Is there a way to research your family tree over the internet and for free?

Answer 1

Here are some sites to 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/

http://www.geni.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/
http://www.cherokee-nc.com/geneology.php...
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/herita...

Netherlanders: http://www.genlias.nl

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

For people from India, try:
http://www.fibis.org/

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/...

Military:
www.military.com
http://www.familymilitaryrecords.com/

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/militar...

http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesear...

http://genealogy.about.com/b/2007/05/24/...

http://userdb.rootsweb.com/ww1/draft/sea...

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

Just don't take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is user submitted and mostly not documented or poorly 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.

Your public library might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can use.
Ancestry.Com has lots of records. It has all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet. They have U. K. censuses also.

Also you need to check with a Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons.
In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family HIstory Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee.

I have never had them to try and convert me or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell. I haven't heard of them doing that to anyone else either.

Eventually to get a good family tree it will require some cost in order to get records to document your tree

In the U. S. each state has its own laws as to who, when and where a person can obtain a copy of vital records like birth and death certificates.

Answer 3

Yes. The single best website for researching your family tree on the internet for free is rootsweb.com. Another excellent resource are county geneological websites, state geneology websites and library websites specific to the town you are researching. To determine which of these sites you need, start with what you know and work your way backward. The best sources of information are "primary source" documents, such as birth certificates, death certificates and marriage certificates. Ask your oldest living relations for copies of these documents and then take the information off of them to continue your search backward. The certificates will give you the names of the previous generation and the county in which the event took place. Many counties (and states if the documents are older) will allow you to send for death certificates for purposes of geneological research, for example, if the person has been dead a certain number of years and you attest that you are related to them and are conducting family research. Another great resource are county geneological societies. For example, say that you have a death certificate that says your ancestor died in a particular town or county. Call the geneology society or call the library in that town and ask them if the librarian or county geneology volunteers will look for documents on that ancestor for you. Many volunteers are senior citizens who will charge you only a few dollars to look up all of the census records and county histories in the library on your ancestor. This may not work if you're from New York City or Chicago, but will work in most locales. Librarians can typically e-mail you results and will send documentation in the mail for the cost of copying.

Not only is this research much cheaper than buying a membership to a site like ancestry.com, it is also much more accurate. You are searching only the area you know your family lived rather than doing a broadbased blanket search on a computer search engine that will return who knows who in who knows where.

Answer 4

Maryann there are tons of sites out there but unless someone else is working the same lines you probably won't find anything. If you do find something you need to contact the researcher and request documents. If they don't have them, don't waste the time with their research. Too many people copy other people's work and most of the time its bad research.

Start with yourself and work backwards, documenting as you go. Use birth, death, marriage certificates, obits and cemetery record. Your family probably already has their own so you save a bunch of money right there.

good luck in your quest

Answer 5

ancestry.com allows you to have a nice workspace, etc. and some research tools for free. But a lot of the great tools you have to pay for.