Heritage Album - What is a good safe free website to trace your family tree ?

What is a good safe free website to trace your family tree ?

How easy is it to do so ?

Public Comments

www.genesreunited.co.uk. It is also free but it can take years of research. I have been doing mine for two years now and I am still only a third of the way through. It's quite nice though because it's really exciting and you can find out so much info about your family, it would be a shame to do it really quickly. See it as a long term project.
In my experience most genealogy sites are 'safe'. If you want to chat about your roots and learn a few tricks then try rootschat.com. Plenty of advice and information available. One thing you will find is that a lot of websites are American orientated so if your are looking for mainly UK information then rootschat is more British orientated. How easy is it? Families are complicated but fascinating. Once you get hooked then you can't stop until you get to Adam and Eve.
The free BMD would be the best bet to start with. You really need to get as much information as possible from the older members of your family first, that will start you on your quest. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ You can also go to any of the genealogy sites such as ancestry.co.uk, and genealogy.com, and post messages on the message boards, or request a look up if you get stuck. Alternatively, you can join ancestry.co.uk, and pay for the subscription, as and when you want, by paying monthly, I would be careful of Genes reunited as the information on there is only what other people have put on the site,and not necessarily correct. It is always better to work from Census, Births Marriages, & Deaths indexes and certificates. It may take you many years, but one thing for sure, once you get into it, you will become addicted. It becomes more than just finding out peoples dates of when they lived and died. And also you come to meet a lot of very helpful and interesting people.
A very good free website to check out is through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints "The Mormons" I believe the actual site is familyhistory.org The service is completely free. Also they have family history centers located throughout the country as well. If familyhistory,org does not have a listing for these centers try to look on lds.org that is the main website and I know they have the links you are looking for.
One site you can build your tree for free is: http://www.tribalpages.com/ You might get lucky and others may have done some work on your family tree. Google family members names ie. "Mary Smith" + "family tree" Free sites: http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=27399&o_lid=27399 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/
When we get questions like this none of us knows whether the person asking the question is from the U. S., Canada or the U. K. GenesReunited is a U. K. site. I'll answer as an American. First of all be very very careful about taking information you see in family trees on any website, free or paid, as absolute fact. Most of it is not documented. You might see different information on the same person. Then you might see a page of information from different submitters on the same person with the exact same information. All too frequently people are copying which is not a way to do family history. If there are errors, they are copying errors. Use the information as clues as to where to obtain documentation. For instance you might find your great great grandfather was born in North Carolina but you have no idea of the county to obtain documentation. With the websites you can frequently get a good hint as to what county you can find it in. I hope you have questioned your family and obtained as much information from them as possible, particularly your senior members. If you would go to your library, they might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com which has a lot of records and are getting more all the time. They have all the censues through 1930. The 1940 is not available for the public yet. You probably need to check out any other resources they might have at your library. A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Church will have lot of records. Actually, the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City has the largest collection of genealogical records in the world, not just on Mormons. I have never had them to ring my doorbell because I utilized their resources. They are just very nice and helpful. When you are at your library and at the Family History Center, you will probably have an opportunity to talk with people who can give you a lot of great ideas. Good Luck!
