Free Genealogy Databases: Tested Catalog and Anchor Searches

Built 2026-10-25 for Joel Cochran's family tree project. Scope: deceased ancestors and public historical records only. No people-search aggregators were used, and nothing was collected on living private individuals. No paid subscription was used. Ancestry was excluded per Joel's instruction to proceed without it for now.

Method note: testing was done with web search and text page fetches. Several of the best local databases are driven by search forms that a text fetch cannot submit. Where an anchor search could not actually be run, that is stated plainly and the database is flagged as needing a live browser session or a free account sign-in. A database being listed here does not mean its anchor search was completed.

Anchors used in Part B:

• Benjamin Cochran / Benjamin T. Cochran, Indiana (co-founded Acousticom, Elkhart, IN, October 1980; lived Mishawaka, IN; wife Jean A. Cochran)
• Jean Cochran, Indiana (family recalled a passing around October 2006; see the disambiguation warning in Part B before trusting that date)
• Chopko, Indiana (family of Janice (Chopko) Cochran)

PART A: CATALOG OF FREE DATABASES, TESTED 2026-10-25

Tier 1: Highest value for this family

1. St. Joseph County Public Library (SJCPL) Obituary Index

• URL: http://www2.sjcpl.org/db/obits
• Advanced search: https://www2.sjcpl.org/db/obits/searchadv
• Records: index of obituaries, death records, arrangements-pending notices, funeral notes, news articles, and memorials, started 1913, drawn primarily from the South Bend Tribune. This is the paper of record for Mishawaka, South Bend, and Granger, which is exactly where this family lived.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes, the site and its advanced search page load free with no sign-in. The advanced search accepts name fragments, address/city/state, decade of publication, and a Notes field that can include spouse names and veteran status. Record pages follow the pattern https://www2.sjcpl.org/db/obits/recorddetail/rec/<id>;.
• Anchor search status: NOT completed. The search form cannot be submitted by text fetch. This is the single highest-value unfinished search in this project and needs a live browser session. A July 1981 obituary lookup for Benjamin Cochran and a Jean Cochran lookup both belong here first.

2. Indiana State Library: Indiana Legacy (VINE)

• URL: https://digital.statelib.lib.in.us/legacy/
• Records: statewide collaborative indexes for births, marriages, deaths, divorces, obituaries, court records, newspapers, scrapbooks, yearbooks, and military records, searchable by surname, county, and event type.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes, the portal loads free with no sign-in.
• Anchor search status: NOT completed. The search is form-driven and could not be run by text fetch. Needs a live browser session. This is the second stop after SJCPL, especially for a Benjamin/Jean marriage record and Indiana death index entries.

3. FamilySearch

• URL: https://www.familysearch.org
• Records: the largest free genealogy collection in the world. US census indexes and images (including 1940 and 1950), the Social Security Death Index (93M+ records), Indiana marriages, cemetery and obituary collections, the FamilySearch Catalog, the Research Wiki, and digitized books and county histories.
• Truly free: yes, but with a catch. Account required: YES. Searching historical records requires a free FamilySearch account and sign-in. Its own help pages confirm this. The Catalog and Research Wiki can be browsed without an account.
• Tested today: partially. Catalog pages load and are readable signed-out (for example, FamilySearch Catalog entries for Allen County, Indiana court indexes). The records search itself could NOT be run signed-out.
• Anchor search status: NOT completed. Needs Joel (or a user) to create the free account, then a signed-in session. Once signed in, this is where the 1950 census household search and SSDI lookups should be run.

4. National Archives (NARA) 1950 Census, official site

• URL: https://1950census.archives.gov
• FAQ confirming it is free: https://1950census.archives.gov/howto/faq.html
• Records: the complete 1950 US census, with a name index searchable by name and location, plus enumeration-district browsing as a fallback. The name index was built with OCR/AI transcription and is not 100 percent accurate, so a missed name is not proof of absence. NARA also offers the 1940 census free, but without its own name index (use FamilySearch's free 1940 index after sign-in).
• Truly free: yes, no fee. Account required: no.
• Tested today: the site and FAQ were verified live and free.
• Anchor search status: NOT completed. The name search is interactive and could not be run by text fetch. Needs a live browser session. High value: a Benjamin Cochran born about 1933 would be about 17 in 1950 and may appear in his parents' South Bend household, which would name the generation above.

