where would you go to research surnames for free?

Question

Trying to find information about our heritage and can't find a site that you don't have to pay for..

Wanted to really find the origan of the last name not the heritage... we were wondering what the name was Irish, French or German whatever. Found my moms last name there and not the names of the other las names in the family. Coiser and Burmeister are harder to find .

Answer 1

Ancestry.Com has origins and meanings of surnames. However, that is not a good way to find out your heritage.

The same surname frequently can come from more than one nationality. Also not everyone with the same surname are necessarily related or shares ancestors.

Be careful about family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is user submitters and mostly not documented. Even when you see the same information repeatedly by many different submitters that is no guarantee it is correct.
A lot of people copy without verifying. The information should be used as clues as to where to get the documentation.

Now, that being said Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org are 2 free sites you can look at trees on. If you pull up Rootsweb, you can put a name in the World Connect block to see trees. If you see anything that interest you, probe on a name and it will take you to the name and email address of the submitter.

Also Rootsweb (free site), Genealogy.Com and Ancestry.com (both paid sites) have message boards. You can put a message or inquiry under a surname or location. If you put one on Rootsweb, it will also show up on Ancestry.Com's and vice versa.

See the link below from the most prestigious genealogical organization in the United States, The National Genealogical Society.

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerpsst.cfm

Answer 2

www.cyndislist.com is an excellent place to start... it is a collection of thousands of genealogical resources.

MAJOR tip (25 yrs of experience)
Stop trying to research a surname. It is the one main misleading approach that there is. Research PERSONS (your father has one name, your mother has another birth name. Same for every ancestor). You should be able to use records to document your relationship to your parents, right? Next, can you get their birth certificates to verify their parents? Can you locate an obit or death certificate, or other record(s) to show when your grandparents died?
The internet TRIES to protect the privacy of living persons. You won't find these beginning records online. You may find how to order them, if you don't have them.
Focus on what RECORDS might be out there to verify your immediate family, working back from you, one generation at a time. Interview your family to get leads..but still use records to back it up. When you get to the 1800s, there won't be anyone to interview, and by this time, you'll be used to the idea that records are what you use.
Most online databases want to sell you on the idea that they have your family in there. They MIGHT have some of your ancestors.. but pretend they don't.
Your family is a puzzle consisting of hundreds of pieces. You have to find the pieces, put them together, and that makes the big picture.

Answer 3

GOOD QUESTION!.

iv tryed reasearching my surname, but unforunately i have a really SERIOUSLY random last name i feel like it was made up.

seriously i tryed googleing it, and all i got was my father's name.

i seriously belive that my mom, my dad, and my sisters are the only people in the world with that last name. and now that i think about it.. since i don't have any brothers, my last name will die as soon as everyone in my imediate family does..

lol PLUS, my when my dad was born, the hospital screwed up his last name and spelled it wrong. so HIS last name is different from his siblings. HOW CRAZY IS THAT???



iv tryed looking for my last name, but i will probably not find anything because "my country" in which my last name originiated just recently got acess to new technologys such as computers and internet, so they probably don'y have much info on anything.

Answer 4

There are some. Also, you can use google (or other search engine) and just plug in name, date/place of birth.
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 Scotland, check:
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/


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...

Here are some general sites with lists of African names:
http://www.swagga.com/fname.htm
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/afr.php
http://www.familiesonlinemagazine.com/ba...

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/...


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 5

Do you know when your family came to the United States? If they came during the time of Ellis Island, you can do a search there for free. Go to http://www.ellisisland.org

Families immigrated to the U.S. from 1892-1924.

Answer 6

www.familysearch.org

Also, ask your parents and grandparents to order their birth certificates and have them give them to you. Death certificates of your grandparents are also good sources of information.

Answer 7

if you have ancestors in Europe, you can also go to Geneanet