Is there a free website to check your ancestry or make a family tree?

Question

Is there a free website to check your ancestry or make a family tree?

Answer 1

In genealogy, we document everything. If you do not document your work properly, you have no way to know if you are researching the right ancestor(s). Too many budding genealogist get frustrated and quit because they copied something from someone else’s tree that was improperly documented or not documented at all and later learned that they were researching the wrong ancestor. There is an excellent tutorial for those who are new to family research at http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ; I recommend it to everyone starting out in genealogy. After you complete the tutorial, the following is a basic plan and generally only requires the tools that you already have like your computer and Internet service provider.



The person you know about is you, so, start with your birth certificate, which has your parents, and then ask your parents for copies of their birth certificates, which will have your grandparents on them. Then if you grandparents are living, continue the process. At some point, you will experience a problem depending on when you grandparents or great grandparents were born, in that; birth certificates did not exist before the early 1900s. Therefore, you need to get back to 1930 with personal records because those types of records are not available to the public for 50 to 100 years depending on the jurisdiction in which they are held.



By copying or ordering these documents, you have gone to relatively little expense and you have three generations plus yourself and you have it documented with primary documents. That will give you 2 parents, 4 grandparents, and 8 great grandparents names to start researching. Now, you can use death certificates, marriage records, census records, immigration records, church records, court records and many other sources to research your ancestry. Your public libraries will most likely have both Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest.com free for anyone to use while at the library and with a library card you should be able to use Heritage Quest at home.



Another free online resource is the LDS/Mormon site, which has many free online records at http://www.familysearch.org/ and original documents on their pilot site at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=0 . In addition to their online records, they have the Family History Centers where you can go for help with research and look at microfilm and microfiche and they only charge if they have to order something specifically for you or you need photocopies. Find a location near you on their website and call to check hours of operation. http://www.familysearch.org/ .



Additionally, USGenWeb is another free online resource at http://www.usgenweb.org/ . This sprawling all-volunteer site is packed with how-to tips, queries and records for every state and most counties within those states. Special projects usgenweb.org/projects cover subjects such as censuses, tombstones and family group sheets. Then, there is Rootsweb at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ a free site hosted by Ancestry.com where you can search for surnames, post queries on the message boards and subscribe to surname mailing list so that you know what is being posted and connect to researchers with common interest.



Also, be sure to check each state that you need information from as many have their own projects, for example, the state of Missouri has a great website that has many free source documents online at http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/ and South Carolina has many free wills and other court documents at http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinear…



And, do not forget to check Cyndi’s List at http://www.cyndislist.com/ and ProGenealogist top 100 genealogist websites at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/articl…

both of these sites have many links for both free and fee based sites but most of the fee based sites are marked with a $.

Answer 2

The two are different. Most of us build our family trees - which means record our research - on our PCs. You can download Legacy or PAF for free



http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/

http://www.familysearch.org/ENG/Home/Welcome/simplePAFRegistration.asp



You can buy Roots Magic for $29.



All three - plus the other hundred - are to genealogy what "Word" is to writing a novel; tools, not results.





There are 400,000 free sites. Which one is best depends on were you live. You can't "check" your ancestry. You have to get to people living in 1930 with off-line resources, like your grandparents' memories, obituaries, birth, death and marriage records, to start making use of most of the data that is on the web.



If your great-aunt uploaded 40 years of research to the Web, in one of several places, then you can indeed "check" your ancestry, but usually people that lucky know where to go. Those lucky ones sometimes show all of their friends, who get the idea that the Internet is magic and that the Genealogy Fairy has researched everyone in the USA, Canada, the UK and most of the Australians, then uploaded it.



If you use advanced search to search the resolved questions - in this category only - for the word "free", and read a dozen questions just like yours, you will find



1) No one reads the resolved questions, or they wouldn't keep asking the same question 3 - 7 times a day



2) The top 10 here all have text files they patiently paste, over and over, full of links and tips. If you read one from each of us you'll be off to a wonderful start.



Figure 100 - 300 hours of research to get back to 1850 or dead ends on each of your lines, spread out over as many nights and weekends as you want.

Answer 3

I believe Ancestry.Com is the best for the amount of records they have online It isn't free but your public library might have a subscription to it you can use for free. . Still you must distinguish between the records they have obtained and their subscriber submitted family trees.

Information in family trees on any website, free or fee, must be viewed with great caution. They are submitted by folks like you and me. Believe me there are errors. Frequently you will see different information on the same people from different subscribers. Then you will see the absolute same info on the same people from different subscribers but that doesn't mean for one moment the information is correct. Too many people copy without verifying. Understand good genealogy means good documentation whether online or in a published book and someone else's URL is not good documentation. Be particularly careful if you find a tree that, for example, has 100,000 names. No doubt people with those trees are more interested in seeing how many names they can accumulate rather than have a good verifiable family tree. The information in online family trees can be useful as clues only as to where to get the documentation. If you find Ancestry.Com too pricey, your public library might have a subscription to it you can use for free.



