Every so often, a beginning genealogist asks my opinion about the “best” website for genealogy research. My use of quotation marks around the word best should be a hint about my answer.

It depends!

What are your research questions for each branch of the family tree?

How much do you already know about your family and what information are you hoping to find? Has a relative already documented research and shared with you? Are your family members recent arrivals to America, say in the late 19th or early 20th century or has your family been in New England “forever”?

Regardless of answers to those questions, my initial recommendation would be to take a look at the FamilySearch universal family tree with the CAVEAT that any information that is found there be verified for accuracy.

Why FamilySearch? First, it is free. All anyone needs to do is register for a free account to access all kinds of records. Second, a distant cousin might already have entered information about your family there. Living people are not shown. However, my grandparents, all deceased, ARE in the FamilySearch family tree and I didn’t put there there. Distant cousins on both sides of my family entered their vital facts.

If extensive information is found about the family tree, the next steps would include verifying each fact.

If little is found, then after collecting facts pertaining to immediate family from family members – siblings, parents and grandparents – then documenting each fact is the next logical step. That might mean not using any online website, aside from ordering vital records from local or state authorities.

If family members were alive and living in the United States, the best websites at that moment would be Ancestry, MyHeritage and FamilySearch to access U.S. census records.

If your family lived in Canada, the “best” websites might be at the provincial archives or Library and Archives Canada.

Did your family emigrate from a known location in Denmark or Sweden in the 1800s? In that case, I’d recommend the Danish National Archives (free) or ArkivDigital (subscription) to access those records.

Eastern European family? The FamilySearch research wiki and Eastern European church records on that website would be my first stop.

I could give many more examples, but I think the answer is clear. The BEST website for genealogy research is the one that has record collections that will enable you to answer your research questions.