The best way is simply to start with your own family. If you want to do it on the computer, you can download PAF (Personal Ancestral File), which is free genealogy software at http://www.familysearch.org under Order/Download Products. I imagine you can pick it up pretty quick because it is very user-friendly. Then talk to your parents (and grandparents if still alive) and get as much information as you can from them including names, dates, and places. Here are a few online 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 your 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 For grave records: http://www.findagrave.com It won't all be free but it's worth it. Good luck, Dave -- Create a family tree website at http://www.familypulse.org
I am curious as to your definition of "safe". Researching your family history is a process of finding accurate information, most commonly, in historical records. There is not, and never has been, any reason at all that requires you to input personal information. For example.. if you use the usgenweb pages (volunteer network of genealogical info based on states/counties), and find your gr grandparents in a cemetery survey.. there is no way to connect that to you. Nothing that you locate is ever obligated to be posted online. If a web site is asking you for personal information, I'd walk away. No.. I would run. The same applies to asking you to input your parents, or any other living person. You START your research with yourself... and "link" yourself to your parents. Yes, I realize that you probably know who they are.. but get into the habit of backing up any fact by an independent record. You do the same to "link" parents to their parents. ALWAYS work from the known to the unknown. Those same records that you use to "prove" what you know, will also serve to fill in what you DO NOT know.. and lead you to the earlier generation. Human memory is fallible.. mom may tell you her grandmother was born in Alabama (because grandma grew up there) but when you get the documentation, you find she actually was born in Georgia, and moved when she was 3 weeks old. There are thousands of sites with historical and genealogical information that is pertinent to you. What can be hard to explain to new researchers, is that they are often expecting a site with it all done and packaged. The real research (and more reliable) is to break it into bite sized pieces.. ie a marriage record here, a land record there. Just as one example of how many sites there are, drop by www.cyndislist.com. She has collected genealogy sites for over 10 yrs. That includes several tutorials on how to get going, and more importantly, separating the myths and hoaxes from the quality info. Easy?? The FUN is in the challenge.. solving what is unknown, finding the mystery and knowing that YOU solved it.
Hi Adam This is the UK board so i will assume you are in the UK- and it is a good idea to collate your basic information first- yourself, your parents etc. Then put it on to a website - Genesreunited.co.uk is best because it allows you to build with having to pay and other people can contact you with information. You only pay £10 a year if you want to reply to them. Anything they have on their trees should be checked eventually though because they do not always enter information correctly. I use mainly three sites to gather information- that is Ancestry co uk; the freebmd, and the familysearch.org- the latter holding mostly information that predates 1837 and very useful when you get further back. www.tribefinder.com has some very useful information and very worthwhile joining. You can always email with any questions you have. Libs.
Genes reunited is a great one, you can build your family tree up on there as well, loads of info on there. Good Luck
www.familysearch .org gives you the index of the parish registers and also the 1881 census. Be aware that I said index ; you need to check the original source to ensure accuracy and for full details. Other websites cost money. TYo do your tree you need to start with yourself and work back wards - do not try and cut corners or you will find yourself tracing the wrong people. I've been at it for 15 years so if you do not have any patience you will need to learn some.
try ancestry.co.uk,its free to use and i managed to do my family tree quite easy on there.
My sister is doing our family tree and she uses www.ancestry.com. To me thats the best you can use and the easiest
you should be able to get free info if you put 'births deaths and marriages' into your computer - thats assuming you are in the uk - it always was free but you need a certain amount of info to start with ie. parents names and dates of birth the more info you have the easier it is.if yoy've got any of your parents or grandparents birth certs it will give you lots of info- the net shows several companies that you can subscribe to for about £80.00 per year - they will give you access to census records- it is time consuming but it pays off - my own ancestry was traced back to william de varrenne who came over with william the conqueror- you have to keep at it
It's easy to do it badly.
They're all pretty much the same but I use Ancestry.com or .co.uk. None of them are free although they suggest they are initially but eventually you have to pay for the information. It is not cheap.
Try www. FreeBDM, . its very good , Best of luck.
