Geneology...?

Question

Where can i go to find out my origins...like if im german, irish ect. for FREE...everytime i look someone wants to charge me.

Answer 1

Start by talking with living relatives. Get names and locations of relatives as far back as they can remember. Then go to the local library and utilize the census data. It will be on microfilm, the librarian should be able to show you how to use it. You can get full access to the census from 70 or 80 years ago. This will give you additional information to go from. Hope that helps...

Answer 2

None of the German records are all that free. The Germans have figured out that Americans and Canadians want the information and are willing to pay for it. So they've been selling access to individual records to the highest bidder. The best you can do is visit your local library and pull an encyclopedic set of books called "Germans to America". Long ago, someone sat down and tried extracting every German name from the American passenger records. To that end, you can also try looking them up at the Battery Conservancy site (aka http://www.castlegarden.org) and Ellis Island (but only those arriving after 1891) at http://www.ellisisland.org

Battery Conservancy is a young project and their transcriptions are far from complete. But it's a good place to start. The caveat being those records only cover the Port of New York before immigration was federalized.

The best bargain in genealogy, though, is the library access subscriptions to the two major genealogy sites (ancestry.com and heritagequest.com). Your local library probably already has a subscription to one of these two services that you can use for free as long as you bring your library card. You get access to a subscription that costs your library over $20K/year and that would cost you over $1500/year because you're getting access to everything the services have available. HeritageQuest is the really great deal because they even allow libraries to make access available to you from your home computer if you sign in through the library's website and use your library card number as your UserID.

From there, the next best free sites are the major libraries in your state. For example, your state has an official "State Library" and an official "State Archives". They usually work in partnership with each other and hold all records from your entire state, from probated wills from the 1800s to birth, marriage and death records, divorce decrees, every newspaper ever published in your state, every census ever carried out (and not just the federal ones, but many states used to do their own in the middle of each decade). They're also completely free for anyone to use.

Answer 3

The best way is simply to start with your own family. If you want to do it on the computer, you can download PAF (Personal Ancestral File), which is free genealogy software at http://www.familysearch.org under Order/Download Products. I imagine you can pick it up pretty quick because it is very user-friendly. Then talk to your parents (and grandparents if still alive) and get as much information as you can from them including names, dates, and places.

Here are a few online resources for you to use:

http://www.familysearch.org - Probably the best free online resource.

http://www.ancestry.com is one of the best but has a hefty subscription fee (for most of its databases).

Also, you can check the surname message boards for your surname at:

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

For links to helpful sites, you will want to take a look at:

http://www.cyndislist.com

And finally for a lot of different resources:

http://www.rootsweb.com

For grave records:

http://www.findagrave.com

It won't all be free but it's worth it.

Good luck,
Dave
--
Create a family tree website at http://www.familyinhistory.com/signup

Answer 4

www.rootsweb.com--the sister site of ancestry.com but primarily free.
www.cyndislist.com--has various sections, like ethnic backgrounds, military records, Native American, etc.
www.genealogy.com--has a forum section where you can ask questions about your family members because they may be part of someone else's family, too.
www.familysearch.org--the LDS site; has listings all over the world back at least to the 10th or 11th centuries

These sites are all free. www.ancestry.com offers a free trial period of (I think) 2 weeks. If you have a lot of dates, etc. to go by, you could go hog-wild in those 2 weeks. LOL

Answer 5

This is a long answer that I paste now and again to questions like yours.

The short answer to "How can I find my family tree?" is that if one of your great-aunts has spent 30 years researching it, AND has posted her research on the Internet, you'll find it. If not, you will have to do the research yourself. It is not difficult, but it takes time. Most young people do not want to spend a couple of hours a week doing research, because it is too much like homework. So, you may want to skip the rest of this answer. If not, read on.

If your line has been "done", chance are it is on one of these two sites. When you search, don't fill in all of the fields. Start with given name, surname and birth year. Use (+/-) 5 for the birth year. Expect to spend 15 - 45 minutes on each. Neither has any living people, so don't enter your own name.

http://www.familysearch.com
(Mormon's mega-site. Click on "Search", to start with, or "Advanced Search")

Roots Web
http://www.rootsweb.com
and in particular,
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi
(Roots Web World Connect; 460,000,000+ entries, of varying quality)

Here are a few more. The resolved questions have lots of links and tips.

http://www.cyndislist.com/
(240,000+ links, all cross-indexed. If you want Welsh or Pennsylvania Dutch or Oregon or any other region, ethnic group or surname, chances are she has links for it.)

Ancestry.com
http://www.ancestry.com/
(which has free pages and FEE pages - so watch out)
and, in particular,
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx?ln=
Surname meanings and origins

http://www.tedpack.org/begingen.html
My own site: "How to Begin"

United States only:

http://www.usgenweb.net/
(Subdivided into state sites, which all have county sites.)
(The Canadians have Canadian Gen Web, by province)

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
(Social Security Death index - click on "Advanced". You may find your grandparents.)

http://find.person.superpages.com/
(US Phone book, for looking up distant cousins)


United Kingdom Only:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/
(Biggest site for United Kingdom & Ireland)

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
(Free Birth, Marriage & Death Records)

In the USA, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too.

This is a general hint: Even though you go in through YA Canada, YA Australia, YA UK or YA USA, all of the questions go into one big "pot" and get read by everyone in the world who speaks English. Most of the people here are in the UK and USA, but you sometimes get questions and answers from people who worry about kangaroos eating their roses. So, if you are asking about a specific individual, put a nation and a state / province. It will help people help you.

Answer 6

http://www.tribalpages.com/
Start with yourself, then attach living family members.
Find out all you can about you family from living members, then attach it to your tree.
Now it is time to look for historical records and attach the info to your tree:

It is ALL about census records, and other historical records!

You might get lucky and others may have done some work on your family tree. Google family members names i.e. "Mary Smith" + "family tree"

Free sites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=27399&o_lid=27399

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/

http://www.cyndislist.com/