I'm tracing my family tree, are there any free archives online that i could use?

Question

I'm in England. Whats the best site you've used or heard of? Id prefer a free site but i dont particularly mind paying, as long as the sie worth it (:
Do you have any tips for getting started?

Also, post your sucesses at tracing your family tree and anything interesting you have found out!

Answer 1

http://www.zeitlerweb.com/surnames.htm origin of surnames

ROYALTY: www.thepeerage.com

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

If anyone tells you to look at the social security death index.
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-b...

http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/

http://www.superpages.com
Mellissa data.com
http://www.email-name-finder.info
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html


For free e-newsletter, http://www.familytreeDNA.com/fgregister.aspx
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp...



The "easy way" would be to hire a professional genealogist.

Due to the amount of information required to do a fairly decent family tree, if you go back more than just a few generations, you will find it to be VERY time intensive. PCs now have humongous storage on their hard drives; but, if you COULD put everything into the computer, you will soon find it is very difficult to organize all that information. I currently have more than 100 MB of info, and most of it is not even in the computer YET.

If you are sincerely interested in your ahnentafel, your genealogy, you will need to be dedicated and organized. So, try these sites and suggestions:

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/

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 Sweden:
http://www.genline.com/databasen/
-http://www.northpark.edu/home/index.cfm?...
http://www.finlandia.edu/catalog/intro.p...

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.

I became interested in genealogy when I was a small lad, before I started to school, as my Mom would tell me about her parents, my Dad's parents, and on back. That is also when I first got used to the idea of "the power of 2": You have 2 parents, they each have 2 parents, and so on. 5 generations ago, you would have had 16 g-g-g-grandparents; by 10 generations ago, the number would be 512 "grandparents"; by 35 generations ago, the number is 16,179,869,184 persons (compared to a total of 6,700,000,000 people alive on Planet Earth today). In other words, basically every one on earth can trace their COMMON ancestry back to within the last 34 generations! (Or, since Medieval Times.)

Good luck!

www.nationalobituaryarchive.com
http://www.obitcentral.com/obitsearch/
http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/
http://zip.langenberg.com/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/w2welc...
http://www.tedpack.org/obit.html


http://www.newspaperarchive.com/
http://ancestryresearchsitereviews.blogs...
http://www.search-background.com


http://www.birthdatabase.com/
http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-o...
peoplesearch.com
smartpages.com. to get to US Search

http://www.intelius.com/search-summary-o...

Two good places I use are www.zabasearch.com and www.peoplefinder.com
http://www.ancestry.com/facts/-name-mean...
http://www.netsleuth.com/

http://affiliates.reunion.com/ads/ads/la...

http://www.peoplelookup.com/people-searc...

http://people.yahoo.com/

http://www.addresses.com/

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

http://www.anywho.com/

http://www.whowhere.com/

http://www.nola.com/forums/searching/ind...

http://www.77investigators.com/messagebo...

http://www.voy.com/48081/

http://messages.yahoo.com/

http://www.angelfire.com/va3/search/Mess...

http://www.worldvitalrecords.com
http://www.ntis.gov/products/pages/ssa-d...

http://www.search-background.com

I have ancestors from England who were there when William the Conqueror crossed the Channel. I am descended from Irish, Welsh, Scottish, English, Danish, French, Spanish, Italian kings/queens/nobles as well as Charlemagne and some of the Caesars.

Answer 2

I use www.ancestry.com , It's amazing. You start with yourself, and add people you know, and little leaves will come up giving you more information. It's amazing, and free for the most part. But if you want even more information, you have to pay a subscription, which will allow you into legal records, etc. It works worldwide. It's very good. Any Questions? Feel free to contact me.

Answer 3

Log onto www.familysearch.org. It is a website provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the only church to have a world-wide genealogy archive available for all. And it's free.

Answer 4

If you google your father's surname (or his complete name) you will probably find all kinds of interesting links. There is a lot of free genealogy stuff out there, you just have to be careful about the source. Ancestry.com and myfamilytree.com are good pay sites.

Answer 5

I have membership to ancestry.com/.co.uk deluxe world collection, its amazing I have access to every document they have. I also think that as someone else suggested the best free site by far is www.familysearch.org in my opinion.
Hope this helps.

Answer 6

This one is run by the Mormons and is excellent

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

Also http://www.genesreunited.co.uk

costs about £10 a year and has led me to find lots of people I'm related to.

Regards Alan Jones

Answer 7

I joined genesreunited.com and it's free for initial registration.
You can build your family tree on there as well.

I've found distant cousins I didn't even know existed!

Answer 8

i was just at a family reunion today,50 people in one village hall.it was really interesting.it was my husbands family.