Outlined below are some key factors, links, handouts, and tips for each site.
American Ancestors
Why it shines: Curated collections of New England colonial records, town meeting minutes, probate inventories, and published family histories that are harder to find elsewhere
When to start: If the family originated before 1900 in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or New York.
Additional benefits: Special collections like The Great Migration Project - bios on immigrants in early 1600's and the Mayflower passenger lists; expert-verified family lineages, town vital records dating back to the 1600's.
This guide provides helpful information on how to search their database: Using AmericanAncestors.org
Tips provided by users: American Ancestors Tips
Ancestry
Why it shines: The sheer volume of U.S. federal censuses, vital records, and global passenger lists makes it the "go-to" for a broad sweep. Family trees shared by others can provide a starting point or connection – but use caution, errors are common.
When to start: When you have enough information to distinguish an individual —run a general search, then drill down into birth, marriage, or death certificates.
Ancestry Academy has an extensive set of short videos including tips on searching and understanding different types of records, states, countries, and other research sites. (You can also access it from the Ancestry Home page by clicking on the circled question mark in the upper right of their screen and then selecting it from the drop down menu.)
Ancestry Academy
Secrets to Successful Searches on Ancestry
Archives
Why it shines: Deep government archives, especially for military, immigration, and land ownership.
When to start: If you suspect a relative served in the armed forces, owned land, or immigrated through Ellis Island/North America.
Additional benefits: Patent and trademark records, federal employee records
FamilySearch
Why it shines: The world's largest free genealogy resource with extensive international records, collaborative family trees, and volunteer-indexed collections.
When to start: Start here for free access to census and vital records.
FamilySearch Catalog talk - 2021
Find a Grave
Why it shines: User-contributed cemetery records with GPS coordinates, burial photos, and memorial pages. Often includes obituary transcriptions, photos, and family connections not found elsewhere.
When to start: When you need burial location, cemetery photos, or want to connect with other researchers who have visited ancestor graves.
Additional benefits: Helpful for identifying related family members. and linking to their record.
Find My Past
Why it shines: Unmatched coverage of UK & Ireland parish registers, plus unique holdings like the British India Office.
When to start: For ancestors born in England, Scotland, Wales, or Ireland before 1900, especially if you need baptism or marriage entries.
Additional benefits: passenger lists for ships leaving Britain, electoral rolls, British newspaper archive, school and university records.
The Help & More tab includes a wide range of articles with research tips, historical background, general and specific guides.
Fold 3
Why it shines: Dedicated military archive with high-resolution scans of service records, pension files, unit rosters, and wartime maps.
When to start: When a forebear fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, or later conflicts.
Additional benefits: intera ctive historical maps; searchable by unit, battle, or conflict; memorial pages for fallen soldiers
GenealogyBank
Why it shines: Features the oldest digitized U.S. newspaper collection (dating to 1690) with unique integration of government publications and historical books. Stronger coverage of early American newspapers than competitors.
When to start: When researching colonial-era through 19th century ancestors, or when you need government documents alongside newspaper coverage. Best for comprehensive historical context research.
Help - Learning Center tab connects to a series of short videos: How to Search GenealogyBank
My Heritage
Why it shines: Strong European coverage, especially Scandinavia and Jewish community archives; iadvanced DNA testing and matching features.
When to start: If you have a surname that points to German, Swedish, Polish, or Israeli roots, or you have a MyHeritage DNA kit.
Additional benefits: photo enhancement and colorization options, SuperSearch technology across multiple record types, Record Detective feature for finding hard-to-locate records, excellent customer support
Newspapers.com
Why it shines: Superior search interface with advanced OCR technology and excellent clipping/sharing tools. Broader international newspaper coverage than GenealogyBank, with particularly strong modern newspaper collections.
When to start: When you need user-friendly newspaper searching with modern interface features, or when researching 20th century ancestors.
Tabs at top of website's Home page:
Search - the main search feature; use quotes around a full name to focus results
Papers - check to see what papers and what years are covered in a specific area
Clippings - the most recent clippings you've made, including source information
Topics - historical background on various events and activities
Tips from their blog post "Fishwrap"
Using wildcards (? and *), as well as "or" and "not" to filter search results.
The blog publishes lists of 100s of newspapers added to the site every few months. If you click on a specific newspaper name a window comes up telling you what years are covered. (sometimes it's only a year or two, although they may have previously added other years.) Here is the most recent list of additions.
Handouts about this site and other newspaper resources:
Using Newspapers to Enrich Your Family History Research with many links - Renee Cue 2024
Newspapers: Ins and Outs of Research
Google News Archives has extensive collection of mostly small town newspapers (you need to know the name) and displays chart of individual years for a specific paper