does anyone know where i can find information on my family history?

Question

looking for records from the 18/19th century back...

i cant ask grandparents as 3/4 of them are dead and the rest of my extended family i dont see that often

when i said the rest, i didnt mean that i see my dead grandparents...

Answer 1

Hey Santa,

Yes. Right here. If I knew your last name, I could hook you up. without that, I am shooting in the dark. Here are some popular sites that will help.

LDS, family search will help with deceased. GENFORUM will help contact others. Using Genealogy.com and Ancesrty.com, you pay for some information.

There is a whole strategy that you need to define. How far back? Which surnames? Are you going to research one branch exhaustively, or fill in as much as you can of your family tree? These are the questions you need to ask, in order to focus.

I recommend getting Genealogy software, like Family Tree Maker. This will help you organize your information.

Answer 2

There are actually a few good sites to look up information; Rootsweb (same as Ancestory.com but free), Family Search from the Church of Latter Day Saints, Gone But Not Forgotten (gnbf, mainly Canadian Genealogy), GenCircles (limited for free info), Ellis Island for landing records, provincial or state census archives, Department of Healt Vital Statistics (not every province or state has this service and the ones that do let you go back 100 years for births and 70 or 80 years for marriages and deaths, or you can enter the surnames you're looking for into Yahoo or Google search. Doing the last will pop up allot of names so make sure you enter your search so "last name genealogy". Doing this will pop up web pages that contain genealogy lists, mailing lists, genealogy reports, and genealogy researchers.

If you know where your ancestors originated from e.g. Germany, Bukovina, Galicia, etc., there are webpages in the respective countries. I was lucky and got my hands on over 200 OFB's (Ortsfamilienbuch) for Galicia and a whole lot of other books published by towns that have done histories of their town, these books contain allot, but limited information (they might be online as well at least the ones I was interested in were)

Uncomputer related...your local library micro film archives, the draw back is, you pretty much have to know the approximate date of birth, death, marriage, etc.. Try church or town records from the towns that your ancestors were born, baptized, married, and died in.

Just some quick words of advise...always always include the source of where you got the information, explore different spellings of the last name e.g. Smith (originally the German name Schmidt, Schmit, Schmitt, Schmid, or Smyth (remember) your ancestors came from a different country, so chances are the names where changed or misunderstood when arriving in North America (I've found about 5 different ways my last name was spelt), and the most important of all HAVE FUN.

Happy Hunting

Answer 3

Geni is OK if you have general information on your family and want to connected with living relatives but, if you're serious about your hobby, get PAF (free) or RootsMagic ($30 US). Build your family history in an accepted software format that can be easily edited and shared with other researchers.

Answer 4

I am currently working on my family tree. Here are some of the sites I use. These will get you started:


Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet:
http://www.cyndislist.com/

Ancestry.com - Genealogy and Family History Records:
http://www.ancestory.com/

Free Genealogy Search for Family:
http://www.familysearch.org

Genealogical resource with searchable databases, family trees, mailing lists, and message boards:
http://www.genealogy.com/

FamilySearch.org - Family History and Genealogy Records:
http://www.familysearch.org


WorldConnect Project -- Connecting the World One GEDCOM at Time:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/

Good luck!

Answer 5

The following address is from a site that search in multiples genealogical sites at the same time. I always start searching throught it:

http://www.surnamenavigator.org/

Good chase !

Answer 6

Go to web search and type in Ancestor search.

Answer 7

go to local college and ask a history professer they will tell you better how to start your search.

Answer 8

go as far as you can on your own then go to geneology.com or ancestry.com

Answer 9

try familyhistory.org or familysearch.org would be guess.

Answer 10

geneology.com..has everything you need..foxi