5. Find a Grave

• URL: https://www.findagrave.com
• Records: crowd-sourced cemetery memorials with names, birth/death years, burial place, and sometimes photos and family links.
• Truly free: yes for searching memorials. Account required: no for basic search.
• Tested today: yes, indirectly and successfully. Find a Grave's underlying memorial data for the surname lists was reached through a mirror (see Part B), and the cemetery page for St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park is live at https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/199742.
• Anchor search status: PARTIAL. On-site surname search is hard to drive by text fetch, but its data produced the Part B cemetery candidates. A direct on-site check of the St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park Cochran memorials still needs a live browser session.

Tier 2: Useful, free, with limits

6. South Bend Area Genealogical Society (SBAGS): Michiana Genealogical Index

• URL: https://sbags.org/maps-and-databases/michiana-genealogical-index/
• Records: about 1.25 million surname entries pointing to birth, death, marriage, cemetery, license, divorce, and ancestor files drawn from 55 Michiana sources, mostly newspaper archives. The compiler's proviso keeps it free with no subscription. SBAGS also posts the Mishawaka Enterprise Vital Statistics Index 1982 to 2003 at https://sbags.org/maps-and-databases/mishawaka-enterprise-vital-statistics-index-1982-2003/ and PDF census indexes for St. Joseph County (1870, 1880, 1910).
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: the index pages load free. Anchor search status: NOT completed; the search interface could not be driven by text fetch. Needs a live browser session.

7. Elkhart Public Library (EPL): Local History Index and Obituary Index

• Genealogy page: https://www.myepl.org/genealogy/
• Local History Index (live, query-driven; sample result page): https://www.myepl.org/local-history/?checkout=true&Recreation_Department=&q=Juhl%2C+Leif
• Records: the Local History Index returns citations (not full text) to Elkhart Truth articles, including obituaries, with date and page. Results state the underlying item is on microfilm at the downtown library, 300 S. Second St. EPL's obituary index accepts a date range plus last name, first name, and maiden name, which is valuable for Jean. In person, EPL also holds cemetery indexes, Elkhart County funeral-home record indexes, and obituary indexes spanning about 150 years.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes. The Local History Index demonstrably returns citation records through its web query (a sample surname query returned full Elkhart Truth obituary citations with dates and pages).
• Anchor search status: NOT completed for Cochran. The index is not exposed to general web indexing under the Cochran name, so the anchor query needs a live browser session on the EPL site. Also note: Ancestry is available only inside the library building, and EPL offers remote research at $5 per 30 minutes, which is a paid service and was not used.

8. BillionGraves

• URL: https://billiongraves.com
• Records: gravestone photos and transcriptions, searchable by name and cemetery.
• Truly free: yes for basic search. Account required: no for basic search.
• Tested today: yes, surname search run. Only Benjamin hit: Benjamin H. Cochran (1891 to 1949), Toledo Memorial Park, Sylvania, Ohio: https://billiongraves.com/grave/Benjamin-H-Cochran/128194343. Treated as a same-name possible only (wrong state, no Indiana tie). See Part B.

9. WikiTree

• URL: https://www.wikitree.com
• Records: free user-built family trees, free to read and search.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no to read/search.
• Tested today: yes. The Elkhart, Indiana category and name searches were checked. Anchor result: no Benjamin T. Cochran.

10. WeRelate

• URL: https://www.werelate.org
• Records: free user-built person and family pages with source citations.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no to read/search.
• Tested today: yes. Its "Person:Benjamin Cochran (7)" page is Benjamin Cochran 1738 to 1819 of Mecklenburg Co., NC and Abbeville Co., SC, born in Ireland: https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Benjamin_Cochran_%287%29. Wrong century and wrong place. Ruled out as the anchor; do not link it to Joel's line without evidence. No other anchor hit.

11. Hoosier State Chronicles (Indiana State Library)

• URL: https://newspapers.library.in.gov/
• Records: Indiana's statewide free digital historic newspaper program, about 198,568 issues and 1.69 million pages, full-text searchable. Coverage list: https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/digitized-newspapers/access/
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes, the collection and its coverage were verified live and free.
• Anchor relevance: Indiana coverage is mostly historic-era titles. Useful for the generation above Benjamin (his parents' era and earlier). It is unlikely to carry the South Bend Tribune or Elkhart Truth for the mid-to-late 1900s, so no anchor obituary is expected here.

