Family Trees?

Question

Where is the best place for me to find information regarding my family tree. Are there any free sites out there?

Answer 1

Wendy is right in that there is some canned research offered in some of the pay sites; however, there are also records available transcribed from primary sources not available anywhere else on the internet. I've been a member of Ancestry.com for a while now and they offer digital images of all of the censuses and they are indexed which makes it much easier to search. Any old school genealogist will tell you that in order to search the census on the microfilms, you must look up the person first on one roll organized by soundex code, then from the information you glean on the first roll, you can go to the second toll and pull the actual census. Besides having to go to two census rolls you have the issue of the name being spelled so wrong that it isn't even the same soundex code anymore. There are people I was never able to find in the census using the microfilms that I was able to find after subscribing to ancestry because I was able to "tweek" the names and the locations. It has totally revolutionized the census.

Another thing about Ancestry.com is that they are adding new records all the time. They have added copies of the World War I draft cards in the last year and they have digital copies of Newspapers as well.

I pay under $100 a year to access these records and when you average the cost across 12 months, the membership runs less than a membership to Netflix or any other monthly membership.

One thing to remember, genealogy is not something you will get free. There are free websites, but to do it right there will be some cost involved whether it be for vital records, copies at the library, gas to go to the libraries or cemeteries. The internet is a tool and everything you find should be evaluated individually as to its validity. The canned trees are sometimes good guidelines and can give you a direction to search in; however, with that said, you should never import one into your own tree without researching each and every entry.

There are lots of Free sites out there. I can cite a few, but it would help me to know where you a researching or what nationalities you are researching. Keep in mind this is a World wide forum for every English speaking country out there. The free sites I normally give in my standard answers are ones that can help world wide . I don't guarantee that you will find your family; however even if you just use the message boards, you have the possibility of connecting to people who are searching the same names and localities as you are researching.

Here are some that can help just about everyone.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/f... This is the webpage to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

http://searches.rootsweb.com/
This is a list of popular searchable databases on Rootsweb. There is a link to the Social Security Death index, as well as death records for California, Kentucky, Maine, and Texas. There are some international databases included too.

http://www.ellisisland.org/
If you are from the United States and know that you have ancestors that immigrated from other countries, there is a chance that Ellis Islands website could help you. You can actually look at the ships manifests on this site. It is so cool! You could even get information like how much money was in your great grandfathers pocket when he came over.

Then there are the message boards at both Genforum and Rootsweb. They have boards for surnames, counties, States, and countries. This would be a great place to post information you already know about family members and attempt to build on it. It is always wise not to post information on living family members.

http://boards.ancestry.com/default.aspx
http://genforum.genealogy.com/

You can also look at many of the existing trees out there to see if anybody has created one including members or your families. Sometimes you get lucky, but if you find one out there, I would recommend researching the information yourself before including it in your tree.

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
http://www.gencircles.com/

Wendys recommendation of Cyndislist is also a good one.

Answer 2

YOUR tree may not be out there at all. But some of your ancestors will be in records that are online. Your job will be to reconstruct your tree with what's available.

Start by interviewing everyone in your family to find out all about your heritage. Who, What, Where, When, Why and How are the important questions. Who was your great grandfather, what did he do for a living, where was he born and where did he live through his life, where did he die, why did he die, where is he buried, did he serve in the military and which branch, how many kids did he have/who were his parents/how many siblings.

Keep asking all these questions for everyone. Then take what you've learned and see if it's true. Enjoy the family folklore for what it is, but be skeptical about any tales of long lost royalty and links to famous people. Just let the facts unfold for you.

There are some sites that will be helpful to you when you've gotten back a few generations, but none will really be that helpful to you on anyone who's alive. But start with http://www.usgenweb.org
http://www.familysearch.org
http://www.genealogy.com

Most of all, don't sit at a computer screen and assume you'll find everything. Start at the public library and find out what's already available on newspaper microfilms, local biographies and histories, voter registration roles, census records, etc. BTW, even for the paid sites you can often use them for free by accessing them at your public library. It's a wonderful perk.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Answer 3

wow... I need to sit down and talk to Robert. I have been researching for over 20 yrs, and never used anything BUT free internet sites. (no, that does not translate into all research is/ should be free).
Secondly... the ones that are not free, are those that seem to offer "canned" research that has already been done by someone. There is no one "best" place, in fact, the more sources you have, the more opportunity to find information.
I do suggest www.cyndislist.com, mainly since it has a kazillion links (including how to), and just browsing gives you a clue as to what is out there.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

No free sites. The only free information I get is from older family members. It takes allot of work to get all the info together thats why they charge you. Old family bibles are good ,the local town historian is cheep also. Some libraries have family books also. My family history from1840 to 1930 is stuck in a town historians office. She doesn't believe in computers.

Answer 6

familysearch.org and rootsweb.com are free online. Visit your local library to use heritagequest and ancestry. I would also suggest purchasing the book "unpuzzling your past" its a wonderful book that takes you step by step.
Anything found online should be documented. Research is only as good as the researcher. Don't take anything as fact until you prove it yourself. You can chase the wrong line and spend a lot of time on nothing. That happened to me when I first started. I lost hours of work because I chased the wrong line until I documented it and found it was wrong.
Happy Hunting

Answer 7

there are free sites out there but i found the fastest way is to go to the local Mormon church they have the best records and you can use their computers for free. and if your records are on microfiche they will order them for you to view. it may take a while but your search will be a lot easier