FamilySearch.org

The best site on the web for free searches has to be FamilySearch.org. This website is provided by The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. It is the largest collection of family history data available in the world. They have been gathering genealogical information for over 100 years. The original microfilm of records is stored at Granite Mountain Records Vault in Utah. This is to safehouse the data, in the event something where to happen to the data at the library it could be reproduced from the vault. Happy searching!

Scotlands 1861 Census

Scotlandspeople.gov.uk has just announced that the 1861 Census is now available online. George Lyon, deputy minister for Finance and Public Service Reform announced its availability, as Scotland follows through with its commitment to digitize all Birth, Marriage and Death Registers as well as all Victorian Cenus information.

Free Birth Marriage Death Certificates

If you are searching for ancestors in Britain, a great place to look for infromation is the FreeBMD and FreeCEN. They have a number of volunteers transcribing information into there database. It sure has helped me save some money.