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How do you trace your family tree? My Dad has told me for years that we are related to royalty???????????????

I think he's maybe pulling my leg, although he seems serious and does have some heirlooms. Can you get reliable info on genealogy for free?

Public Comments

1. Try this page http://www.familysearch.org/ or http://www.rootsweb.com/ and best of luck in your quest to know if you have royal blood!
2. You start with your parents and go back. Work on one family line and if you run into a brickwall, set it aside and work on another. You need to get as much family information as possible from relatives, particuarly 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. Now for free. That is not necessarily so. There are websites. However, information in family trees on websites 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. That is poor family research. There are many errors in those famiy trees. Go to your library and check the genealogy section. See what resources they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com which has a lot of records and is obtaining more all the time. They have all the censuses through 1930. 1940 is not available to the public yet. Also check your local Mormon Church to see if the have a Family History Center. They have records on people all over the world and are very helpful. I have never had them come ringing my doorbell because I availed myself of their services. There are other things that costs, like ordering death certificates and applications for social security number which show the names of both parents, including mother's maiden names. But it is time consuming. Courthouse records, will,deed, tax, etc. Church records, before the 20th century a lot of the vital records were not being recorded by governing bodies, but churches have baptismal records, marriage records etc and these frequently have the names of parents. A lot of people have royal ancestors, some direct ancestors and some linear ancestors. It is not uncommon for the Anglo Saxon people of the American South. However, beware of coat of arms peddlers. Frequently there is more than one coat of arms with the same name. These companies that sell them , do so solely based on a surname and that is not valid. Some will do "research" and "link" you to a person granted one. To display one without documented proof that you are entitled to it is like putting up a picture of a famous person with your surname and claiming him as your ancestor whether you know he is or not. Also, the vague family history that goes with the coat of arms might not have anything to do with your family. Good Luck!
3. Most people with western European roots can find a link to royalty, if they go back far enough. Usually it is through a randy old king who mated with anyone who would hold still for 15 minutes. Tracing your tree is as much work as writing a term paper for a high school history class. It isn't hard, but it requires some effort and you can't do it in a day. That discourages most young people. Most can't imagine anyone doing research for fun, especially during summer vacation. If you aren't discouraged, read on. ============================ These questions come up every day: Where can I find my family tree for free? Does anyone know the {Surname} family? What are good sites for ancestors / genealogy? They are all about tracing your family tree on the Internet. I am not chastising you for failing to search the resolved questions first. I am explaining why this is the same answer I gave to many other people. The fourth time I typed my favorite beginner's links I realized I should save them in a text file and paste them in. This is a long, detailed and general answer. Because it is general, some of the links (or paragraphs) may not apply to your question. These may help get you started. They are large and free. Many of them, however, have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements. http://www.cyndislist.com/ (240,000+ links, all cross-indexed. If you want Welsh or Pennsylvania Dutch or Oregon or any other region, ethnic group or surname, chances are she has links for it.) http://www.familysearch.com (Mormon's mega-site. Click on "Search", to start with, or "Advanced Search") Roots Web http://www.rootsweb.com and in particular, http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi (Roots Web World Connect; 460,000,000+ entries, of varying quality) Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com/ (which has free pages and FEE pages - so watch out) and, in particular, http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx?ln= Surname meanings and origins http://www.tedpack.org/begingen.html My own site: "How to Begin" United States only: http://www.usgenweb.net/ (Subdivided into state sites, which all have county sites.) (The Canadians have Canadian Gen Web, by province) http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi (Social Security Death index - click on "Advanced". You may find your grandparents.) http://find.person.superpages.com/ (US Phone book, for looking up distant cousins) United Kingdom Only: http://www.genuki.org.uk/ (Biggest site for United Kingdom & Ireland) http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ (Free Birth, Marriage & Death Records) (If you posted your question in Genealogy, ignore this paragraph. If you posted it in the "Family" category, read on.) Tracing your family tree is called genealogy. YA has a category for genealogy, Home > Arts & Humanities > Genealogy There are hundreds of more links in the resolved answers there. In the USA, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it. Notes: You usually have to do some research. Sometimes you get lucky. Don't give up if your Great grandfather with your surname isn't there. Try all eight great-grandparents. You won't find living people on any of the sites except the phone book one. You won't find many people born after 1920 on any of the sites except the SSDI one. Genealogists hide the birth dates, birth places and other facts of living people to protect their privacy. You will have to find your grandparents' or great grandparents' birth dates and maiden names somewhere besides the Internet. The best way to get started is to ask your oldest living relatives about themselves and their parents. You may find great-grandpa's death date and burial place on the web, but only his children, your grandfather and grandaunt, can tell you what sort of man he was. The free sites are supported by advertising, just like TV. You can't watch the Super Bowl without seeing a beer commercial, and you can't surf for dead relatives without seeing an Ancestry advertisement. Many people complain about advertisements. Please don't. They bring you the "free" sites. There's no such thing as a free lunch. If you get serious you'll need a genealogy program. They are to family research what "Word" is to writing a novel. I like Roots Magic. Family Tree Maker is the market leader. Both cost around $29. The Mormons will let you download PAF for free. It is clunky, but it is free. You can sometimes find old versions of FTM or Family Origins (FO is the predecessor of RM) in bargin bins at CostCo. This is a general hint: Even though you go in through YA Canada, YA Australia, YA UK or YA USA, all of the questions go into one big "pot" and get read by everyone in the world who speaks English. Most of the people here are in the UK and USA, but you sometimes get questions and answers from people who worry about kangaroos eating their roses. So - put a nation, or, better yet, if you are asking about a specific individual, a nation and a state / province, in all of your questions. It will help people help you.
4. Reliable and (maybe almost nearly comparatively) free -- sure if there's actual royalty, and you can follow your ancestors back generation by generation to prove it. In such a case you'd be luckier than most to have published and documented genealogy to "find". As a side note, there was a 20th century type of scam that faked up genealogies for pay. If one had the $$ to pay out to scammer "genealogists" you could be "related" to about anyone Important that tickled yer fancy. That's why we do our own research, and document everything multiple times and never ever stop searching for more -- and "family histories" don't count -much- because so many have so many errors, but they do or may point you at where documents may be found. Learn all you can from your living ancestors about their parents and grandparents' full names, dates and places of births, marriages and deaths. Begin ordering the documents unless they have them and you can make copies. Now you're ready to start to begin to commence more research of the next generations back.
5. You've gotten some great answers here. I am just going to add a little to what the others have said. As for what your father has told you... ask him again what he knows and make notes. Ask him who else may have information. If finding royalty in your lineage is your main goal than fine, but I am going to tell you that the journey to find that royalty link *will* be every bit as rewarding as actually finding your king or queen. One of the first questions I would ask family members is if there has ever been any other family member that has done genealogy research in your family that they know of. If the answer is yes, do whatever you can to make contact with the person or family members of the person that may have the records they have collected. I like using Federal Censuses to trace family members. I also like obtaining obituaries, checking family Bibles and cemetery records. There is a wealth of information to be had from these sources. Some of my favorite websites are the US Gen Web Project website. Great place to start. Another is Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness. I also use Heritage Quest Online through my Local Library. All of these are free and the information you get usually has documentation to back up anything you find. Good Luck....