Which free genealogy Web sites do you consider essential for researchers?

Check out some other lists that essentially do what you're trying to build:

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.zroots.com/

http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/

They include free and paid, but you can filter as you need to for your list.

A few of my favorite free sites:

https://familysearch.org/

http://www.censusfinder.com/

http://www.deathindexes.com/

http://www.findagrave.com/ (not a source, but handy)

I don't have any great Texas sources, but I always look for state archives, historical societies, genealogical societies, and GenWebs in the area I'm researching as well.

As far as the free ones it would be FamilySearch and Find-a-Grave.

I use to really like the genweb sites but have been disappointed in recent years. it seems like in many cases if a monitor gives it up a lot of the records they have vanishes. Sometimes it is because a new monitor removes them. Why ????? This has been true of some of the Carolina counties.

On some of those genweb sites they had lots of records and then poof! they are gone.

At one time there was a very active Texas Genealogy email forum and then spammers got into it and people dropped out a little at a time and today it is non existent.

Ashley listed most of the big ones.

http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html

is an example of what you need - links with warnings and tips. The things to hammer in, again and again, are

1) Not all of the data on the Internet is true.

2) Don't mistake the ads, which ask for a name then take you to a pay site, for the input forms.

3) Don't set the parameters too "tight".

(I was showing RWWC to a lady at the library once. Her ancestor was Russian. I had a vision of a lady fresh off the boat talking to an Irish ward heeler in Chicago in 1930, who got the census enumerator job because his brother-in-law knew the mayor. How she got recorded wasn't going to be very accurate.)

FamilySearch

USGenWeb

Cyndi's List

Find-a-Grave

Rootsweb

GenForum

AfriGeneas

Ellis Island and Castle Garden

DAR site (link to Patriot Index)

You could also include links to the local genealogy society, historical society, and local chaprters of lineage societies like DAR, UDC, SCV, DRT, etc.

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Here is one of my best kept secrets - the Relatively Curious Internet Genealogy toolbar. Either download this onto the library computers or use it yourself to find specific sites your patrons might use. It includes a link you can use to access HeritageQuest (one of my personal favs).

http://relativelycurious.blogspot.com/

http://relativelycurious.ourtoolbar.com/