No way are all records online but the ones you find will save you time and money.



A good source is 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. Their FHCs can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee of about $3. I have never had them to try and convert me or have I heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their resources. Actually a lot of their volunteers are not Mormon. Just visit their free website, FamilySearch.org, to get the hours for the general public to the nearest Mormon FHC.



If you haven't done so you should get as much information from living family as possible. Find out if any family has any old family bibles. Ask to see and make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates. Depending on the religious faith,baptismal, first communion, confirmation and marriage certificates from their church can be just as valuable.



Here is a link with links to many other websites, some free and some fee. Some I think are very helpful. The ones that only have family trees I wouldn't bother with.



http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2008.htm



If you put your tree on Ancestry.Com they will give you hints to records and people from others' family trees.

Make sure the record they have is really the right person but be particularly careful if they give you information from others' family trees. Don't be adding spouses, children etc to someone just because someone else has them in their family tree. The internet has been a big boost in genealogy but errors have multipled 100 fold because people take it for granted that what someone else has in their family tree is correct. There is no way any of the websites can verify all the information in family trees. You can make up a fictitious family tree and it willl be accepted by any of the genealogy websites. Ancestry.Com has 4 family tree programs. Be particularly suspicious if the hint comes from the One World Tree Program which is absolutely nothing but trash.

Answer 4

And Ancestry offers free 14-day trials; also, many libraries have access to it and/or other genealogy sites. But, there are so many other sources, some free, some not:

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc. Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...



http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...



www dot usgenweb dot com/



www dot census dot gov/



http://www.rootsweb.com/



www dot ukgenweb dot com/



www dot archives dot gov/



http://www.familysearch.org/



http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...



http://www.cyndislist.com/



www dot geni dot com/



Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.



Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.



Good luck and have fun!



Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:



www dot associatedcontent dot com/article...



Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.

I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.

Answer 5

There is not any such internet site that's unfastened, correct, and is aware of you and your entire ancestry for a few motives: Privacy legislation and genealogical etiquette recommend hinder sharing a few know-how. Typically dwelling men and women are covered for 70-one hundred years. This is to hinder identification fraud and defend privateness. It might require a Big Brother centralized database the retail outlets all individual know-how approximately contributors AND hyperlinks the ones contributors to others. None such exists and suggesting one might reason an uproar. Imagine going to the DMV for a drivers license or difference to a married identify. They ask you to deliver your beginning certificates, social safety card, and perhaps files proving each the ancient and new identify. If a Big Brother database existed this would not be integral. Each situation might entry your whole know-how in a single spot. One authority does not have entry to the opposite authority's know-how. Now unfold this everywhere the arena. Some areas do not obstacle the identical forms of files or list the identical forms of know-how. Genealogy could be very time, situation, and person targeted. Documents and know-how to be had approximately me (feminine, born within the later bits of the 20 th century, lived in California such a lot my existence, administrative and scholarly paintings historical past, possess estate) will probably be rather distinctive than files approximately my male English ancestor born within the seventeenth century that was once a coal miner, my feminine ancestor that traveled to California via wagon coach within the mid-nineteenth century, or an ancestor born in India. Details come from particular resources like censuses, newspapers, army files, estate files, courtroom files, regional histories, books, and so on. Since the variety, first-rate, and supply of know-how that maybe to be had varies, simply setting up a database might be a frightening chore, permit by myself chasing down the know-how and filling within the fields. Compiling one's possess ancestry takes knowledge, time, hard work, cash, attempt, power (electrical energy, journey, lighting fixtures, computer systems), and garage ability. It's probably not anybody might do that without cost for every person. That mentioned, the GOOD NEWS is that there are tens of enormous quantities of web sites valuable to genealogists that do retailer files, portraits, transcriptions and indexes searchable via identify. These will probably be such a lot valuable if you understand your ancestry again to a deceased ancestor or person who lived 70-one hundred years in the past. Some are unfastened. Some aren't. Some are extra intuitive than others. There also are others in which customers can publish and proportion their study in which you could discover a usual ancestor indexed. User-submitted timber generally is a useful instrument, however they're notoriously mis-used. The consumer would possibly or won't have honestly performed the researched or validated their data. Then the know-how (proper or unsuitable) will get copied and pasted in the course of others paintings. I do not recommend utilising those besides as clues to find exact supply files.

Answer 6

Ancestry.com is a place where you can set up your family tree as far back as possible. They also give you hints about it, but without paying you cannot see the entire hint. It does help you build it up. Also on Ancestry you can search and find some things for free.