Guest Databases

Free Guest accounts allow web visitors to use a limited suite of AmericanAncestors.org databases to sample a portion of the vast offerings that NEHGS provides family historians of all levels. Other new databases may be available to Guests for a limited time.

For the best value and experience, become a full member of NEHGS to advance your family history research with the highest-quality services in the field and access to more than 1 billion records. Membership starts as low as $7.49 per month.*

Sign Up for a Free Account

Free databases include:

Full Membership Benefits

Upgrading from a Guest to Research or Contributing membership gives you complete access to all 1 billion records on AmericanAncestors.org ( browse here to see the full list of collections), plus:

• Quarterly delivery of the full-color NEHGS magazine American Ancestors
• Quarterly delivery of the flagship journal, The Register
• $20/hour discounts on research-for-hire and consultations
• Free admission to our eight-floor research library in Boston
• Members-only access to our library's special collections and manuscripts
• 10% discount on NEHGS book purchases
• Free access to the NEHGS Ask-A-Genealogist service

Join Now! Become a full member to advance your family history today!

NEHGS members benefit from receiving direct access to original genealogical scholarship and research through subscriptions to The Register, and American Ancestors magazine. NEHGS members receive unlimited access to more than 1 billion searchable records on AmericanAncestors.org as well as invitations to partake in unique, in-depth educational and training programs, in-person and online, that build research skills and reveal important techniques for discovering family history.

• Website: On AmericanAncestors.org, search more than 1 billion records spanning the US and beyond to help find your ancestors and solve your genealogical mysteries.


• Expert Staff: Face-to-face, over-the-phone, or online, consult with the most respected and advanced staff in genealogy. With professional genealogists specializing in Early American, New York, Irish, English, Italian, Scottish, Atlantic and French Canadian, African American, Native American, Chinese, and Jewish family history, whether you want research conducted on your behalf or you need a consultation to break down your brick wall, we are here to help.


• Original Scholarship: From the Register—the journal of American genealogy, continuously published since 1847—to The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640 series, discover the most authoritative publications in genealogy and how they will advance your family history research.


• Education: Build your skills and your family tree with more than 100 learning opportunities every year—lectures, webinars, online courses, how-to articles, and research tours around the globe.


• Research Center: Named by USA Today as a top 10 world destination for family history, an in-person or virtual visit to our library and archives will give you access to more than 28 million diaries, letters, photographs, and other manuscripts, and more than 200,000 books from the fourteenth century to the present, spanning North America, Europe, and beyond.

* All memberships are billed on an annual basis.