Best way to begin an internet genealogy search?

Answer 1

Try:

Google family members names i.e. "Mary Smith" + "family tree", "Smith Genealogy Society", etc.

Free sites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

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/

Answer 2

Hopefully you have gotten as much information from living family members as possible, particularly your senior.

Ancestry.Com has lots of records. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet.
They have U. K. censuses also. Your library might have a subscription to it.

Be very very careful about taking as fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is submitted by folks like you and me. Most of it is not documented. Even when you see the same information over and over by many different submitters that doesn't mean it is accurate. A lot of people are copying without verifying.

Use the information as clues as to where to write and get the documentation.

Answer 3

Turn off your computer and talk to your old relatives.

No WWW site is going to tell you how Gr-grandpa and Gr-Gma made Christmas ornaments out of tinfoil in 1934, newly-weds making do on $30 a month.

It isn't going to tell you that Gr Uncle George never ate pork roast after he wiped out a pillbox with his flame thrower on Iwo Jima in 1945.

It isn't going to tell you what your grandfather looked like when he cruised Main in 1959, in a 1935 Ford hot rod he had chopped, bored and channeled himself, with a pack of Camels rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve.

It isn't going to tell you about your parents. They won't either, if they were 18 - 24 in the 1960's, but you can ask. If they blush, they smoked weed and went skinny dipping.

After you collect everything you can from the living, start tracking the dead. The resolved Q are fill of links. The other answerers have given you some too.

Answer 4

I have used rootsweb, ancestry, and Ellis Island, and family search. After I used all of these resources I went to the Mormon Family History Center. Family Search belongs to the Mormon Church. They went all around the world and microfilmed all the vital statitics. You can also do a google seach of the last name that your interested in and also a telephone search this is also a good tool in finding family.

Answer 5

www.rootsweb.com

I found my family tree there and its free!

Answer 6

try geni.com