12. Chronicling America (Library of Congress)

• URL: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ (also http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/)
• Records: free digitized US newspapers from the National Digital Newspaper Program, full-text searchable, strongest before the mid-1900s.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes, verified free and live. A site-restricted web search for Cochran in its Indiana holdings returned no hits.
• Anchor relevance: same as Hoosier State Chronicles. A tool for earlier generations, not for Ben's or Jean's obituaries.

13. Indiana Memory

• URL: https://digital.library.in.gov
• Records: Indiana's free statewide digital collections portal, including a genealogy collection with obituaries and Bible records, mostly older material.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes. No modern anchor hit found.

14. Internet Archive: county histories

• Example, verified live: "Pictorial and biographical memoirs of Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, Indiana" (1893), full text free: https://archive.org/details/pictorialbiograp00inchic
• Records: digitized county histories, biographical memoirs, and local histories, full-text searchable. HathiTrust holds overlapping county history material, generally free for pre-1930 public domain volumes.
• Truly free: yes for public domain material. Account required: no for reading public domain texts.
• Tested today: yes. The Elkhart/St. Joseph volume above is live and readable. Its indexed names are 1800s-era prominent men; no anchor-generation Cochran was identified in it.
• Anchor relevance: background and earlier generations only. A Cochran appearing here would be a lead to verify, not a match by itself.

15. INGenWeb / USGenWeb county pages

• Elkhart County page (hosted on RootsWeb, still live): http://sites.rootsweb.com/%7Einelkhar/
• Records: volunteer county pages with cemetery transcriptions, obituary indexes, and links. The Elkhart page links the Elkhart Public Library's Elkhart Truth obituary index and an SSDI search.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes, pages load free. No direct anchor hit; value is as a link hub to the library indexes above.

16. Elkhart County Genealogical Society

• URL: https://elkhartcogensoc.org/libraryRecords.php
• Records: a free searchable catalog, but it catalogs books and record collections, not individual persons.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes. Useful for finding which funeral-home and cemetery record books exist; not a person search.

17. Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, Heritage Center

• URL: https://www.mphpl.org/lfh/materials/
• Records: strong in-person holdings (census indexes, family histories, microfilm, local clippings). Its online resources list points outward to Ancestry (in-library only), FamilySearch, HeritageQuest, Newspapers.com, Chronicling America, Fold3, and Indiana Memory.
• Truly free: in-person holdings yes; no free online person-name index of its own was found. Account required: n/a.
• Tested today: yes, holdings and resource pages reviewed. No online anchor search available to run. Mishawaka is where Benjamin and Jean lived, so this is a realistic in-person or ask-a-librarian stop later.

18. Genealogy Trails, St. Joseph County, Indiana

• Obituaries page: http://genealogytrails.com/ind/stjoseph/obits.html
• Records: volunteer-transcribed obituaries, cemetery, and county data. Quality varies by county and transcription.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no.
• Tested today: yes. No Cochran anchor transcription found for St. Joseph County.

19. Steve Morse One-Step Tools

• URL: https://stevemorse.org
• Records: a free portal of search tools, including SSDI search forms that link out to primary engines.
• Truly free: yes. Account required: no for the portal itself.
• Tested today: yes. Caveat: its SSDI tooling notes outdated state (RootsWeb Plus is no longer operational), and results often route onward to FamilySearch (free account) or Ancestry (paid). Useful as a front door, not a destination.

20. Index-only resources (not databases)

• Access Genealogy, Cyndi's List, and Linkpendium are link directories. They hold no records themselves. They were treated as indexes for finding the sources above, not as searchable databases, and no anchor result is claimed from them.

