Free Databases Offered by Ancestry.com & World Archives Project

Anything free is good, so it is always worth checking out the newest databases added by the huge collector of databases, Ancestry.com to their web site. The majority of their information is on a subscription-based fee, either at a monthly, quarterly or annual rate. However, Ancestry.com has always made available any public or free sources of genealogical information. Each of those free sites are so marked ‘free’ right on the site. With over 30,000 different databases offered by Ancestry.com and more added each week; it is a good location to check out what is now available.

Start at Ancestry.com Newest Databases site. There is a listing of all the newest databases. Many are marked as ‘updated’ and those with the phrase ‘Free Index’ to the left of the title are available for anyone to use. The date at the far right side was when the database was placed online. Many of these free databases are due to the efforts of volunteers who are typing the information and creating searchable record indexes for everyone to use. This work is part of the World Archives Project along with Ancestry.com.

Since the end of 2010 there were about 11 free databases made available. The following is a listing, a description and the number of records or indexes.

Brandenburg, Germany, Transcripts of Church Records, 1700-1874 (in German) with births, marriages and deaths, some 317,000 records.

Sydney and New South Wales, Sands Street Index, 1861-1930 listing of churches and schools directory and having 1.5 million index listings.

London, England, Crisp’s Marriage License Index, 1713-1892 with nearly 28,000 listings.

U. S., Union Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 has about 837,600 listings. NOTE: Additional information on these records in a future blog.

U. S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865 has over 2 million listings. NOTE: Additional information on these records in a future blog.

Germany, Langenstein-Zwieberge Concentration Camp Inmate Cards, 1944-1945, in German has some 6,500
listings.

California, Pioneer and Immigrant Files, 1790-1950 with nearly 7,000 records.

California, World War I Death Announcements, 1918-1921, but does have missing newspaper clippings of surnames “Mc to Pa”.

California, World War I Soldier Citations, 1918 -1921 from newspaper clippings showing the names of some 150,000 California soldiers.

England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth and death Indexes 1837 – 1915 (updated) – birth index has nearly 63 million names and death has 38.3 million. Also the marriage index available with 32.6 million names.

Some examples of earlier databases available are below. These can be found in Ancestry.com’s card catalog listing.

England, Newspaper Index Cards with newspaper clippings of marriages and births.

Perth, Scotland, Survey of Inhabitants, 1766, 1773- records of landlords and tenants with names their occupations and the parish they belonged to.

Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews of Former Slaves 1936-1938.

London, England, School Admission and Discharges, 1841-1911 with 65,000 records.

U. S. 1880 Federal Census with 50.5 millions records (excellent source to use).

U. S. 1840 Federal Census with 2.5 millions records

U. S. 1830 Federal Census with 1.8 millions records

U. S. 1820 Federal Census with 1.2 millions records

U. S. 1810 Federal Census with 839,631 millions records