I need to know?

Question

Is there a web site that can help me find my family tree.

Answer 1

We have your question a lot. Apparently there are rumours that everyone can find their family tree on line. You might be able to find some of your family lines. However, you must be very careful about taking as fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. They are user submitted and most is not documented. Even when you see the same information over and over by many different submitters, you can't jump to the conclusion that that means it is correct. A lot of people are copying without verifying. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation. There are errors in family trees on the internet.

Cyndi's list gives a lot of genealogical websites.

You might check with your public library and see what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com which has lots of records and seems to be getting more all the time. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet. They have U. K. censuses also.

Another source is a Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee

They are very nice and helpful. They don't bring up their religion and they won't send their missionaries by to ring your doorbell.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

There are several to choose from. Start with:
http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

For those with native American ancestry, try:
http://www.tribalpages.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/

Assuming they emigrated from Europe, start with Ellis Island and the Battery Conservancy sites:
http://www.ellisisland.org
http://www.castlegarden.org

You can also search for "Smith Family Genealogy", google the name, complete with birth/death dates, place of birth, etc. Then there are county, state, and historical sites that have genealogy websites, such as:
http://www.woodfordkyhistory.org/
or:
http://www.nps.gov/ande/ for the Andersonville Cemetery website.
Don't forget county courthouse records, libraries (for books and to use their subscription-based genealogy programs such as ancestry.com.
When you really want to know where your ancestors came from, try such sites as: www.familytreedna.com, dnatribes.com, dnaancestryproject.com, and, of course, the National Geographics Genotype program, https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/faqs_about.html
The problem is not so much where to look, but where do you get the time to do the reseach?
Because I have gone back more than 100 generations, I have abandoned all of the programs and merely type into a word document, with my Mom (another one for my Dad) being 1, her dad is 2, her mom is 3; for the 3rd generation, the dad of #2 is 4, his mom is 5; #3 goes to 6 & 7, and so forth. This gives a direct line of who is whose father, grandfather, etc. I type all info I have, name, birth, marriage, death dates and places, who the parents were, etc., then type in my sources, then list any children. One reason for doing it this way is the programs are not set up for people with no surnames (which go back to about 1400!) and are not set up for a father with one surname and each brother with a different surname (which happened when surnames were first used) nor do the programs allow for a couple that had 8 children, 3 of whom became ancestors, or for folks who married more than once and left ancestors from each of the spouses! This causes duplications, triplications, etc.
Also, by typing, all the info is available at a glance; with the programs, you must click, click, click different buttons to view all your info. (I have thousands of ancestors typed into 4 documents, each more than 100 pages; add to that the offspring and other relatives...The commercial programs cannot handle that much info!)

www.israelgenealogy.com

http://www.moshiach.com/features/tribes/...

Have a look at these sites these are South African ones,
http://genealogy.about.com/od/south_afri...
http://www.rupert.net/~lkool/page2.html...
http://www.jewishgen.org/safrica/website...
http://southafricanfamilyhistory.wordpre...


http://www.winslowtree.com/surname-meani...

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/f...

Two good places I use are www.zabasearch.com and www.peoplefinder.com
also..
http://www.cyndislist.com/finding.htm...