Recently, I came across a genealogy website called GenealogyBank. I followed some links, and ended up using it to locate the obituary of one of my relatives. Today, I learned that GenealogyBank has added 17 Million records. Unfortunately for me, those records cannot be accessed for free.
I have been working on putting together my family tree in my so called “spare time”. The going is slow, mostly because I have way too many other projects right now. Another thing that is slowing me down is that I keep running into genealogy websites that appear to be free to use, but actually are not.
Not too long ago, I was attempting to do some genealogy research on my Grandmother. I was excited to find something that confirmed her birthdate and death date through the Social Security Death Index. This was the very first time my genealogy research actually resulted in a success. I found my Grandmother!
I followed some links that I thought were taking me to a free to use archive of newspapers. It turned out I was only partially correct. The website was GenealogyBank and it has plenty of newspapers for genealogists to search through. However, you cannot do that for free. I learned this when I tried to read an obituary of my aunt.
There is a common practice for pay-to-use genealogy websites that I find annoying. You can see a little glimpse of the document, article, or obituary that you are seeking. When you click on it, you learn that it is behind a pay-wall, and you must pay to become a member of the website before you can use it. Genealogy businesses are allowed to make money for use of their services, of course. I just don’t like when they appear free until you find something.
That doesn’t mean that GenealogyBank isn’t a good service, though. It might be wonderful. Genealogists who are interested in checking it out will be able to access plenty of newspapers. I got an email from them that said that GenealogyBank has added 17 million records to its vast resources.
The records include obituaries, death records, marriage notices, birth announcements, and more. They go as far back as 1690, and extend through the present. This brings GenealogyBank’s resources to over 6,100 newspapers and over 1 billion records. This must be the reason why they are “The largest newspaper archive for family history research”.
Image by NS Newsflash on Flickr