Genealogy sites?

Question

I want to try to trace my family's history, but I don't even know where to begin. HELP!

Answer 1

One of the most common genealogical questions on this forum is How do I find my _________ ancestry. (You can fill in the blank with Native American, Irish, Scottish, English, or any other nationality) I have a standard answer I give on how to start your genealogy… from the beginning. The important thing to remember is that in order to find your ancestors of other nations, it is important to start with yourself. You will never find your ancestors of other nations without first starting with yourself, then working back to your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. I once had an uncle who told me for years that my maiden name was French. I believed him because my surname ends with the letter “o” and he told me that it was “Americanized” from the French spelling ending in ‘eaux’ . It seemed plausible. My personal research eventually revealed to me that my lineage on that line was Dutch, not French. My point is this… you may have been told that you are Native American, Irish, French… but the fact is you might not be what you think you are.

If you are interested in doing your genealogy, the best way to get started is to start with yourself. Write down everything you know about your parents, then keep going back until you run stuck. Most people can get back to their grandparents and maybe a set of great grandparents. At this point there are so many ways to get back further in your tree. Much of it depends on the records available Many localities in the United States for example, weren't required to keep records until the late 1800's or even early 1900's,. In Europe and many other countries, records go back a lot further. Other avenues of getting information are studying old land records, wills, cemeteries, city directories, local histories and military records. Another gold mine of information is if your parents kept old letters of the family. It wasn't uncommon in the early twentieth century for women to have post card books. Some old post cards have some interesting information as well. If you are young, you may have the honor of being able to interview your grandparents for information. If you do this, I would recommend taping the conversation because often it is impossible to remember everything they said and you will have a treasure for future generations. Even though tracing your tree yourself takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, you learn so much and it is so much more worthwhile than pulling up a tree on a website and wondering where in the world the author got their information.

First you might want to invest in a family tree program. Downloading a free one such as PAF will do you just fine, but if you feel so inclined there are programs for sale such as Family Tree Maker, and countless others that will do, with the big differences being primarily layout and user interface. Most of them have the GEDCOM format incorporated, making it possible to switch from one program to another without reentering all of your information. Another important thing about GEDCOM files is that you can share them with anyone making it easy for them to import your information into theirs. (I strongly discourage importing anyones file without checking all of the information yourself)

Here are some websites and tips for the beginning genealogist who have yet to discover their family. These websites have a worldwide audience and can be very instrumental in getting your search off the ground. I am not guaranteeing that you will find your family information on these sights; however, if you do some digging around, it is likely that you will find something. Genealogy is a hobby and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of practice to hone your skills. Don't expect to go to any website and pull up a full ten generation family tree. That simply won't happen. Keep in mind that genealogy is something that is unique to each and everyone of us. Even our cousins only carry half the genes that we do.

http://genforum.genealogy.com
http://boards.rootsweb.com/

These are the messageboards at both GenForum and Rootsweb. You can look at the message boards either by surname, county, state, country and there is even some little specialty boards like ones for wars and cemeteries, etc. You may or may not find your relatives on these boards and even if you don't it would be wise to post a query and see who answers. I have found these to be very useful boards for finding your genealogy. If someone responds to your query, the board will send you an E-mail to let you know that someone has responded.

I must say, however, that a good genealogy query, doesn't just say. " I need information on John Smith" Try to provide as many dates, places, and details as possible. One little thing can make the difference as to the answer you get.

a good query has

1) the persons name
2) all of the biographical information you know to date and
3) asks a specific question

The reason a query should be so specific is because people won't waste your time and theirs telling you what you already know. I have done lookups for people already and reported my findings only to be told, "Well, I knew that!" It would have been helpful if they would have told me that they knew that from the beginning. I probably would have checked a different set of sources to further the search. Also, by providing ALL of your known information (for example, the childrens names) it gives people alternate people to research to help arrive at your answer.



http://lists.rootsweb.com/

This is the link to the mailing lists at Rootsweb. Basically a mailing list is like a study group. All of its members are interested in a particular surname or locality in one way or another. Everytime someone posts, you receive an E-mail. You can always unsubscribe at anytime. If you aren't interested in joining the list, there is a searchable archive of all the postings. Some of these mailing lists at Rootsweb go back 10 years. Simply click the "search the archives" link and then enter your search terms.

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/...

This is the link to the world connect family trees at Rootsweb. These are user contributed family trees. These may or may not be related to your family, but it is a starting point. If you find one with members of your family, I always recommend double checking it, or getting in touch with the contributer whose name and E-mail address should appear with the tree.

http://www.gencircles.com/

This is a link to the trees on the gencircles website. Again, I recommend double checking any information you may find on your particular family.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/f...

Finally, here is the site for the church of the Latter Day Saints website. Simply put in your search terms and press search. I'm sure you can figure it out from there.

Another important point I want to make is that from the very beginning you should document ALL of your sources. It may sound silly now, but believe me after you have several thousand people in your tree, there will come a time when you will ask yourself, where did I get this information? If you document your sources, you aren’t left scrambling later.

