geneaology help? best sites for free info on family members you nvr met?

Answer 1

welcome... you made me think about my grandpa, who died when my mom was a baby in 1910 (and mom was old when I was born). Ancient history stuff. Others I know, hang out now with their gr grandparents. * sigh*
Point being... most of genealogy will be ancestors that you never met, and while a common answer here is "ask your family", THEY might not have info either.
The answer is records. Ones that you never thought of (like census, tombstones, land records) but they'll become 2nd nature to you.
Catch 22 here. I have never used a 'fee' site, but they can have things of value. When I started research, I paid for gas to get to the library, (small) handling fee to rent microfilm, sometimes a baby sitter, and we always stopped for coffee, and maybe pie on the way home. Birth/death certificates are not free, phone bills, and eventually, plane fare to other states. Now you can subscribe and the cost is comparatively cheaper, and you can do from home. Ancestry is highly recommended. I think you get more from them than renting a movie.
As for free, I suggest www.cyndislist.com, because it is a directory of resources. The more you have, the better you are. More is best, to me.
One huge free volunteer network (if you are working US) is www.usgenweb.com. These are volunteer sites.. some of them have every cemetery in the county, and then some.. others are not so good. The idea is to network with others. You might offer to help post your local records for someone across the country, while someone else is posting historical wills from where YOU need it.
You also can browse the answers here. How to start is #1, so it has been answered much. Take it one step at a time, and you can post here.

Answer 2

Wendy knows a lot. Take her advice.

Also be very careful not to take as fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. There are plenty of errors in internet family trees. They are user submitted and mostly not documented or poorly documented. You might see different information on the same persons from different submitters. Then you will see repeatedly the same information from different submitters without documentation.
A lot of people copy without verifying. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation.

I like Ancestry.Com for its records. Your public library might have a subscription to it you can take advantage of.

Answer 3

There are ultimate as the final option because of the fact the character doing the learn was once careful approximately the documentation used to envision the understanding. If I look are one chart specifically it quite is online on the floor i'm bearing directly to Arron Burr, Jefferson, Washington, Henry the VIII, and Charlemagne. without going any futhere that's an exquisite unhazardous wager that i'm now no longer bearing directly to Henry,VIII because it is believed that one and all his young babies are pointed out and there is not any connection to Mary or Elizabeth. it is all although astonishing to finally end up ancestry to Charlemagne as there is not any super documentation as to the quantity of youngsters he somewhat had. Having accomplished the learn myself i will say i'm a ideal away descendent of Aaron Burr, the Uncle of the Arron Burr who will ought to Alexander Hamilton. I rather have data that confirm the relationship. I an bearing directly to George Washington by utilising way of his Grandfather, and that i have4 the data. i'm now no longer bearing directly to Jefferson a minimum of now no longer Thomas Jefferson who was once in all probability the main theory writers of the form. there's a Tomas Andrew Jefferson in the lineage, although he's not a ideal away ancestor. I rather have regularly seen the sire you're talking approximately and that i bumped off my relationship to virtually all of adult ladies and men listed by utilising conveniently getting a pair of parts of information and comparing them. till now I authorized the information superhighway website as your loved ones, i could confirm the understanding, As I rather have got here across nearly all of charts to be flawed.

Answer 4

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!