Where can I find information on my ancestors, and learn who I'm related to?

Answer 1

This question is asked, and answered, in one form or another about 10 times a day. Please search previously asked questions for this so people do not have to re-post the same response over and over and over and over and over again.

Answer 2

Most new researchers are anxious to find their ancestors, and jump ahead too fast. The BASIC starts with your immediate (birth) family. You can start with a lined notebook paper, and on one page, write your dad/mom (use her maiden name, obviously), and list their "facts". Dates and locations of events; names of children and their specifics. ALSO note the names of dad's parents and moms (not the details, this is just to link this page to the parents). This is the basic family group sheet, and you BUILD on this. What is important is that even if your mom's last name is Jones.. you still focus on HER PARENTS, not the millions of other Jones. The next step would be a similiar page for each set of grandparents. As you continue this.. those will be your known relatives. No confusion.
Documentation is absolutely important. When working with live persons, you will get those through family members, not online. And be tactful... grandma may be a bit hostile to show her marriage record, if it is only 4 months before baby's birth. Once you get past the live persons, historical records will be easier and usually public.
In general.. for the 1900's, you should have birth/death certificates for sources. For the 1800s, those won't normally exist so you'll focus on census. In the US, the census started in 1790 (and only shows all persons by name since 1850). Pre 1790, you will get into land records, wills, so forth.
EVERY locality is unique, and depends on the time frame. IE, Texas and Mass. required birth certificates at different times. And you may be in the UK, so your sources will be different there. THAT is the whole challenge- to find what record there will be for grandma in 1915, versus gr gr gr grandpa in 1799.
And please, remember... it will NOT all be on the internet.
My favorite site is www.cyndi'slist.com which is a reference site for resources (including tutorials that expand on my brief explanation). You also can browse through many of the resolved questions here, to get some ideas.

Answer 3

My suggestion is to get a book called unpuzzling your past by Emily Croom. She takes you step in tracing your roots. This book is well worth its weight in gold. It's only about $20. I've referred back to it many times over the 15+ yrs that I have been doing this.

Make sure you document all your work. Birth, death, marriage certificates, obits and cemetery records. All of these will give you other clues. The census is a great tool too.

What you find online only use as a tool. There is lots of bad research out there and you can chase the wrong line. That's why documents are very important.

Genealogy is fun, frustrating satisfying and costly.

A family tree is a work of art, one bloom at a time and never ending.

Answer 4

Every family is different. Start with asking your parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents for basic info. Contact your local family history society for local libraries that can help you. Its a neverending process as you go back in time, but well worth the effort.

Answer 5

Start out by asking your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles where/when they were born, married, etc., who their parents were with the same questions.
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 ship’s passenger lists, try:
http://www.immigrantships.net/
www.cyndislist.com/ships.htm
www.geocities.com/Heartland/5978/Emigration.html
www.immigrantstips.net/
www.searchforancestors.com/passengerlists/
www.archives.gov/genealogy/immigration/passenger-arrival.html


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 6

The best way I know for you to learn about your roots is to:

Build your family tree on line.
You can use a paid site like:
http://www.ancestry.com/

OR You can do this for free on:

http://www.tribalpages.com/

Start with yourself, and then attach living family members.
Find out all you can about you family from living members, then attach it to your tree.
Now it is time to look for historical records and attach the info to your tree:

It is ALL about census records, and other historical records!

You might get lucky and others may have done some work on your family tree. Google family members names i.e. "Mary Smith" + "family tree"

Free sites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=27399&o_lid=27399

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/

http://www.findagrave.com/

Genealogy message board:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/messageboards/newguide/?board=history

http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ab-genealogy&nav=messages&lgnF=y&msg=90.1

http://boards.ancestry.com/

http://www.gensource.com/common/search.cfm

http://messages.yahoo.com/yahoo/Family___Home/Genealogy/

http://genforum.genealogy.com/

http://www.genealogyforum.com/messages/

http://www.progenealogists.com/messageboards.htm

http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/boards.php?boardId=56406&func=2&channel=aol+research+and+learn&refresh=true

http://boards.rootsweb.com/

ECT.
The time may come when you want more information than you can find for free. When this happens you can back up your "tribalpage" tree to your computer on a "GEDCOM" file
you can then go to (I think it is the best subscription site)

http://www.ancestry.com/

Upload your "GEDCOM" file
and start to work!
You might need to make a few adjustments to your tree to make it look better.