Firstly you should know that this is not a easy and quick thing to do, it can be very time consuming and sometimes expensive if you want actual copies of birth, marriage or death (BMD) certificates. Start off with your immediate family, parents, grandparents and ask around any older members of your family who may be able to provide you with bits of information, family stories or photographs which may help you. Never dismiss anything, if you are unsure put it to one side for the time being, you never know when it might become important. Start with you, then your parents, at this junction you need to decide which path to take, your maternal or paternal (or both as I did). Then you need your parents parents, then their parents, and so on. You should then start to flesh it out with siblings and other marriages etc. I have a programme on my pc called Family Tree 4, it is basically a programme that builds up your tree as you enter each person and you can put notes, BMD certificate details against each person, even photographs. It is not a tool to finding actual information, purely to help you to organise your tree. Asking for birth, marriage or death certificates can provide useful information, where did people live, who were a bride or groom's parents etc. You can get photocopies of the originals from the General Register Office, but you need to have some acurate information to give them so they can search for you. You can find them at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ or your local register office will provide a hand written copy for you for about £7.00, but be careful with these as they are taken from the original inscription in the books and the clerks these days have some difficulty in deciphering the writing (understandably when you see some of them). I always apply for the original then the mistake is mine. Your local archive centre is also a valuable source of information so go to them, they will have someone on hand to help guide you. They carry copies of all the census returns from 1841-1901 which help hugely in trying to trace whole families. They also carry very old maps and you may be able to trace where your ancestors lived. I have had several occasions where I have located the acutal houses my ancestors lived in still standing today which is amazing. I use Ancestry, http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ as my main searching tool, unfortunately that one is not free, the subscription is about £70 per year but they have all the census returns, and BMD records as well as wills & probate records, emigration records, war records and once you have paid for your subscription anything on the site is free to view and you can take prints of anything.. They also have a message board where you and other people can search to see if others are looking for the same person. Genes Reuntied, is also helpful, but really only for finding living relatives. I have had sucess in finding several of my relatives who emigrated to Australia and New Zealand who I had either never spoken to or not spoken to for a long time and its great to catch up. You can also pick their brains about what they know too! Through my tree I recently reunited a cousin of my father who lives here in England with her cousin who was in New Zealand, they hadn't spoken for 50 years and are now meeting up next year Others I use which are free http://www.familysearch.org/ http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ http://www.findmypast.com/ http://www.1901censusonline.com/ http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/ http://www.findagrave.com/ There is also http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/, which I use as I live in the lancashire county but there will be one for where you live on the site. All the sites are very safe except for the ones where you use a card to purchase a certificate or piece of information, but that is the same as anything else you buy on the web, but if you are looking to do it for free, then I'd go to your family first, then your local archive centre, although they do charge if you want to photocopy anything, then see where that takes you. Another great source of information I also use are grave record search papers. If you can locate the death of lets say your Great-Great Grandfather, Joe Bloggs, who died in 1852. You found him on the 1851 census but his wife wasn't on there, but you cannot work out why. You can go to your local cemeteries office and they will let you look at the grave books for 1852, you can then find out who purchased the grave, and who else is in interred, it may help with filling in missing people, I've found a couple of people that way. My GGG-Grandmother disappeared, I could not find her on a subsequent census return after her husband died and I nearly gave up hope, but when I got the grave papers she was interred with him, I discovered that on the census returns her name was spelt incorrectly which is why I could never find her. I now have 6 family graves I have found and I never knew we had any at all! It is very enjoyable to do and if you do decide to go ahead and have a go it will be well worth it, however, it can be extreemly time consuming to, but I find it very rewarding and have found out loads about my family, both the good and the bad. Be warned though, it can be very addictive, once you find one piece of juicy information or something that has eluded you you might not be able to let go! I regularly keep in touch with people who have helped me or I have helped along the way so if you want some help or advice if you decide to do it, please contact me, I'd love to help you out if I can, I've been doing mine for about 8 years now and have just roped my father into helping me out and he is addicted as I am. Good luck
genes reunited is a really good site it's a sister site of friends reunited. It even tells you if there are matches for people you've put in your own tree with others that use the site.
the free bmd birth marriage death site for british people is a very good site its hard work researching as many records were not kept or filled in properly , i have been doing mine for a few years and have hit a brick wall good luck
Ancestry .com
Adam - this one seems to be the biggest on the net: http://www.genealogy.com It also have a sister site www.ancestry.co.uk It's easy to do - just punch in the details and it should do the rest! Good luck in your search!
rootsweb.com is a good site, but i'd recommend searching genealogy + your family name on google, as that'll help too if you're in the uk - the public record office has the 1901 census online
www.genesreunited.co uk but u,ll have to do some home work ask family for names and dates and build it that way good luck
i is quite esy with genesreunioted.com ... u can evey build ur own familyu tree!