Ancestry ($)
Ancestry Pennsylvania – Offers free access to some of Ancestry’s collections to PA residents.
Fold3 ($) – A site specializing in military records.
Cyndi’s List – An extensive collection of genealogy links, sortable by state.
General Resources
Local Resources
Fayette County Genealogy Project
Fayette County Genealogical Society
Fayette County Historical Society
Fayette County Government – The official website of Fayette County’s government includes information on the different offices of the Courthouse.
Fayette County Historical Societies
Pennsylvania History
Births, Deaths, Marriages
Coal Mining
The Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State Fayette
PA the Old Miner – This site features the histories of many company towns and lists of miners hurt or killed in accidents.
PA State Archives: Registers of Mine Accidents – For Fayette County, select the “bituminous” records.
PA State Archives: Coal Miner Records
Pennsylvania State University: Pennsylvania Mines and Mining
Immigration and Travel
Castle Garden – America’s first official immigration center, in operation from 1855 to 1890.
Ellis Island – A well-known immigration center that operated from 1892 to 1954.
FamilySearch: United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925 – A collection of passport applications, some of which include photographs.
Military
FamilySearch: United States General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 – An index to military pension files for those who served between 1861 and 1916.
FamilySearch: Pennsylvania, Grand Army of the Republic Membership Records, 1865-1936 – Records of the G.A.R., an organization of Union army and navy veterans of the Civil War.
FamilySearch: United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
FamilySearch: United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 – Records from the “Old Man’s Draft,” which included men born between 1877 and 1897.
Maps and Land Records
Newspapers
Newspapers.com ($)
Google News Archive – Features thousands of newspapers across the world, with the Pittsburgh newspapers perhaps being of most interest to local researchers.