Cyndi’s List

Could you imagine going into a library and finding the books in utter chaos? There’s no card catalog even to look through to locate the book you need. Your visit to the library would be a waste of time. In a way, this resembles the organization of genealogy resources on the internet. Where is what and who has what can be frustrating when researching your ancestors. Not all information is available on FamilySearch, Ancestry, Findmypast, and MyHeritage. Thanks to the hard work of Cyndi Ingle we have a “card catalog” of genealogical internet links organized into subjects making it easier to find the sources that you need.

Cyndi has gathered (at latest count) 336,769 links and has organized them into 220 categories. She receives almost 300 emails daily to categorize. Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com) is a free website. She calls it “your genealogical portal onto the internet.”

She has very easy to understand categories. Cyndi has alphabetized the categories with the U.S. states being listed under the United States and not by their specific name. It is the same with all the countries. You need to go to the country and then find the area you would like to research.

One of the more interesting categories is Outer Space. There are two subcategories under Outer Space: Astronauts and General Resources. Under Astronauts, you find links to biographies and information on U.S. Astronauts. The General Resource section takes you to the “Alien Spaceship Theory of Genealogy,” It even links you to Fold3’s section on government investigations of UFO’s. Maybe one of the investigations involved an ancestor of yours! You can also find the Skywalker Family Tree from the Star War movies.

On a more serious note, for instance, if you search the category for Quakers, Cyndi’s List will link you to sites where you can find vital records, cemeteries, meeting records and much more. It even takes you to how-to guides if you are not sure how to research your Quaker family. If you are researching a U.S. state such as Ohio, there are 5,929 links relating to Ohio research. What a goldmine of information.

Cyndi’s List is a great resource to point you to internet sites that will help you answer your research questions and should be your starting point in your genealogical research. Give Cyndi’s List a try and see what you can discover about your ancestors.