http://www.genealogy.com/00000394.html is an excellent resource which explains how to find specific information such as Birth date, Birthplace, Death date, Place of death, Burial place, etc..

Worldwide Ancestry Research

http://www.familysearch.org
This is the free site which contains The International Genealogical Index (IGI) from the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It contains approximately 250 million names that were either submitted to the church, or were extracted from records that the church has microfilmed over the years. Records are best for Scotland in the 18th and early 19th century. One very nice feature: when you click on Advanced Search and enter Father's name and Mother's name, you can get a listing of all their children assuming the children were registered with both parental names.
http://www.ancestry.com
This is a paid subscription site, but they offer a 14 day free trial. You can search the index free of charge, but you don't get full info unless you subscribe. http://search.ancestry.com/search/

Subscribing is well worth the cost if you are serious about your research. The records include census (mostly US but some Canada and Scotland), military, immigration (ship's passage and US border crossings). It's not as good for Scottish birth/death/marriage info. You can put your family tree online here and connect with other people who are researching your family. There is also a section where you can find a professional genealogist. Beware of faulty transcription of records, however.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
This site is free and has a tremendous amount of information. Be sure to click around and familiarize yourself with all the features. A list of databases can be found at http://searches.rootsweb.ancestry.com/.
http://www.genealogy.com/
This is a huge collection by subscription although there are some free items available. You can purchase Family Tree Maker software which you would use to organize your family tree. They offer a 30 day free trial.
http://www.findmypast.co.uk
This site is also by subscription with a 14 day free trial. It has good records for the UK, but not as good for Scotland. The immigration (ship's passage) records are valuable and perhaps more complete than those at ancesty.com.
http://www.ellisisland.org/
This is a free site where you can search incoming passenger lists for your ancestors who came through Ellis Island.
http://www.surnamedb.com/
Surname database. Learn the origins of your family names. Free access to the database of 50,000 names.
http://www.cyndislist.com/
This is a huge compendium of all sorts of links to information -

The British Isles

Genuki is the place to start whether you are interested in Scotland, Ireland, the UK, Wales. It has everything from county maps to links to historical and genealogical societies, all of which are free. When you think your searching online is at an end, you can go to the section about your county (shire) and find contact information for local libraries and other organizations that might be able to take you further with historical voter rolls, monument inscriptions, old land leases, etc..

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/
Genuki England.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/irl/
Genuki Ireland.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/sct/
Genuki Scotland.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/
Genuki Wales.
http://genuki.weald.org.uk/CHI/
Genuki Channel Islands.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/iom/
Genuki Isle of Man.

Scottish Research

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
You must subscribe to this site for access to Scottish parish records and birth/death/marriage certificates. The subscription is a bit different - not monthly or yearly. Rather you purchase 'credits' for search and access to images.

Scotland started keeping centralized records as of 1855. The birth/death/marriage records before that (1538 to 1854) are spotty and depend on how diligent the clergy for the parish you are search were in their record keeping. However, even those early parish records can be extremely informative. The death records 1855 and later show parent names, so it's an excellent way to find out mother's maiden name and other info. Census data covered is every 10 years from 1841 to 1901. 1911 census records will go online probably in 2011. You can search Wills & Testaments 1513-1901 and Coats of Arms 1672-1907 at no cost. If you can find an ancestor's will, it will tell you a lot about that person!
http://www.nas.gov.uk/
National Archive of Scotland.
http://www.nls.uk/
National Library of Scotland.

Irish Research

http://www.nationalarchives.ie/
National Archives of Ireland.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
1911 Census from the National Archives of Ireland.
http://ifhf.brsgenealogy.com/index.php?&set=yes
Irish Family History Foundation.
http://www.irelandgenweb.com/
The Ireland GenWeb project.
http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ua-free-pages.php
Ulster Ancestry.
http://www.nli.ie/en/homepage.aspx
National Library of Ireland.

Notes on Irish research:
Up to 1921 all of Ireland came under the British, after that only Northern Ireland. Also most of the central records were destroyed by fire in Dublin during the Civil War when the Brits were kicked out. This included census records which are of course the mainstay of family history searches. The next problem is the interchange between English and Irish Gaelic in names often ending up as a mixture.

Ulster (Northern Ireland where most Scotts settled) today is the six counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, (London)Derry and Tyrone. Historically there were 9 counties, the six above plus Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan.

English (UK) Research

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
FreeBMD is a UK-based charitable organization founded in 1998, and established as charity in 2003 to create a free transcription of the indexes to Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales from 1837 to date. FreeBMD is engaged in an ongoing project to transcribe the General Register Office of England and Wales indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths. In recent times, it has also expanded into census and Parish Register transcriptions (under the names FreeCEN and FreeREG respectively)
http://www.familyhistory.uk.com/
Free UK family tree, genealogy and ancestry community portal website, connecting ancestors and living relatives all over the UK. You can search for your ancestors, Post your "Wanted Names"- You know those ancestors that just cannot be found - Brick walls or Wanted Names.
http://www.britishislesgenweb.org/
The goal is to provide the "essential elements" that new researchers need. Among those are quality informational pages, pertinent addresses, county maps, query and surname resources, and friendly mail lists.

Living People in the UK

http://www.192.com/
There is limited free information, much more paid (subscription) information. If you are trying to contact someone in the UK (including Scotland), this site probably has them listed with their contact info.

Canadian Research

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca
This is a free site run by the Library and Archives of Canada. They have some interesting info online: Western land grants, military service, newspapers. The information isn't organized very well, so it can be frustrating to use this site. Most of the provinces have their own Web sites. Quebec and Ontario seem to have better records (more online) than the Western provinces do. The sites for the provinces are listed at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-906.006-e.html#a.
http://www.genealogysearch.org/canada/
This is a large collection of Canadian research links including all of Canada, a breakdown by province, and a link to Acadian research. The collection contains over 1000 links to databases and record transcriptions.

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