I’m a big fan of the genealogy resources I pay for. Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, Family Tree magazine and Family Tree University have all been worth the money I paid for them and I’m lucky that I have the resources to budget for them.
One reason I’m glad to pay for the subscription sites is that they provide one-stop shopping, in a sense. They’re chock full of information so I can search away at one site for hours.
But there are many free resources available that a genealogy researcher could certainly keep busy without every spending a dime.
For me, anyway, sometimes the challenge lies in finding (and remembering) these resources. One great source for them, I’ve found, are genealogy society newsletters and newsletters from luminaries in the genealogy field.
When the newsletters land in my inbox, I give them a quick scan. And then I move them into a family history research email folder, waiting to come up in a search if I need them. Since I have an inbox zero policy, I do at least glance at each newsletter before filing it.
Recently that paid off when I quickly looked over The Weekly Genealogist, the newsletter for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. It had a spotlight on Washington State genealogical resources, including a link to the searchable website of the Masonic Memorial Park in Tumwater, Washington, where, it turns out, my great grandmother and great grandfather, Hattie and Elmer Adams, are buried. I love that I received Pacific Northwest resources via a New England Society!
Here are some of the free newsletters I subscribe to.
- The Weekly Genealogist, from the New England Historical Genealogy Society
- Genealogy Insider, from Family Tree Magazine
- Southern California Genealogical Society newsletter (they have great free webinars!)
- Genealogy Gems, from Lisa Louis Cooke
- The Practical Archivist, from Sally Jacobs
- Hack Genealogy, from Thomas MacEntee
What valuable free newsletters am I missing? I’d love to hear about your favorites.
Wow – Great information Janine – Thanks
Jerry
You’re welcome, Jerry!
James Douthat at Mountainpress.com publishes the Genealogy Gazette newsletter. He has great information and a good website, especially for eastern and southern states.
Thank you, Dede! I’ll check it out.
A terrific newsletter is Eastman’s Online Genealogy newsletter. You can sign up for the free standard edition at http://blog.eogn.com/.
Thank you, Danni! I check out Dick Eastman’s website, but hadn’t subscribed to his newsletter. I appreciate the suggestion!
I lump newsletters and blogs together. I follow a relatively small number of blogs, but I find it difficult to keep up with reading them. Periodically, I record whether I’ve received any benefit from them, or actually read them and use that to determine whether I continue receiving it. I do pass information onto others if I know of their particular interest. As many of the blogs originate in the US, (I’m in Australia), much of the specific content is not relevant. I particularly enjoy Genealogy’s Star. Best wishes for the festivities. Hope it is better than Australia, what with the hostage crisis in Sydney and reports that 8 children between 15mths and 15 years were knifed to death in Queensland