Geneolagy...?

Question:

Geneolagy...?

What is the best website to go to to find your genealogy.. umm, nowhere where i have to sign up please!!!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: It's unlikely that your specific family history will be online someplace. You'll need to do a little digging.

First and foremost, start with the people who are living. Find out what they know. Talk with aunts and uncles, cousins, and so on - anybody who is part of your family. Get dates, locations, names, memories, stories - it's ALL important. Find out what they remember about people who are no longer living, too. Put all your information into a database that will help you organize it. The Mormon church offers a free one, "Personal Ancestral File," that you can download from their web site (they won't bug you in terms of their religion). Once you have included as much as you can from people who are living, start to search online sites, records, etc., for matching people and events. Computers have revolutionized genealogy in the last two decades, and there are ENORMOUS amounts of data available, as well as innumerable personal genealogical web sites.

Good luck in your search!

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/sto...

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin...
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default....
http://www.ancestry.com http://www.cyndislist.com/beginner.htm...
My favorite for how to start. If you want your family history like fast food... you might consider hiring someone to do the research. Actual research is more like home cooking- maybe even growing your own vegetables. It takes time, but that is because its a process/ hobby/ passion.
You MIGHT find your gr grandparents online. You might find that no one has copied the tombstones in an old abandoned cemetery that you have to find yourself.
Trust this from experience... you get a lot more pride from finding it yourself (when others think it is not available). Cyndi's list has a lot.

Now don't expect to find your family tree on any website. You might find some of your family lines in some of the trees submitted, but don't take as fact everything you see in those trees.

Family Trees on the internet are submitted by folks like you and me. A lot of the information is not documented. You frequently will see different information on the same person. Then you will see the same information over and over by different submitters on the same person without documentation. This, unfortunately, means foolish people are copying without verifying.

The information is good to use as clues as to where to obtain the documentation.

If you haven't already, you should talk with living family members and get as much information from them as possible, particularly your senior member. Tape them if they will let you. It might turn out they are confused on some things. However, what might seem to be insignicant ramblings and story telling might turn out to be very important. Us old folks like to talk about old timey.

Go to your public library and check out what they have in genealogy. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can utilize. Ancestry.Com has lots of records. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet.

Now, my answer is assuming you are in the U. S. This is the All English Speaking Board and people on this board are from U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. So you might be given other information from people in the other four countries.

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 and their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view for a nominal cost.

They are very nice and helpful. They will not bring up their religion and they won't send their missionaries by to ring your doorbell.

Going to your library and Family History Center will enable you to talk with people who can give you good tips and advice. Everyone who has worked on family history has learned things that can help others.

Good Luck! The best way is simply to start with your own family. If you want to do it on the computer, you can download PAF (Personal Ancestral File), which is free genealogy software at http://www.familysearch.org under Order/Download Products. I imagine you can pick it up pretty quick because it is very user-friendly. Then talk to your parents (and grandparents if still alive) and get as much information as you can from them including names, dates, and places.

Here are a few online resources for you to use:

http://www.familysearch.org - Probably the best free online resource, does not require registration.

http://www.ancestry.com is one of the best but has a hefty subscription fee (for most of its databases), requires registration.

Also, you can check the surname message boards for your surname at:

http://genforum.genealogy.com
http://boards.ancestry.com

For links to helpful sites, you will want to take a look at:

http://www.cyndislist.com

And finally for a lot of different resources:

http://www.rootsweb.com

For grave records:

http://www.findagrave.com

It won't all be free but it's worth it.

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Family tree websites at http://www.familyinhistory.com