Here are a few of my favorite resources for researching ancestors. As I have time, I’ll add more.

Most of these are not sources for data like dates or names. They are for putting your dates and names into historical context. Archive.org, for instance, has over six million free digitized books. I have found books written in the 18- and 1900s that mention my ancestors, as well as family genealogical books on my ancestral names, and biographies of early towns in America.

The list:

• Free Historical Books
• Free Kindle e-books
• Free U.K. Parish Record Search
• Virginia Immigration Records
• Scots-Irish in America
• Encyclopedia Virginia
• Ohio Memory Scrapbook
• Library of Congress’s American Memory
• National Archives Record Search
• History of the Valley of Virginia
• Memoir of Mrs. Abigail Bailey
• History of Allen County, Ohio
• History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, CT
• History of Normandy and of England
• Flight from the City, Ralph Borsodi
• Welsh Biography Online
• British History 400-600
• Ancient Wales Studies
• Name Origins
• Historical Place Maps