Genealogy - Online Genealogy Resources

Online Genealogy Resources


These websites can help get you started with finding your ancestors.
Be sure to check local libraries and historical societies for the area your ancestors lived in.

Original Source Databases

Ancestry.com library edition
Contains census, vital, church, military, court, immigration records, and much more. This database can only be accessed by using a computer at any of the five branches of the Charlestown-Clark County Public Library.

HeritageQuestOnline
Offers census records, family and local history books, Revolutionary War records, Freedman’s Bank, U.S. Serial Set, and more. It is available from your home computer with a valid library card. If you are in one of our libraries, login here without a card.

Family Search
This is the world's largest family research facility dedicated to connecting families across generations.

ACPL Genealogy Center
Allen County Pulic Library in Ft. Wayne, IN provides one of the largest research collections available, incorporating records from around the world.

Internet Archive
A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

Indiana Memory
Created by Indiana State Library to bring together original source documents of the history of Indiana. There are collections from various groups, libraries, and organizations around Indiana. Read more about this library's collections on Indiana Memory.

U.S. 1950 Census
The 1950 census records were released by the US National Archives 1 April 2022. Full, free access to the 1950 census images and more.

U.S. 1940 Census
The 1940 census records were released by the US National Archives 2 April 2012. Full, free access to the 1940 census images, 1940 census maps, and descriptions.

Indiana Marriage Database 1993-present
Search for publicly accessible information about marriage licenses issued in Indiana. This database contains many--but not all--marriage records from 1993 to the present.

Ellis Island Foundation
Search through a vast database of over 51 million passenger records.

Indiana State Digital Archives
Browse through the indexes to many of the most popular state archives collections.

Indiana County Research Guide (IN State Library)
Provide an overview of information and resources available at the Indiana State Library as well as free resources from around the internet.

Indiana Legacy (IN State Library)
A place to search across many Indiana database. These records are available to the public at no charge and include: birth, marriage, death, divorce, obituaries, court records, newspapers, scrapbooks, yearbooks, military records, and many other record types.

IUPUI digital collection
IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship

Indiana Historical Bureau
The IHB provides publications, programs, and other opportunities for Indiana citizens to learn and teach about the history of their communities, the state of Indiana, and their relationships to the nation and the world.

Indiana Historical Society
Since 1830, the Indiana Historical Society has been Indiana’s Storyteller, connecting people to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing the state’s history.

Indiana Historical Bureau list
Listing of all the historic markers in Indiana.

Indiana Landmarks
A nonprofit organization fighting to defend unique, historically significant, and cherished properties.

National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration is the nation's record keeper.

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program
Concentrating heavily on the 19th century immigration to the US includes books, pamphlets, and serials, manuscripts selections, cataloged maps, and photographs.

Atlas of Historical County Boundries
The Atlas presents in maps and text complete data about the creation and all subsequent changes (dated to the day) in the size, shape, and location of every county in the fifty United States and the District of Columbia.

Bureau of Land Management
Find federal land records from across the country, to include historical documents to current interactive mapping tools.

Newspaper Databases

Hoosier State Chronicles (IN State Library)
They provide free, online access to high quality digital images of Indiana's historic newspapers.
*Note: Charlestown Courier 1941-1964 and several other Indiana newspapers have been digitized by Indiana State Library and are on Newspapers.com. Indiana residents can view them for free by going to INSPIRE and then clicking on the Newspapers.com link at the bottom of the page.

Chronicling America
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Library of Congress.

Fulton History
Nearly 5 million newspapers from USA and Canada.

Elephind
Search the world's historic newspapers.

The Ancestor Hunt
Newspapers, obituaries, BMD records, yearbooks and more.

INSPIRE
Provided by the state for Indiana residents, this database has current and more recent newspapers and magazines.

Volunteer Sourced Databases

Find A Grave
Find the graves of ancestors. This is a volunteer sourced database.

Billion Graves
BillionGraves is the world's largest resource for searchable GPS cemetery data.

Rootsweb
A free genealogy community powered by Ancestry.com.

INGen Web Project
USGen Web Project
World Gen Web

The USGenWeb Project is an organized effort to place genealogy materials on the internet. This project is supported by hundreds of volunteers all across the county.

Genealogy Trails - Indiana
A volunteer based web site for vital record transcriptions and more.

Other Places to Look

Cyndi's List
A comprehensive, categorized & cross-referenced list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online.

WeRelate.org
WeRelate is different from most family tree websites. We take a shared approach to genealogy. By contributing to WeRelate you are helping to build a unified family tree containing the best information from all contributors.

Linkpendium
Linkpendium is a 10,000,000+ resource directory to everything on the Web about families worldwide and genealogically-relevant information about U.S. states and counties.

Indiana Genealogical Society
The Indiana Genealogical Society strives to help preserve and publish materials relating to the people who settled the state. Some free and paid.

Our Family Tree
Our Family Tree is a full-featured online genealogy collaboration website intended both for people browsing, and a tool for researchers to maintain and collaborate on their research efforts.

Olive Tree Genealogy
Search for your family and immigrant ancestors.

Fold3
Provides convenient access to US military records, including stories, photos, and personal documents of men and women who served. Paid site.

Vital Records
Find information on vital records in every state.

One-Step Webpages by Stephen P. Morse
Contains tools for finding immigration records, census records, vital records, and for dealing with calendars, maps, foreign alphabets, and numerous other applications.

Daughters of the American Revolution - genealogy
This will help guide you through the beginning stages of your research.

Sons of the American Revolution - genealogy
National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history and teaching American history to future generations.