Heritage Album

how to trace a family tree for free?

Public Comments

1. http://www.familysearch.org/ Free search for ancestors and family members.
2. For researching your family tree, here are a few resources for you to use: http://www.familysearch.org - Probably the best free online resource. http://www.ancestry.com is one of the best but has a hefty subscription fee (for most of its databases). Also, you can check the surname message boards for his surname at: http://genforum.genealogy.com http://boards.ancestry.com For links to helpful sites, you will want to take a look at: http://www.cyndislist.com And finally for a lot of different resources: http://www.rootsweb.com Good luck, Dave -- http://www.familypulse.org
3. You can only do so much for free. There are websites like FamilySearch and Rootsweb that are both free. Now, information in family trees on any websiwte must be taken as clues not as fact as most is not documented. Even if you see the same information over and over by different submitters, a lot of copying is being done. First thing, get as much information from your family as possible, particularly senior members. Tape them if they will let you. What might seem to be insignificant ramblings and story telling might turn out to be very significant. We old folks like to talk about old timey. Browse the genealogy section of your public library. Check its resources. Also they might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can utilize. Ancestry.Com has lots of records and is obtaining more all the time. They have all the censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet. Some people do not like it that they have to pay someone like Ancestry.Com for the records. They feel it should be free. Your county and state could put all the information on the web for free but they would have to pay to have the program developed and pay people to input all the information into their system. That would mean your tax dollars and the tax dollars of people who are not interested at all in those records. Ancestry.Com has to pay people to obtained the records and set up the system and put them on line. They have to pay salaries and benefits just like any other employer. Check with your nearest Mormon Church and see if they have a Family History Center. If so, they have a lot of records on people all over the world. They are very nice and helpful. I have never had them come ringing my doorbell because I availed myself of their services. Now things you might eventually have to pay for. Death certificates and applications for social security numbers. Both show names and places of birth of both parents. I feel the application for a social security number is more trustworthy as the person applying for social security probably knows exactly where their parents were born while the death certificate depends on a widow or widower remembering where their inlaws were born or one of the kids remembering where their grandparents were born. Courthouse records. This might mean travel. Or you can write a pay them to search and send a record to you. They have wills, deeds, tax records etc. Before the 20th century not too many governing bodies recorded vital information. Churches will have records on baptisms, marriages and deaths and many have names of parents. It is customary to pay or even if they don't charge, they should be given some type of renumeration. Just dig in and you will hear from a lot of other researchers good ideas. Good Luck!!
4. Start with http://www.cyndislist.com ; read and find other sites