I would just like to know what my family's coat of arms looks like, and I would like to know where my family name comes from, Are there any websites where I can do this and mabye more for free?
2007-04-25 06:45:46 · 9 answers · asked by Lexi 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Genealogy
Everyone looks for free genealogy information on the internet. The sad reality is that the best info will cost you some money. Sites like http://www.rootsweb.com and http://www.familysearch.com are great sources for people with a general interest in genealogy. In other words, they are great for someone who is looking for general information like names and dates. If you want something a bit more detailed, you should expect to pay a little here and there.
If you are fortunate enough to visit http://www.ancestry.com at certain times during the year, they occasionally offer free unrestricted access for a couple of days in order to attract new members. If you're a real genealogy fiend like I am, you won't have any reservations about visiting the countries of your ancestors and going directly to the source.
At any rate, I hope this answers your question in one way or another. Good luck with your genealogy research.
2007-04-25 09:52:23 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are free sites, but they don't have a lot of resources. Genealogy.com is a great free site, you can subscribe and get more sources of info, but they have a great message board system that is very simple to post messages on , and many people will research the pay sites for you for free! I used it for three years, and now I subscribe to Ancestry.com, and I do free look ups for people from over 24,000 available sources, all the us census records, and many veteran records, state birth and death records, some old newspapers, and many other old lists and records to variable to mention here. as to your family coat of arms. Few family names have a coat of Arms. years back (1970s) people started giving every name a coat of arms, but these are not ligitamate, there to sell you some hoaky false symbol. If your family served as a knight, or was deeded royal lands as an earl,duke or prince, these are the ones who carry family coat of arms or crests, or in Ireland and Scotland, Clan colors . in England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Germany mostly. but the truth of it is, thats less than 1% of the population, most where merchants, tradesmen, farmers and many, many peasants. If you got some names, and would like me poke around on Ancestry.com give me what you got, and some time period and locations really help narrow it down. I do not do European or other countries, I only have us resources on my account. Happy hunting!
2007-04-25 07:29:40 · answer #2 · answered by edjdonnell 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org are free.
However, the family trees do not always have documentation. There is a lot of copying. Don't assume everything you see is accurate but take it as clues as to where to look.
Just because a coat of arms has your family name does not mean it belongs to your family.
In the United States we do not have any laws re heraldry. You can display one if you want to, but to display one without knowing whether you are enttitled to it is like putting up a picture of some famous person with your surname and claiming him for your ancestor whether you know he is or not. There are companies in the US that peddle coats of arms and tell you it is yours without knowing anything about your family history.
People with the same surname did not necessarily get them from the same original source.
Sam lived on a hill and became known as Sam HIll. His children took the name Hill. Tom, no relation to Sam, lived on a hill and he was called Tom Hill and his children took the name Hill.
The sons of guys name Jack became known as Jackson. They were not all related.
People took the name of their occupation, Clark (clerk) Barber, Carpenter, Smith etc.
Some took the name of the town they came from or the name of the castle they lived close to.
I read about 25 years ago that there are about 200 different coats of arms for the surname Lewis. However that does not mean that everyone with the surname Lewis is entitled to a coat of arms.
2007-04-25 07:29:57 · answer #3 · answered by Shirley T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could try to type your family name into google. Sometimes other people with your family name have websites about their family history. Good Luck! :)
2007-04-25 06:54:54 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are loads of sites to look for.
www.cyndislist.com
has lots of sites on it.
www.rootsweb.com
www.ancestry.com
www.distantcousin.com
www.genealogy.com
www.familysearch.org
www.onegreatfamily.com
www.genealogylookups.com
www.ancestralfindings.com
and many more. but if ur looking for one person in particular go to any search engine and put in this: +firstname+surname and it should bring up some sites to look at. If that doest yeild anything try this +firstname+surname+date OR +firstname+surname+place of residence...works for me...
good luck in ur search.
2007-04-25 07:00:41 · answer #5 · answered by GitnPayd 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no, they all cost money because it takes time for the people to look through you family tree. It is not a computer that does this it is people and that's why it cost money.
2016-05-18 03:48:10 · answer #6 · answered by alex 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try the mormons site
2007-04-25 06:55:14 · answer #7 · answered by sukito 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can also go to Mormon churches and use their databases for free. They have extensive records and you do not have to be Mormon to use them. They are specifically genealogy databases.
2007-04-25 07:43:59 · answer #8 · answered by Marianne D 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
http://www.freehistory.com
2007-04-25 06:53:07 · answer #9 · answered by Nick B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