Where can i find online, my family tree? for free?

Question

ive been looking and i keep getting the wrong things. i want to find my family tree..ya know, like, my ancestors. i want it for free because a lot of site s like to try to charge you. please please help..ive been wanting to know this for many years now!

Answer 1

i was hoping someone would ask this...

hope i could help

Answer 2

Drawing on my father's experience for a second, it's not a free process, and it's not something that you can just download.

More importantly there isn't a "national system" that records our entire family history. All of our family histories are held in a variety of locations as unassociated documents. Wills, deeds, marriage licenses, death certificates, birth certificates, census bureau information, tax documents, household ledgers, grave markers, etc.

Predominantly family trees start as a result of inputting the information you do have, researching to find the information you don't have, and tracking down people who have additional information. Hoping that some other branch of the family has put there information into a "GEDCOM" file (universal family tree format, works in most family tree software).

For which you may encounter people who would like, not necessarily to be paid, but reimbursed a little.

If you happen to have a common family member(s) with other people who have done the above, please realize that while this may seem expensive to download this information, it's a drop in the bucket compared to what you could spend doing it yourself.

For instance searching around for free you find out that there is a will for John Doe on file in a library 100 miles away from 1872 which is the approximate time period in which your great great grandfather died, geographically it's the right area, so you jump in the car on a Saturday and head to the library. You get there, spend 2 hours getting familiar with the library's antiquated microfiche system, pull the right volume of microfiche and finally locate the will of John Doe. You start reading and immediately realize that some of the names are familiar, but not what you are looking for. You keep reading and realize that the will is actually for your great great grandfather's first born son, who is not your great great grandfather, and is not your great grandfather.

And that's what can happen for just one person. The bigger the families in each generation, the more often this happens, and the more times someone "wasted" there Saturday (or weekend, or week) getting the information that is more useful to you than it would ever be to them.

Going back to my father's experience, it's been a 7 year journey (while retired) going through cemeteries, small public libraries, large public libraries, online postings, meeting with people to get the information from their family bibles and what they still remember of the family history that was told to them, hunting through government records, paying for copies (not just $0.20 photo copies, but also $5, $10, $20, etc. for copies of state, county, and federal documents) just to get where he is today.

Not to mention the gas, the hotel stays, etc.

And that is FAR from finished. There are still holes, missing names, missing dates of birth, marriage, and death, random additional siblings, wives, and children that pop up, and moments when you find out that the person you've research for 7 years isn't the right person.

To be quite honest it's a difficult process, compounded by inaccuracies in records, historical events (war, fire, flood, etc.) and the results that that can have on historical records (destruction, relocation) and a multitude of other issues that can occur. All of which are frustrating and can be very very time consuming.

Answer 3

You cannot do your tree totally for free, there are web sites that can help, but at some point there is going to be some cost,

The web site below is very good.

Good luck and good hunting

Answer 4

Tall order. The biggest expense will be TIME; I have spent hundreds of hours and have so much left to compile.
Remember, no matter where you obtain the information, there are mistakes (yes, I include "official" documents, such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, death certificates, whatever). My maternal grandmother's tombstone doesn't even have her name correct!
Anyhew, as to searching, try these:
Free sites: there are several to choose from. Start with:
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/

Assuming they emigrated from Europe, start with Ellis Island and the Battery Conservancy sites:
http://www.ellisisland.org
http://www.castlegarden.org
For those with native American ancestry, try:
http://www.tribalpages.com/

For a fee, try a DNA test:
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
For Jewish ancestry, try:
www.israelgenealogy.com
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...

Meaing of names:
http://www.winslowtree.com/surname-meani...

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

Finding live people:
Two good places I use are www.zabasearch.com and www.peoplefinder.com

Don't forget, use your local library. Ours (a small one, yet) has www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com, as well as periodicals, books and guidance from an experienced genealogist.

Keep good notes on where you find what: sources are very important.

Answer 5

www.friendsreunited.com.au there is a link there for geanology and family histories

Answer 6

I know exactly what you mean and good luck with your search.

http://www.myheritage.com/

Answer 7

dont look because most of us find out its a crazy monkey