| Top 10 Free Genealogy Websites for 2013 | |||
| Rank | Website | Category | Address |
| 1 | Find A Grave | cemetery | http://www.findagrave.com/ |
| 2 | FamilySearch | records | https://www.familysearch.org/ |
| 3 | GeneaNet | forum | http://www.geneanet.org/ |
| 4 | Arkivverket Digitalarkivet | records | http://arkivverket.no/eng/content/view/full/629 |
| 5 | Ancient Faces | forum | http://www.ancientfaces.com/ |
| 6 | GenealogyInTime Magazine | magazine | http://www.genealogyintime.com/ |
| 7 | Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter | blog | http://blog.eogn.com/ |
| 8 | USGenweb Archives | records | http://usgwarchives.net/ |
| 9 | Deutschen Genealogieserver | forum | http://genealogienetz.de |
| 10 | Genealogy.About.com | articles | http://genealogy.about.com/ |
It is interesting to note the diversity of the top free genealogy websites. Four websites specialize in records (Find A Grave, FamilySearch, Arkiwerket Digitalarkivet and the USGenWeb Archives), three are forums (GeneaNet, Ancient Faces, Deutschen Genealogieserver), two are blogs/newsletters/articles (Dick Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and Kimberly Powell’s genealogy column at About.com). And finally, there is us, GenealogyInTime Magazine. Notionally, we are a magazine, but practically we are more a platform to help people find their ancestors for free.
The Rise of Corporate Genealogy
Some of the biggest news in the genealogy world in the past year has been the purchase of Archives.com by Ancestry, the purchase of Geni.com by MyHeritage, the launch of FindMyPast.com by brightsolid and the launch of Newspapers.com by Ancestry. These moves have continued a trend that has been growing in the field of genealogy for the last couple of years, namely the rise of corporate genealogy.
Almost 1/3 of the entire Top 100 list is now dominated by just three companies: Ancestry, MyHeritage and brightsolid.
Ancestry has 13 websites in the Top 100 List. These are (#1) Ancestry.com, (#6) Ancestry.co.uk, (#7) Archives.com, (#9) Genealogy.com, (#10) MyFamily, (#16) Ancestry.com.au, (#19) Ancestry.ca, (#20) Fold3, (#39) Mundia, (#62) Family Tree Maker software, (#68) Ancestry.de, (#78) Newspapers.com and (#81) ProGenealogists.
MyHeritage is just behind with 12 websites in the Top 100 List. These are (#2) MyHeritage.com, (#5) Geni.com, (#18) MyHeritage.no, (#29) World Vital Records, (#37) MyHeritage.es, (#40) MyHeritage.de, (#41) FamilyLink, (#49) MyHeritage.fr, (#61) MyHeritage.nl, (#64) MyHeritage.com.br, (#69) MyHeritage.pl and (#100) MyHeritage.it.
Brightsolid has 5 websites in the Top 100 List. They are (#14) FindMyPast UK, (#24) Genes Reunited, (#48) FindMyPast.com, (#53) ScotlandsPeople (in concert with the Scottish government) and (#66) British Newspaper Archive (in concert with the UK National Archives).
The image below provides a visual representation of how Ancestry, MyHeritage and brightsolid collectively now dominate the 50 most popular genealogy websites (red are Ancestry websites, blue are MyHeritage websites and green are brightsolid websites).
