Free Searches for Genealogy

Finding free genealogy search engines that really are free but provide quality links are very rare. There are plenty of search engines available and yes the search is free, but the results are usually few and by clicking on the results you are redirected to another website and the site is usually a paid subscription site: ancestry.com, genealogy.com, etc. The good news is there are two sites that do free searches for genealogy data.

1. Main Directory: Linkpendium
State by State Search Engine: Search the Web's Free Genealogical Data

Linkpendium is a site loaded with links. I have been using Linkpendium for over a year and had varying results (mainly good) depending on what I was trying to find. They have over one million links to every state in the US and have about 10,000 links in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They also have over 8 millionsurname links. Their State to State search has over two million pages to search for data. Linkpendium is being developed by Karen Isaacson and Brian (Wolf) Leverich, founders of RootsWeb which was merged with Ancestry in 2000. You can link your website or favorite website quit easily, go to the bottom of any page and you’ll find help on linking.

2. Mocavo - The Largest Free Genealogy & Family Tree Search Engine

mocavo.com, is a recently launched free search engine that caters to anyone interested in genealogy research. Search results are indexed by “people” who are focused on genealogy and not by “robots” who are index by popularity. I did a surname search for “Hiram Mahaffey” and it quickly found 46 sites. I had been to the sites before (after many searches) but with the Mocavo search engine all the sites with “Hiram Mahaffey” name came up together with one fast search. This was a great plus which also eliminated hours of searching. The only downside is the mixture of sites that could contain anything from forums, census reports, etc. It reminds me of the usgennet.org site.

Misleading Search Engines:

My search for free genealogy search engines brought up the sites listed below. The majority haven’t been updated lately, have error pages, broken links, and often redirect to ancestry.com. or to another paid subscription site. I have nothing against paid subscription genealogy sites. They can offer good information and sources. I do have a problem with sites claiming to be “Free”. Listed below are “free” or sites that redirect to a paid subscription site and my viewpoint on what they offer.

1. myheritage.com: searches over 1500 sources including ancestry.com, must register for results.
2. genealogylocator.com: This is free but after trying two searches that never did produce a page with results I decided to use their “predefined search results” which took me a page where I clicked on search forms which took me to the bottom of the page which had the same search box that was up at the top. I typed in Jones and got a wonderful assortment of sites, very few had anything to do with genealogy. Not dependable, poor on searches, very misleading site.
3. liveroots.com: 5 free resources, 23 paid resources. Maintained by Genealogy Today
4. searchforancestors.com: No “about” information, email contact, searches go to rootsweb.com or ancestry.com.
5. ancestorhunt.com: very much like searchforancestors.com - no contact
6. censusdiggins.com: partner of ancestorhunt.com - no contact very junky looking site.
7. archives.com: another “free” search but once your search information comes up you are required to sign up for a free trial period. It’s listed as Genealogy.Archives.com
8. genealogysearch.com: different search engines, none working, error pages, outdated
9. gensource.com: four search engines, none of which are competent. The “I Found It” engine turned up one Jones in the U.S. and not one Mahaffey. The “I Found It” archives page is full of ads for joining various genealogy sites.
10. govgenealogysearch.com: Totally misleading, offers current or fairly current information (marriages, birth, criminal) on whoever you decide to search, paid subscription. This is not genealogy.

Save time and your mind and go with macavo.com and linkpedium.com. You’ll have a much better chance of finding what your looking for and will find it much faster.

Happy Hunting!