CYNDI’S LIST
You may already know about this wonderful resource for genealogy links online known as “Cyndi’s List” (https://www.cyndislist.com/). When I first started doing online genealogy in the late 90s, I ran across this website and I loved it. Searching online was vastly different than it is today and finding a compendium of source links like this was greatly appreciated by those in the genealogical community.
Fast forward twenty years into the future to when I once again decided to spend my free time on my family history. I discovered that it was a brand-new world out there in cyberspace as far as genealogy was concerned. I was happily surprised to find that Cyndi’s List was still online and still being updated!
Cyndi Ingle maintains this website by herself, every day. She is an amazing woman who has done so much for us, her fellow genealogists. At one time she had a mailing list for this website but it was hosted by RootsWeb which shut down the mailing lists about one year ago. (I think RootsWeb will be the subject of one of my future blog posts.) Eventually, Cyndi plans to have another mailing list up and running so check back periodically.
So, what can you find on Cyndi’s List? Almost everything. Her home page features a welcome message and explains “A comprehensive, categorized & cross-referenced list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online.”[1] On the left side of the webpage, there is a link to “Categories”, along with other links to her social networking sites, new links, and a place to report broken links.
Clicking on “Categories” brings you to a whole list of topics. If something is new, there will be a green flag next to it to alert you to check it out.
There are categories here that you may not even have realized could be relevant to genealogy such as Antarctica, Oil and Gas, Outer Space, and Pets and Livestock. As an example, I chose “Ports of Entry” to see what resources are available. There are 329 resources to choose from.
You will notice that it is not just a list of ports, but related categories are also included, such as Canals, Rivers, & Waterways, Passports, and information on the Mayflower.
If we choose the category “New Orleans, Louisiana”, we discover 13 links, including Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild volumes 1 – 6 (passenger lists for specific ships), and several links to passenger list indexes.
Another category example is the United States subcategory of “Colorado”. There are 2,336 links from birth records to wills and probate. If we choose the “Schools” link, we have two links – the records held at the State Archives and the records for the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind in the 19th century. The link to the school for the deaf and blind refers us to a website for the school (http://holsclaw.net/CSDBPupils/csdbproj.htm) with more links to search and some history of the school located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what links you will find on this site. It’s convenient, and stopping here to search can save you time on merely googling to see if you can find something relevant.
Take some time and explore the website. You may find some resources that you did not know existed.
Remember to Search Smart!
Sara Martin
Smart Canyon Genealogy
[1] Cyndi Ingle, Cyndi’s List (https://www.cyndislist.com/ : accessed 3 February 2021), home page, para. 1.
Smart Canyon Genealogy 