Does anyone know of any FREE but RELIABLE websites to research a family tree?

Question

I just know up to great-grandparents, nobody before them.

Answer 1

The real answer is that it depends on their ethnicity.

If they were Catholic, the records you need are kept in their parish records. You'll find everything in there from their parents' names to the dates of birth, marriage and death. With that you can try pulling civil records wherever they exist.

If they came to the US after 1901, the records you need are free, but you have to be patient. The National Archives and Records Administration will give you copies of their Declaration of Intent and their Naturalization petititions, which will include their hometowns, parents, the ship they used to come to the US, which port they arrived at, date of arrival, etc. With that you can go to your local LDS Family History Center and order the films of exit visa records, as well as both civil and church records.

If they were from Switzerland, it's probable that they had their passage paid by their "commune" (aka village) and those records are available via internet from the kanton archives (but be patient).

If they were French-Canadian, you'll want to become very familiar with PRDH and the Loiselle Marriage Index. Both have free aspects, plus major libraries will have them available.

If they were German, you'll find records on them through a series of books called "Germans to America", which lists all passengers of German/Polish/and many Slavic origins who came to the US in the mid-1800s.

If they were Dutch, you'll want to find a book called "Dutch to America". The beauty of that book is that it all but gives you the answers on who has which records. The Dutch also have many of their records archived and available online at GENLIAS.

If your ancestors were from Belgium, you'll need to take a trip across the Atlantic. They are wretched organizers, genealogically speaking.



If they came to the US after 1892, go to www.ellisisland.org. If they aren't there, try www.castlegarden.org.(records from 1830-early 1900s from the Battery Conservancy in NY for the ships that didn't go through Ellis Island.


What makes it hard for you is that you want to search on the internet for things. But many of the records you need won't be on the internet yet because they're too recent. Federal privacy laws don't allow many of the records to be made public for 72 years.

Some of the records you'll need might be available on the internet, such as the Social Security Death Index which you pay for on Ancestry, but it's free on Rootsweb. Death records are the exception to the 72 year rule. They're public as soon as they're reported.

The other thing that might snag you is that many states didn't mandate birth certificates til 1930. To find birth records, you have to go the churches to get baptismal records. If they can't be found, you're likely to only get a guess on dates and no parents' info. In addition, many states were lousy record keepers before 1870 when standards were put in place. You may or may not find marriage or death records from that period.

The best sites for you to get help from are probably www.genealogy.com, where there are a slew of fellow genealogists who willingly trade free lookups for each other and the GenWeb project (example www.migenweb.com). Rootsweb WAS great, but got taken over by Ancestry.com. It's not getting the support it used to, though much of it is now going over to the GenWeb project.

www.FamilySearch.org is a DECENT site, but its information is VERY unreliable. It was submitted by people like you and me and a lot of it is very bad research. They don't review it for accuracy before posting it.


BTW, Ancestry.com is available free if you visit larger libraries where they pay the $10K annual fee. Then all the census, military and civil records are available to you online for free.

Answer 2

You could try Rootsweb.com some info is free. You can use the message boards to contact people with the same last name as the one you are searching, some one might have the info you need. Some people will even do census record look-ups for you if they feel like being generous. Check out state and county sites, some have church records on line. Good Luck

Answer 3

I started with Cyndi's List because it was so easy. (see your other answer for website). Then I branched into using more parts of Rootsweb and posted inquiries. Then I also started using familysearch (the Mormon site).

I have been contacted by a number of relatives I never even knew I had and ended up visiting Nova Scotia to meet some of them- all because I posted inquiries on Rootsweb.

Good luck,

Answer 4

Family crests are a myth based on a misunderstanding about heraldry. In both the pictures you provided the crest is the same, they are both chicken feathers. I think you mean to ask about the coats of arms. The things on top of the helmets are the crests. The things on the shield are the coat of arms. A coat of arms is inherited by the sons of the person to whom the arms were granted. There are different arms for the different lineages. You need to find your male line lineage then look in an armory book for your ancestor's name. There are armory books online and they will have many coats of arms for each surname along with a short genealogy and the first name of the person to whom the arms were granted. You just cant find one with only a surname. Those sites you found want you to send them money so they will take advantage of the fact that you believe in surname family crests. Chicken Feathers! Hey the one from Zazzle is recorded to a Gool from Scotland but they have the wrong crest. It kinda rhymes with Gould.

Answer 5

If you have the family records, The INS. will run a check up to 50 copys for free. check with your area office in the Federal Gov they will advise which forms you can down load good luck

Answer 6

These may help get you started.

http://www.cyndislist.com/
(240,000+ links, all cross-indexed.)

http://www.familysearch.com
(Mormon's mega-site)

http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi
(450,000,000+ entries, of varying quality)

http://www.usgenweb.net/
(Subdivided into state sites, which all have county sites.)

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
(Social Security Death index - click on "Advanced".)

http://find.person.superpages.com/
(US Phone book, for looking up distant cousins)

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx?ln=
Surname meanings and origins

Three warnings:

There isn't a magic site that will take your name in and give you a 12-generation pedigree. Genealogy takes time.

You won't find living people on any of the sites except the phone book one.

The free sites are supported by advertising, just like TV. You can't watch the Super Bowl without seeing a beer commercial, and you can't surf for dead relatives without seeing an Ancestry advertisement. Don't complain about advertisements. They bring you the "free" sites. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Answer 7

http://www.rootsweb.com I found my family dating back to 1595 norfolk England and all I knew was the name of my great grandfather when I started. Now I have loads of information on my family. People there are always willing to help you.

Answer 8

latter day saints family search also rootsweb