Family Tree........?

Question

what is a "FREE" website that I can look up stuff on my family tree? Anyone know?

Thanks :)

Answer 1

You mean besides going to the library? Ours (small one) has both ancestry.com and heritagequest.com.

You know the usual suggestions: start with living relatives and find out everything you can.

Most budding genealogists say go for official records, the SSDI (Social Security Death Index), etc. These suggestions only work for RECENT ancestors; the only ancestors of mine in the SSDI are my parents, so it was useless. Official records (birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc.) are only good back to my grandparents.

The further back you can go, the more likely you are to find someone who was famous or at least was published in a Genealogy book, such as Martin Genealogy, detailing colonists in Germana, Virginia. Or, Burkes, famous for detailing genealogy of royalty in England...

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/geno...
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...

Meaning 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.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I am a member of Ancestry Aid and it is free to join, the website is http://www.ancestryaid.co.uk/boards/index.php. There are people on this site that can help you with your family tree. They have helped me alot and I found a Great Uncle that I didn't know that I had. I hope that this helps.

Answer 3

www.familysearch.org is completely free and is an amazing site, very useful.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

I wish people would say where they are researching!
Please add this information and I (and others!) will then be able to answer more accurately!