Using Cyndi's List For Genealogy Research

A guide to exploring the largest online genealogy directory

Apr 29, 2009

Learning how to navigate Cyndi's List, the premiere online genealogy directory, will open a whole world of websites for your family history research.

It’s intimidating: Cyndi’s List is a massive online directory that has over 330 pages of links to websites related to genealogy. There are over 120 categories on four types of indexes, and each category contains an index for countless websites on that topic. So searching for what you need on Cyndi’s List might at first seem unapproachable, confusing, and yes, even downright intimidating.

But it’s this sheer number of links and categories that makes Cyndi’s List the go-to website for young and seasoned family history researchers alike. This is what makes Cyndi’s List so special: the amazing—and overwhelming—comprehensiveness of the site. Haphazard exploration without a clue what to do could end up in wasted hours on the vast and open sea of the internet. This guide can help make the search painless, fun and fruitful.

How to Search On Cyndi’s List: The Indexes

The basic organization of the site centers around the four main indexes: Main Category Index, “No-Frills” Category Index, Alphabetical Category Index, and Topical Category Index. One of these indexes is most likely where you’ll start your search—it is useful to know how they are different to know where to start. The Main Category Index is the homepage and it lists categories alphabetically along with descriptions and update dates.

If you are searching for a more specific category, however, the Alphabetical index is a good place to start. This index provides more detailed categories in alphabetical order. To see how this is different from the Main index, take “Alabama.” “Alabama” can only be found under the larger “United States Index” on the Main index; however, on the Alphabetical index, Alabama will be right up there in the A’s section along with “Adoption” and “Alaska.” So for more specific categories, the Alphabetical index might be easier to use.

If you’re more generally interested in an area, or you’re not quite sure exactly what you’re looking for yet, the Topical index may be a good place to start. In this index, the categories are listed alphabetically, but only within the different topics such as “Computers & the Internet” or “Localities.” Starting from your vague topic of interest, you can browse around and gradually narrow it down as you go through the categories.

There is also another nifty feature on Cyndi’s List that can make your search easy and effortless. That is the option of searching the Cyndi’s List website for certain keywords. If all else fails, you can try searching the entire website for your topic this way. You can also search within a certain page by using the Find feature of your browser. For example, if you were looking for “Alabama” on the Main index, you could have used the Find feature to find it right under “U.S. Indexes” on that page.

The Last Category: The Uncategorized

Once you’re comfortable investigating through the four main indexes, or if you feel like you’ve already seen all the websites there are to see at Cyndi’s List, a great place to go is the “New and Uncategorized” pages. Useful and interesting gems like a family history podcast or a free and easy-to-use public records database can be sometimes be buried in the uncategorized section of the site.

Cyndi’s List is the gateway to opening a wonderfully rich world of online genealogy sites. Don’t miss out on it.

The copyright of the article Using Cyndi's List For Genealogy Research in Genealogy is owned by Rick Evin. Permission to republish Using Cyndi's List For Genealogy Research in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.