Heritage Album

A good website for a free family tree kind of thing?

Like who i was related to hunders of years ago? Cus' for all i know, i could be related to mary queen of scots? Hardly, but yano what i mean? lol

Public Comments

1. Before you launch into websites and get fed up because you can't find anything as it is not as easy as 'looking up your family tree' unless someone in your family has researched it already and uploaded it onto a website, which is very unlikely, do your groundwork first....... Have a look on this site, which will help you make a start in understanding the principles of researching your family history http://www.familytreefolk.co.uk/page_11010.html, then down load some family history sheets http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/genlh/forms/ and starting with yourself fill one in, you will find the sheets act as a check list and you may also find that you don't have all your own information and have to go searching in your home and asking your parents/other relations about it. Look at your own birth certificate, it gives you lots of information and don’t forget to write the registration number down on your form, as this tells you that it is primary document information, which is what you need for every piece of information you collect, once you start researching you will notice many people don’t have primary information numbers on their research...which shows you it is hearsay, copied from others and guesswork and there is no place in research for guesswork. One wrong name in your tree and it means you are not researching YOUR family. Fill a sheet in for your parents and any living relations you have, go and talk to them, ask to see any certificates they have and write all the information down they give you.....ask if they have any old photographs as this gets people talking and remembering other people in the family they had ‘forgotten’ about...write down any 'family stories' you are told....some may be correct, however many are not and you find once you start researching you can sometimes use these stories in your research for clues about where to look at records...........before you go near a website, this information give you a 'feel' for who your family is and makes it s much easier to find ancestors once you do start looking at websites ( they are not the place to 'start' your research). By using the family sheets it makes it very easy for other relations to see what you are doing and to understand the information you are collecting and they are more likely to help and give you more information....as most at first will say, “I don't know or I haven't got any idea about our ancestors". It is also nice to be able to give you relations a copy, as by doing this they will look at the information, talk about it and may remember more information for you or even find some paperwork that has been long forgotten. The very best sources of information is in your home and in the homes of your living relations with any documents, certificates and newspaper clippings that many people keep....you will get lots of information, start lots of interest in what you are doing and will get your family involved in helping you get started and are more likely to have correct information If you want to then input this information onto a computer database a free one is Brothers Keeper http://www.bkwin.net/version6.htm and you can even add photographs, print out family trees, lists or add notes/stories etc Good luck in your research
2. You could just be one of the few fortunates whose Family Tree has been published on a web site by someone who has done the research already. Just type in your surname, such as "Jones family of Bristol and Devon" and see what comes up, if anything. You may also find a researcher who is a very distant cousin, through the relevant Family History Society for the County in which your relatives lived. For example, I have ancestors from Bristol. If I type in Google "Bristol Family History Society", up will come the site and a section entitled "Members' Interests" - if I click on this I will find everyone researching my family names in Bristol. Plus details of how to contact them by phone, e-mail or snail mail. There are very few people who can trace their ancestors back beyond the 1500's since most of us have ancestors who were just ordinary folk and their births marriages and deaths are the only information recorded about them in the Church Registers. Otherwise, I'm afraid that you will have to do it the fun way as described already. You at the bottom of the Tree, Mum and Dad above you, 4 Grans and Grampses above, 8 Gt. grandparents above them, and so on. My grandchildren have both had to do Family Trees at school - is it part of the curriculum at yours?
3. Overall, your best bets are www.ancestry.com. Perhaps your local public library has a subscription to it and you can use the site free. The other good one is the Mormon's Family Centers. Use the white pages (paper or online) to find the one closest to you. I don't know if you are descended from Mary, Queen of Scots or any particular royalty, but you are descended from Royalty. See: “Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes” by Steve Olson (everyone is descended from Nefertiti, Confucius, Julius Caesar) or http://humphrysfamilytree.com/famous.descents.html http://genealogyofpresidents.blogspot.com/ http://rkwest.com/personal/mycousins/?_id=10 http://phoenicia.org/jefferson.html#Monticello