What is the best way to go when wanting to look up family ancestry?

Question

My aunt has been going through our family ancestry for quite a while but I am unable to get with her to look at the information she has. I am wanting to do this myself for a little project and to find out about my family history. What is the best way to go? I don't want to have to spend any money, though. Serious answers please. Thank you.

Answer 1

You didn't say why you were unable to get with her, nor how solid her research is, and you didn't define "quite a while".



Worst scenario, she has been copying family trees that looked reasonable from Ancestry.com, Roots Web World Connect and the Mormons, and never thought to use the "Problem List" feature in her genealogy program to highlight women giving birth at age 7 and 70, men marrying after they died, and people dying before they were born. She also didn't realize that two men named William Miller and living in Madison County might not be brothers.



Best scenario, she has spent 40 years in libraries and court houses, wearing those special white cotton gloves, and has three independent sources for each fact.



The best way for you, if possible, is for her to send you a GEDCOM as an e-mail attachment, and for you to verify all of her individuals. If her data is all on paper, because she doesn't use a computer, you'd either have to offer to pay her to copy and mail it to you, or be doomed to re-inventing the wheel, so to speak; duplicating her research. It is a LOT easier to confirm that, for instance, Ralph and Matilda Kablonski, your 2nd great grandparents, were indeed living in ED 47 in Beloit for the 1880 census than to have to search for them across the entire country.



You'd need a genealogy program. The only free one with a user base big enough to matter is PAF, from the Mormons. You can get Roots Magic for $29.



Saying you want to do family history but don't want to spend any money is like trying to fish with a bent safety pin and a piece of string; it is physically possible, but you can have a lot more fun, and do a better job, if you spend a little. You don't need a $3,000 custom-made split bamboo fly rod; a $29 spinning outfit from Wal*Mart would do it.



There are over 400,000 free sites devoted to genealogy. Many libraries and familysearch centers have access to Ancestry.com and one newspaper archive or the other.



The answers to the resolved questions in this category are full of links and tips here, mostly. Depending on how old they are, some just say

"There are over 10,000 resolved questions in this category with the word 'free' in them..."

"There are over 8,000 resolved questions in this category with the word 'free' in them..."

"There are over 6,000 resolved questions in this category with the word 'free' in them..."

Answer 2

If your Aunt has her research on computer ( and most serious researchers do theses days). She could sent you what is called a GED COM of her work. A GEN COM is a computer file that can be read by any Genealogy program and is used to transport records between researchers.



Not wanting to spend money may be a real problem, because although many of the records used to document genealogy are "public records" they are not free, or at least you cannot obtain copies free.

You might try gathering information from your parents and Grandparents and then researching one generation at a time documenting (Vital Statistics - birth, marriage, death records are what is considered Vital Statistics or Vital Records, but probate, and other court records as well as land, immigration and military records are also used to document genealogy.)



Suggest that you check out Familysearch.org. It is free; has a tutorial and attached to the largest Genealogical library in the world.

Answer 3

Cortney, if she has done this the past 20 years or so chances are she has done real research. However as Ted was indicating that is a lot different than people who copy from online family trees which all too often are full of errors. There are lots of people who think they are doing research when they go into a genealogy website and find some of their family in their subscriber submitted family trees and they start copying. Trees online should always be verified with records. Family trees online are not records. So, if anybody has told you that they have found their family tree online, please tell that person unless they have verified it with documents/records they don't know what they have found is accurate or not. Even if you see the absolute same information on the same people from many different subscribers that doesn't mean it is correct as too many damfules copy without verifying. Actually if you found any of your family in an online tree and you see wrong information those that run the website will tell you that is between you and the other subscriber. They don't get involved. It would be too costly for them to hire people to verify all the information their subscribers submit. This is true of fee websites like Ancestry.Com and free website.



You start with yourself and work back one generation at a time. Find out who has any old family bibles old family photos, birth marriage and death certificates on your ancestors. Depending on the religious faith, baptismal, confirmation and marriage records from their church can be just as helpful if not more so than civil records. Interview your senior family members and tape them if they will let you. Chances are they will get into telling stories of days gone by you wouldn't write down but in those stories frequently are clues that wil help you break through a brick wall. If you go back periodically and listen to the tapes again while doing research you very likely will hear things you didn't hear the first time around.



Go to a Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. If you find anything in their database you would like to view and print off a copy of the original document they can order microfilm for you to view for a small fee. They have the microfilm viewers at the Family History Centers. I have never had them to try and convert me nor have I heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their resources. Just use to following link to find the nearest Mormon FHC.



https://familysearch.org/locations



Find out what all your public library has.



After you have done some ground work then use the internet as a tool. There are 2 websites I like, Ancestry.Com which many public libraries have a subscription to you can use for free and FamilySearch.org which is entirely free. They both have lots of records. Still be wary of what you see in their family trees without verifying with records. When I go into Ancestry.Com after I click on Search at the top on the left then on the next page I click on Old Search which is in very small fonts on the right toward the top. I feel the format of their Old Search is far superior to their New Search and to the format of FamilySearch.org.



Genealogy websites are not a good place to find living family as that can be an invasion of privacy and can lead to identity theft.

Answer 4

Build a good foundation for conducting genealogical research. Follow a systematic process:

1. Interview your living relatives and family friends. But don't take what they say about others as gospel truth. Stories get mixed up.

2. Examine your documents and those of relatives that will allow it.

3. Prepare for research by learning about basic genealogy, genealogy specific to your known ancestors. (What documents would exist for where and when they lived?)

4. Organize your data. Free software is available.

5. Research one document at time for one generation at a time, one ancestor at a time. Record only facts found in the documents.



A few hints for making good use of resources: Because of privacy laws and etiquette standards, you'll want to get back 70-100 years before hopping on the internet or trying to order records. AVOID user-submitted or prepared trees/pedigrees except where they have sources cited, and go to the sources. Seeing the same information multiple times in trees does not mean it's more accurate, just that it got copies a lot. Indexes and transcriptions are better than trees but still likely to have more errors. Use these to get you to the original source. Try to find and work with original documents or images as exclusively as possible. Understanding how each type of record was collected and prepared and what that means is an invaluable tool for assessing the information. Not everything is online and/or free, but you can get a great running start for free. Once you get going you'll find there's plenty to work on.

For step 3 I like to recomend getting involved in family history fairs, or attending lectures. You might find them through your local Family History Center, public library or community center.



Some helpful starting places:

http://www.cyndislist.com/ (START with How To and Genealogical Standards and Guidelines, they also have guides and links for specific places)

https://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.censusfinder.com/

http://www.findagrave.com/

http://www.deathindexes.com/

Here -- Many folks that hang out over in the Genealogy section have resources or knowledge specific to certain documents, times, places, and groups.

Google -- Look for local libraries, archives, agencies, and GenWebs, or websites similar to above for your ancestor's country.

Offline -- Libraries, archives, museums, church records, genealogical societies, Family History Centers (operated by the Mormons), etc. BIG note: FHCs and some libraries have FREE access to some of the paid subscription sites like Ancestry.com and librarians or volunteers that are happy to help.

Answer 5

You really should do it yourself, with help from you aunt, if she wants to give it to you. The name of the game is research. If she has it on her computer, she can probably send it to you via email, or the postal system. Still, you need to do it yourself. Lots of hints and tips and links here, if you want to look for them.