Must Visit U.S. Genealogy Web Sites & Databases

Which Web site is the best for researching my family tree? Is it worth paying for a subscription to Ancestry.com? Where should I start my search? Which databases do you recommend that I subscribe to?

I get asked these questions just about every day, but the answer is that it is really hard to recommend just one database or Web site. The choice really depends upon the location and time period of your research, your budget, and a variety of other factors. Not to mention, if you're really serious about genealogy research, you'll find that you need resources from more than one different site. You have to begin somewhere, however, so to offer some insight, here are my 10 favorite databases for American genealogy research.