Paywalled, dead, or excluded: marked clearly

• RootsWeb WorldConnect: DEAD. The user trees were removed in April 2023 and folded into Ancestry's paid collection. Do not plan around it. (INGenWeb county pages that happen to be hosted on RootsWeb servers, like the Elkhart County page above, are still live and free; the trees are what died.)
• GenealogyBank: PAYWALLED. It holds South Bend Tribune obituaries from 1994 to current, which would be relevant for a 2006 death, but it requires a paid subscription and was excluded.
• Ancestry: PAID / not used. Available free only inside library buildings (EPL, Mishawaka-Penn-Harris). Per Joel's instruction, this project proceeds without it; Mark's Ancestry tree is a later cross-check, not a source for now.
• Newspapers.com and Fold3: PAYWALLED for the relevant content (linked from library resource pages; not used).
• People-search aggregators (InstantCheckmate, BeenVerified, Nuwber, and similar): EXCLUDED by project scope. They are not cited for anyone, living or deceased. Note: two Part B cemetery candidates below come from PeopleLegacy, which is a Find a Grave data mirror (burial records), not a people-search profile; they are still labeled unverified candidates, and the underlying Find a Grave memorials should be confirmed directly.

PART B: ANCHOR SEARCH RESULTS

B1. Verified

Acousticom founding anchor (business records, verified):

• Acousticom Corporation, Elkhart, IN, was founded in October 1980 by Benjamin T. Cochran and Jean A. Cochran; Jean A. Cochran later served as its president. Sources: https://akama.com/company/Acousticom_Corporation_a56d21688019.html and https://leadiq.com/c/acousticom-corporation/5a1da7bf2300005a009b62a2/employee-directory
• This verifies the anchor couple and the 1980 Elkhart anchor. It does not by itself verify any birth, death, or burial date for either of them.

No other anchor fact is fully verified yet. Everything below is labeled candidate or possible, on purpose.

B2. Candidate cluster: a South Bend Cochran family (NOT yet tied to Joel's line)

These records are real and internally consistent, and they fit the Acousticom timeline well. But no document found so far names this family's younger Benjamin as Benjamin T. Cochran of Acousticom, or connects him to Jean, Mark, Doug, or Cindy. Do not merge this cluster into the tree until one of the proof records in the companion report (cochran-lineage-upward-research.md, Section 3) lands.

1. Benjamin Cochran, April 13, 1933 to July 1981, last residence Elkhart, IN.
   • SSDI mirror entry: Benjamin Cochran, born April 13, 1933, died July 1981, last residence ZIP 46514 (Elkhart, Elkhart County, IN), age 48. Source: https://www.locateancestors.com/cochran-born-in-1933/
   • Burial index entry: Benjamin Cochran, 1933 to 1981, at 375 W Cleveland Rd, Granger, IN 46530. That address is St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park. Source: https://peoplelegacy.com/burial-records/benjamin/cochran/ (mirror of Find a Grave data; cemetery page: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/199742)
   • Why it is a strong candidate: Acousticom was founded in Elkhart in October 1980; a founder who died in July 1981 fits Joel's account that the company passed from Benjamin to Jean and later to Mark. The age and generation also fit. What is missing: any record tying this man to Jean, the children, Acousticom, or the middle initial T.
2. Benjamin Cochran (elder), 1892 to 1959, same cemetery.
   • Burial index entry: Benjamin Cochran, 1892 to 1959, also at 375 W Cleveland Rd, Granger, IN 46530 (St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park). Source: https://peoplelegacy.com/burial-records/benjamin/cochran/
   • Candidate reading: he is the father in the obituaries below. Unproven for Joel's line.
3. The elder Benjamin's family, from Palmer Funeral Homes obituaries (verified as records about these named people; their link to Joel is unverified):
   • Benjamin Cochran and Leora (Etter) Cochran of South Bend ran Cochran's Grocery on Sorin Street, South Bend.
   • Daughter: Betty Jane (Cochran) Reeder, born April 26, 1927, South Bend; died 2011; buried St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park, Granger. Source: https://www.palmerfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Betty-Reeder/services
   • Daughter: Bernice J. (Cochran) Ricker, born April 15, 1930, South Bend; died January 3, 2022; buried St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park, Granger. Her obituary states she was preceded in death by her brother, Benjamin Cochran. Source: https://www.palmerfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Bernice-Ricker
   • If the 1933 to 1981 Benjamin is this family's son, then Benjamin (1892 to 1959) and Leora (Etter) Cochran would be Joel's great-grandparents. That "if" is the whole question. The 1950 census household and the July 1981 obituary are the two records most likely to settle it.
4. Jean Cochran, 1934 to 2005, Granger burial (candidate only, conflicts noted).
   • Burial index entry: Jean Cochran, 1934 to 2005, listed at the same St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park address, 375 W Cleveland Rd, Granger, IN. Source: https://peoplelegacy.com/burial-records/jean/cochran/ (Find a Grave data mirror)
   • Conflicts and cautions: the family recalled Jean A. Cochran passing around October 2006, not 2005; no record yet ties this Jean to Benjamin or Acousticom; and Jean A. Cochran's living/deceased status is genuinely unresolved in the companion research. Treat this strictly as a candidate to check against the cemetery office and SJCPL index, not as Jean's record.