If you start your search for your ancestry, it will probably turn into an obsession. It is very addicting and it is like a big puzzle with so many benefits. You learn where your family came from, where they've been, often you can learn about family medical history. There just isn't a down side. You are not going to just find your entire genealogy in one search. It is an ongoing puzzle. I tell people, if you can find one thing every time you are searching, you are doing GREAT. If you find any more than that at any given time you are LUCKY!! Write to me if you have any questions. I would be happy to help if I can. Blessings.

Answer 2

Hey Nathan,

Vital records are your start. Interview all your living family members, and collect copies of their Birth, Marriage, Death, Bible records, wills, pictures, etc. Then organize it using GENEALOGY Software. If you use the popular ones, they come with FREE time on PAY sites. Below are some software packages that are about 30 bucks. Also, there are charts that you can use during the interview process to keep you on track with the right questions : Dates, Places, Names, Events, Links (who are the parents).

Then just start working on the areas in the tree that you have the least information. You can collect family tree branches off the net for free as GEDCOM standard genealogy files.

From there you can start researching using the genealogy sites depending on the country and people you need to get. You did not say, but Family Search is good all over the world. GENFORUM is good all over the world. And so are several others.

After you get started, and you have questions, post them here, you can see by the excellent answers above that someone will help you seriously.

Answer 3

Kazillions of them. And not all labeled "genealogy"... for instance, Texas state archives is not technically a genealogy place, but holy gold mine... if you have lineage there.
I personally DO NOT use (or like) ancestry.com, even though it is popular. It costs money. Wanna laugh at my contradiction? I have done some research for hire, so paying sometimes is worth it. Popular does not equate with reliable. If you use them to access original census records, cool. Family trees submitted by others are not always reliable..I still use them for leads, clues, and contact points.
www.cyndislist.com is one of my favorites. Cyndi started collecting genealogy links over 10 yrs ago, and I still think she is the leader. Of course, she has several links to beginner tutorials, which I strongly suggest.
I really suggest that you don't fall into the almost universal mistake, of trying to take your surname, jump back to the middle ages, and rely on that as research. It doesn't work, for many reasons. Start at home, with you, talk to relatives, and see what is there already. When you run into what someone does not know, now you start research. Its about finding the answers that others don't have.
If you run into anyone that wants to tell you that "proof" does not matter.. smile sweetly, shake hands, and back slowly out the door. Don't argue with them. Good researchers are fixated on quality results, and will climb fences to compare their (original) source to your source. Most of them (me included) have learned from identifying the wrong spouse or parents, and spending months, working a line, even bragging about it... then find out it was the wrong line.
The internet is the greatest tool for research since ..since.. well, forever. The irony? It is the tip of the iceberg. Millions of records are sitting on dusty shelves in courthouse basements, or overgrown cemeteries. People were tracing their families, since before the telephone was invented. If you only want to log on, look up your history and get offline, you may or may not have luck. But you won't know the absolute thrill of finding the answer, that everyone has called "unfindable" for the last 50 yrs. It happens.
More than any other advice... HAVE FUN. It is a wonderful way to find and enjoy, not just relatives, but many cool friends. Use your research for good reasons, whenever you can, and the results will pour back.

Answer 4

1) Talk to your family members and write down full names; birth, marriage, and death dates; and location information.

2) Focus on one name/family at a time and research online. Some of my favorite free sites are:

[Huge LDS Database] http://www.familysearch.org
[For English research] http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
[Social Security Death Index] http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
[Western States Marriages] http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/search.cfm

Browse the message boards on ancestry.com and genealogy.com and even do searches on Yahoo or Google with your more unusual names in quotes (e.g., “Ebenezer Beetlejuice”). You will be surprised what you find!

3) Visit your library and ask them if they subscribe to ancestry.com or heritagequest.com and also visit a NARA (http://www.archives.gov/) office if you have one close by. You largest and most valuable source of information will be censuses.

Answer 5

start with your family who are living, all aunts, uncles, etc. I talked to my elderly relatives, I wish I had recorded it.

Always take lots of pictures for future generations.

Yahoo search can get you started on other relatives.
A great new site is gravesearch.com

Answer 6

http://www.familychronicle.com/webpicks.htm

http://www.ancestry.com/home/mbDefault.aspx

http://www.familyroots.org.uk/

http://www.ancestry.com/search/

Try the links that I provided. You should be able to find something to help you. Good Luck.

Answer 7

i like this site for last name origens, its free:
http://landing.ancestry.com/learn/clues/fact.aspx?html=freetrial&fid=10&sourcecode=17397&ln=type+name+here&submit.x=35&submit.y=19&o_xid=0031936496&o_lid=0031936496&o_xt=31936496

it doesnt have every name, but it has a lot

Answer 8

These have pretty much anything you'd want to know, for starters anyway:

http://www.obgyn.net/

http://www.kotex.com/na/info/faqs/qaGyno.asp?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=28656&IQ_ID=28656

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/gynecology/

http://www.doctorslounge.com/gynecology/index.htm

Answer 9

Ancestry.com seems to be the biggie

Answer 10

http://www.familysearch.org

http://genforum.genealogy.com

http://lists.rootsweb.com