

This list includes an arbitrarily selected collection of other genealogical societies. The list is not comprehensive in any sense.

Federation of Genealogical Societies

The FGS is an umbrella organization for hundreds of genealogical societies in the United States and around the world.

National Genealogical Society

The NGS is an educational organization, devoted to reliable access to genealogical records.

Southern California Genealogical Society

The SCGS sponsors the annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, held yearly in June.

California Ancestors

This is the website for CGS — California Genealogical Society — and its library

Orange County California Genealogical Society

The OCCGS maintains the genealogy collection at the Huntington Beach Library.

General Genealogical Research

Sites providing input for your genealogical research include general purpose sites, collections at historical points of entry, or other special purpose collections of documents.

Ancestry.com

[paid service, some information free] One of the most popular general-purpose genealogical web sites, Ancestry.com is a paid service though it does provide some information without cost.

Cyndi's List (Of Genealogy Sites)

Cyndi's List is a long established reference, providing categorized and cross-referenced links to other sites that contain valuable genealogical information.

Family Search

Family Search is a very popular, general-purpose genealogical site, managed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Access to the site's materials is free. If you're just starting out, you may want to take a look at Family History Research Wiki for more information geared to starting you on your journey.

Find-A-Grave

Find-A-Grave is a massive database of grave-sites around the world, with data supplied by volunteers, including many from South Bay Cities Genealogical Society. The site is divided into sections for famous individuals and those not-so-much. These individuals can be found by name and/or by cemetery.

Ellis Island

The famed entry point for so many immigrants from 1892 to 1924 provides free access to its records.

Fold 3

[paid service, free trial period] Fold3 is a collection of military records. The name derives from the third ceremonial folding of the American flag, honoring veterans for their sacrifice.

GenealogyInTime Magazine

GenealogyInTime is a popular on-line genealogy magazine.

Heritage Quest Online

[access via institution] This site allows access to several databases, and is available through connection with authorized institutions (public library, schools, some other types of organization). You will need to obtain access information from supporting institution.

Linkpendium

This site is a dictionary of links of genealogical interest, created by the founders of RootsWeb.

U.S. National Archives (Genealogical Resources)

The National Archives of the United States hold a massive number of documents, including the founding documents of the nation, the Federal Register — the official text for public laws and administrative regulations and notices), and presidential documents. More important to genealogists, it also holds military service records, census records up to 1940 (the most recent that are publicly available), immigration records and land records. From a National Archives facility, free access is also provided to Ancestry.com, Fold 3, and Heritage Quest Online, as well as many other databases.

RootsWeb

The RootsWeb sites contain a variety of tools for finding your ancestors.

The Obituary Daily Times (RootsWeb)

Obituaries sound a little morbid, but consider all of your ancestors who have passed on. An obituary can tell you a lot about them. This site does not contain obituaries, but is instead a searchable database that cross-references names with their obituaries.

World GenWeb Project

The World GenWeb project is a large-scale effort to collect and disseminate genealogical records to the general public. This hierarchical project splits into sub-global GenWebs for each continent and sub-continent. Each of these is further split into national GenWebs, and then to regional GenWebs. For example, the USGenWeb Project and the CAGenWeb Project can both be found linking from this site.