National Archives Genealogy Research (NARA)
US National Archives and Records Administration
The US National Archives' research portal for the federal records genealogists use most: census, military service and pension files, immigration and naturalization, and land records. Includes catalog search guidance, reference reports, and instructions for ordering copies. Once a beginner exhausts the aggregator sites, the work moves to federal record groups, and this is the authoritative map of what NARA holds and how to request it.
More resources on Genealogy & Family History
The Shared cM Project 4.0 Tool (DNA Painter)
An interactive chart of the Shared cM Project: enter the centimorgans you share with a DNA match and it returns every possible relationship with its probability, drawn from tens of thousands of submitted known-relationship comparisons. The step where most people go wrong is reading a cM number as a relationship. This is the reference that converts the number into a probability distribution, and the version practitioners actually cite. The core tool is free; DNA Painter's optional subscription covers unrelated chromosome-mapping features, so no paywall applies here.
The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy (2nd Edition)
The clearest single entry point to the DNA half of this topic, from the person whose data underpins the field's standard relationship tool. Blaine Bettinger explains what autosomal, Y-DNA, mitochondrial and X-DNA tests can and cannot prove, how the major testing companies differ in database and tooling, and how to work through a match list toward a documented genealogical conclusion.
The National Archives (UK) Research Guides
377 free guides from the UK National Archives explaining which records survive for births, marriages, deaths, census, wills, migration and military service, where each is held, and how to search them, across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 4th Edition
Elizabeth Shown Mills' 744-page reference on citing and evaluating historical sources, covering roughly a thousand source types from parish registers and censuses to online databases and DNA results, with citation templates and guidance on judging source reliability.
Mastering Genealogical Proof
Thomas W. Jones sets out the Genealogical Proof Standard step by step: exhaustive research, citation, analysis and correlation, resolving conflicting evidence, and writing a proof argument. Each chapter ends with exercises drawn from real records, with answer keys. The standard textbook that turns collecting names into evidence-based research; the book the certification community assigns.
FamilySearch Research Wiki
A free, community-maintained reference of over 150,000 articles describing what genealogical records exist for a given country, state, county or parish, where they are held, what years they cover, and how to access them.