Heritage Album - How can i trace my ancestors ?

How can i trace my ancestors ?

I want to find out about where i come from but all the websites i hae been on are one where you put a family tree in yourself i really just want to find out who my family is for free!

Public Comments

I think there are sites like genes reunited that can help you..
Try www.rootschat.com If you have a starting point, people on the site will happily perform lookups for you can hopefully help you build your tree for free. Like the person above said, www.genesreunited.co.uk is also great for reconnecting with distant relatives.
If you are in UK try your local council, birth marriage and death dept, I'm not sure if they charge for info, Genes Reunited, it's not too expensive and you can get a mine of info from them. Check with members of your own family first off, believe it or not many are also a mine of information.
genes reunited is a good place to start, fill in all you can and it will come up with matches to help fill in the blanks
I presume that some, at least, of your ancestors lived in the area where you reside right now. If so, you could do much worse than to contact the nearest Mormon Church [Church of Latter Day Saints]. Because the Mormons believe that dead people can be baptized [citing 1 Cor. 15:29, if you care] they keep excellent genealogical records and will provide reasonable help to persons seeking information. The downside to contacting the Mormons is that you will probably be visited later by two earnest young Mormon missionaries, who will want to tell you all about Joseph Smith. While mildly persistent, they are usually polite and well-mannered, and they will not generally overstay their welcome. If they come at dinnertime–they don't as a rule–don't feed them, or you will see them many, many more times. They are often living away from home for the first time, and they don't eat properly.
This is the All English Speaking Board. People on it are from the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and NEw Zealand. Genes Reunited is U.K. I am going to answer like you are in the U.S. First of all, start with your living family members. Get as much information from them as possible. Talk with your senior family members. Tape them if they will let you. It might turn out they are confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might be very important. Go to your public library and see what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can use. Ancestry.Com has lots of records. They have all the censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet. Now be very careful about taking as fact information in family trees on any website, free or paid. They are submitted by folks like you and me. Most of it is not documented. You might see different information on the same person from different submitters. Then you will see repeatedly the same information on the same person from different submitters without documentation. That unfortunately means a lot of people are copying without verifying. There are errors in family trees on the internet. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation. Call your nearest Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church and find out if they have a Family History Center. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. The Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view for a nominal fee. Also they don't bring up their religion. I have used their resources and have never had any of their missionaries to come by and ring my doorbell. Don't expect to BINGO and find everything on the internet. I believe the word is out that people have found their family tree for free on the internet. These are probably the foolish people who copy without verifying. Not everyone's tree is on the internet. You might find some family lines but it must be verified. While at your library and the Family History Center, you will probably have a great opportunity to talk with people who can give you some great tips and advice.
I am going to answer as if you are in the UK. You could try http://www.familysearch.org/ this the Mormon run site it's excellent and completely free. This next link is a directory of genealogy sites, http://www.cyndislist.com/ . Teddy gave some misleading information, in the UK the libraries and the Archives are run by the council for each city or town. If you want to obtain a certificate for a life event, the cost is £5:50 for the short one and £7:00 for the full version. These can be purchased at the registry office relevant to the registration of the life event, they are never free and the council doesn't keep this information. You can also buy the certificates from the GRO (General Register Office.) http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/ prices vary from here as you will need the Volume and Page number to order the certificate, to get these you need to search on one of the major genealogy sites for the UK. Prices start from £8:50 rising up to about £23:50 depending on whether you have submitted Volume and Page number. You can phone the order through and you should receive the order 5-7 days later. Civil registration in the UK began on 1st July 1837, and anything before that you will most likely find in the church records for the place where the person lived.
YOU CANNOT DO THE FAMILY TREE BY TYPING YOUR NAME IN AND PRESSING A BUTTON. You start by talking to family Parents and Grandparents Aunts, Uncles and Cousins, Then gather any family papers Certificate of birth's Death's Baptisms and Marriages and any military paper work, a family bible would be wonderful, Draw out a rough tree just to help you visualise your tree, it will change, Then you move back slowly generation at a time, if UK based then once you hit 1901 you can use census returns all the way back to 1841. You can subscribe to Ancestry.com ( or .co.UK) and the ones listed below which are free to use. Get going good luck and good hunting
Hi Kitty Get a large sheet of paper and write your name at the bottom, under that your date of birth and where born. Draw a line up to this sign = To the left, put your Dad's name, his d.o.b. and where born To the right, your Mum, her d.o.b. and where born. Do the same again, line up from Dad to his parents, and Mum up to hers. Above the equals sign write in the place each couple was married and above that, the date. If any of them have died, put in the dates and place of death and if you know there is a gravestone. Now, take that around any living Aunts and Uncles and get them to fill in any gaps. Take a notebook and write down any information they can give you about any members of the family and gossip. Once you have some background info, then you can start on the written records. Make copies of all Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates and keep in punched pockets in a folder. Sign up for Genes reunited and submit what tree you now have. Registration started in 1837 (but it wasn't compulsory then) so you can buy Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates possibly back that far. Every County has a Family History Society and members submit their interests - when you know where your family came from originally, you may find that someone has already done your tree! Best of luck - I did mine before there were accessible Family History records on line.
Ancestry.com is absolutely free and a great website.It is very easy to use(I'm 13 and I know how to work it)try it out,you won't regret it.Through this program I found out that I'm related to Jesse James(famous bank robber)and Elizabeth Hubbard(one of the accusers of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692)Once again it is a great program!!
The best way to begin is to gather all the information that you have and talk to your oldest relations for stories and information. I did a lot of my early research at my local LDS (Mormon) Family History Centre, which luckily for me was a stones throw from my house. They have a lot of records you can search and also an online site www.familysearch.org. They have something named the IGI which you can search for free, although the results always need double checking. Another web site you can search for free ishttp://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl also if anyone came from Norfolk http://www.freereg.org.uk/parishes/nfk/frontpage.shtml and http://www.freecen.org.uk/ If you find your family in a certain area it might be an idea to volunteer as a transcriber for that are on freecen and get the info online even quicker. good luck