I am trying to find information on my grandmother. Does any one know where I can get information for free?

Answer 1

If you could pen it down more, like about when she died etc. If she ever was drawing social security at time of death and on her own social security number, she would be on the Social Security Death Index. Now Social Security did not come into effect until 1937. Many people born in the l9th century never got a social security number.

Your parent's birth certificate would probably give you her name including her maiden name. However, this depends on when your parents were born.

Answer 2

---Talk to surviving, older family members; look at family Bibles (if available), and ask relatives if you can photocopy family letters. Members of some denominations, such as Roman Catholics and Episcopalians, may also find well-documented baptismal records at the parish level.

---Census records online for the United States are available from 1790 to 1930 while individual states make individual vital (birth, marriage, divorce, and death) statistics available online after a certain period of time elapses. Some states charge a fee, but others don't. The Government Document section of most libraries also has this information on microfilm. Counties, however, charge a fee for processing information since a county employee will probably need to look up the material.

---Provided you know Granny's Social Security Number, you can also access her date and place of death.

---England, Wales, and Scotland all make census records available online from 1841, and presumably, so do other countries as well.

---The Latter Day Saints also have a free-of-charge web site: http://www.lds.org/familyhistory

Good Luck!

Answer 3

The best place to start is with your parents. They probably know their mother as well if not better than anyone else. If they can't remember an exact death date for example, you can utilize the Social Security death index if she died after say, 1960-63. Here is the link

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

Once you have that information, I would go to your public library and maybe look for an obituary. It will likely have where she is buried listed on it if you don't know already. You might also just want to go ahead and order her death certificate. That will set you back a few bucks, but then you will likely have her parents names and it will allow you to move back another generation in your research. You will also have the name of the undertaker who handled her funeral arrangements. Many of them have records and also don't underestimate the power of the sextons records at the cemetery.

While you are at the public library, you might want to check to see if they have a subscription to Heritage Quest or Ancestry.com With her parents names and locality you can check the census records and they can be a wealth of information. Many of the later censuses list states of birth and all of the members of the family residing with the head of household.

Answer 4

Also check out http://www.rootsweb.com/ and do your search on SearchRootsWeb and then click on WorldConnect and see what you can find. There are also message boards there where you can post questions and connect with others who can help you with your line.

As another poster said, you want to talk with family and get all the information you can first and you might want to buy Family Tree Maker and start entering information on your computer so you can enter things as you gather information.

You can print up sheets to take with you as you go to court houses, genealogical societies, historical societies and as you talk with different family members or gather info online. Always take blank sheets to use for each person you talk with and the court house and mark them accordingly for future reference and keep things in notebooks to refer to later.

You can go to cemeteries and take pictures of markers, too, so you have that to work with. Verify the marker information with the record at the court house because information can be wrong if someone had the wrong information when they applied for the marker (we have a case of that).

Tons more pointers but I'll leave it at that. Have fun :)

Answer 5

every state and most counties have historical societies that will be happy to help you if you know where she lived; also check with the Mormon church and the library of congress; search census records in the town where your grandmother grew up and where she lived.

are your parents still alive?

do you have any aunts and uncles

family is the best place to get started

good luck

Answer 6

Go to www.familysearch.org , this is one of the best free Genealogy websites on the Internet. Go to the search engine and try Her maiden name first then her married name if married more than once try all of her married names. This might give you marriage date etc. along with birth dates Social Security Death dates and address.

Answer 7

All of the above is true. Another trick -- collect as much information as you can beforehand. Then start plugging in names, preferably with spouses, into search engines. You'd be surprised how much you can find that way. Use women's maiden names if possible.

Answer 8

if you go to ancestory.com you can get a three day free trial it has some birth death and marriage certificates, census records, etc.

Answer 9

genforum.com ancestry.com