B3. Same-name possibles: checked, NOT merged

• Jean Ellen Cochran, 1929 to 2006, Elkhart: DIFFERENT WOMAN. Born April 27, 1929 in Goshen to Homer and Gladys (Poyser) Sowers; died October 2006 in Elkhart; children Tony L. and Jeff Cochran, Roberta Walker, Dawn Garwood, Debra Stevens; retired from HomeCrest Cabinetry. None of that matches Jean A. Cochran (children Mark, Doug, Cindy; Acousticom). Source: https://www.billingsfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Jean-Cochran/services. Warning: this obituary is the likely source of the family's "October 2006" recollection for Jean A. Do not carry October 2006 as Jean A.'s death date.
• Benjamin H. Cochran, 1891 to 1949, Toledo, Ohio (BillionGraves, link in Part A). Same-name possible; no Indiana tie shown.
• Benjamin Cochran, 1738 to 1819 (WeRelate, link in Part A). Wrong century and place; ruled out as the anchor.
• Benjamin Thomas Cochran, 1911 to 1986, parents Henderson Cochran and Ada Daves, surfaced in mirrored user trees (YourRoots). No Indiana tie shown; wrong generation for the Acousticom founder; not merged.
• Robert Willard Cochran of Mishawaka (1926 to 2020): a real, separate Mishawaka Cochran family found in the companion research; no link to Benjamin, Jean, or Acousticom. Not merged.

B4. Chopko (Indiana): no hits

• No Chopko hit was found in any free database searched in this pass, and this matches the completed companion search (chopko-brother-research.md), which found no conclusive record for Janice's deceased brother and did not confirm the name Robert/Rob.
• The Chopko parents' names and hometown are still unknown. A parent's obituary remains the key missing lead, because it would normally list all of the children at once. SJCPL and Indiana Legacy are the two free indexes most likely to hold it once a hometown or approximate years are known.

B5. Searches that could NOT be run by text fetch (need a live browser or a free account)

In priority order:

1. SJCPL Obituary Index (http://www2.sjcpl.org/db/obits): Benjamin Cochran (especially July 1981), Jean Cochran, and Chopko. Live browser session needed. Highest value.
2. FamilySearch records search (https://www.familysearch.org): needs a free account created first, then a signed-in session. Run the SSDI entries and the 1940/1950 census name searches here.
3. NARA 1950 Census name search (https://1950census.archives.gov): live browser session. Search Benjamin Cochran in South Bend / St. Joseph County, IN; if the name index misses, browse the enumeration district for the Sorin Street area.
4. Indiana Legacy advanced search (https://digital.statelib.lib.in.us/legacy/): live browser session. Surname Cochran and Chopko, St. Joseph and Elkhart counties, marriage and death events.
5. SBAGS Michiana Genealogical Index (https://sbags.org/maps-and-databases/michiana-genealogical-index/): live browser session. Cochran and Chopko surnames.
6. EPL Local History / Obituary Index (https://www.myepl.org/genealogy/): live browser session. Cochran (last name), plus Jean with maiden-name field blank, Elkhart Truth citations.
7. Find a Grave direct on-site search (https://www.findagrave.com): live browser session to open the actual St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park memorials behind the Part B mirror entries and check for photos, plot info, and linked family memorials.

Bottom line

The free toolkit for this family is real and strong, and it is local: SJCPL's obituary index, Indiana Legacy, FamilySearch (free account), the NARA 1950 census, and the SBAGS and EPL indexes. The anchor searches that could be run remotely produced one strong candidate cluster (Part B2) and several ruled-out same-name records (Part B3), but no fully verified birth or death date for Benjamin T. or Jean A. Cochran yet. The finish line for the next step is not more databases; it is running the form-driven searches in B5, starting with SJCPL.