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My daughter wants to prepare a family tree. Where do we start?

My 12 year old daughter wants to prepare a family tree. I don't have much information to give her. Are there any FREE websites to get her started? Is that where we should start?

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1. Websites: rootsweb.com genealogytoday.com genealogyspot.com familysearch.org ellisisland.org USgenweb.com There are others, too. Ask the oldest member of your family for his/her memories. Write down all the relatives you know. Talk to them. Write or call them. Tape their answers.
2. you don't need a website. start by writing down your parents names and their parents' names and so on. then get her other parent to do the same thing. have her draw it all out on poster board. it's more fun that way anyway. if grandma and grandpa are still with us, ask them for more information. you can then take the earliest names you can come up with to your local library and have them help you in the genaeology section. have fun!
3. The other people are right about asking your parents and her father's parents about their parents and grandparents. The web sites that show maiden names and so forth hide details about people born after 1900, usually. Here is the answer I paste in, with links and tips. ====================================== 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. The fourth time I typed in my favorite beginner's links I realized I should save them in a text file and paste them in. This is long and general. Because it is general, not all the links will apply to every question or questioner. These may help get you started. They are large and free. http://www.cyndislist.com/ (240,000+ links, all cross-indexed. If you want Welch 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") http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi (460,000,000+ entries, of varying quality) 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. 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 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.
4. I concure on all the above, and just want to add something, that I learned looking up my family tree, be open to wrong spellings of the last names. When families first came to this country they either had no english or very little and were hard to understand, I found out that way because my ancestors came from what is now called Czech Republic, back then it was all Prussia. And some of those names were really were hard to understand and spell.
5. Dear Lissa, What a great project, especially to work on with your daughter--if she will let you! First, I would share with her any names, dates, and places you already know (or think you know.) It would be great for your daughter to interview any older relatives while you are still blessed to have them around, too. Even someone who's quite elderly and may be experiencing memory loss may still have important information they can easily access in their long term memory. Just be aware that no source is always going to be 100%. An example--for years, my mother in law believed the first name of a grandmother she never knew was Adelaide. I have found plenty of records for this grandmother, but her name was Adaline. If there are any family burial plots that are not too far away, go take pictures of the headstones and write down the names and dates. There are two free websites I highly recommend: http://www.familysearch.org and http://www.rootsweb.com Oddly enough, I've also found two search engines, Google and Yahoo, to be useful--in conjunction with familysearch.org and rootsweb.com, especially for relatives who lived before 1900 (and who don't have common names like "Sarah Jones.") When I use Google, I put the name of the ancestor in double quotes, and I put the year born if I know it. Or I might type, "genealogy" "Anna Birmingham" "born 1872" and where she was born, "St. Louis, Missouri." If Google comes up with nothing, then slowly drop some of your descriptors, such as "St. Louis..." or "born ..." You may also check your public library to see if they offer workshops on genealogy--many do. Some high schools offer continuing education classes that are not too expensive, also. If you are comfortable with this, you could also contact your local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka Mormons) because they can be a tremendous resource. Ancestry.com is very good, but without a paid subscription, there's little information you can access. I made do with the free websites for years and finally treated myself to a paid subscription--but there's tons you can get without using paid sources. I think most importantly is to help your daughter understand that genealogy is a long-time hobby--maybe even a life-long pursuit. I can trace some lines of my family back to the Middle Ages and before. But then there's a great grandmother whose father's name I have in a bible but I cannot verify his date or place of birth or who he married. So she should be prepared to hit some roadblocks. If you find you're hitting a lot of dead ends and she is getting frustrated, have her focus on more recent family history--jobs people had, places they lived, etc. Good luck and enjoy!