I would like to find out more about my family history?

Question

What's a website I can go to find information about my family and my ancestors. Thanks!

Answer 1

There are over 500,000 free sites devoted to genealogy on the Internet.

Researching your family tree is about as difficult as writing a term paper in a high school History class. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but it isn't as easy as looking up the capital of Peru. If your great-aunt has already done it and posted her line on the Internet, you might find a line from your (dead) great grandfather all the way back to Charlemagne tonight, without any work.

If not, you will have to do the work yourself. Most teens don't want to spend the time. If you are interested, read on.

These are large and free. Many of them, however, have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements.

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.)

The LDS site and the RWWC here would be the places to look for Great Aunt Matilda's research. Don't enter everything; just name and approximate birth year.

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; 500,000,000+ entries, of varying quality)

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. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it.

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 - put a nation, or, better yet, if you are asking about a specific individual, a nation and a state / province, in all of your questions. It will help people help you.

Answer 2

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, does not require registration.

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

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.

--
Family tree websites at http://www.familyinhistory.com

Answer 3

There are several websites that you can use to track down your family history. Possibly back several hundred years depending on when you imigrated and on how well records where kept.

Answer 4

Just to tell you upfront most you have to pay for. You can look up geneology.com, ancestory.com, familytree.com, rootsweb.com