Ancestors...?

Question:how do i find out who my ancestors were, where they came from, what descent am i, etc..... without paying anything!
my parents have no idea, and its driving me crazy.
is there a site that can do this or something?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: how do i find out who my ancestors were, where they came from, what descent am i, etc..... without paying anything!
my parents have no idea, and its driving me crazy.
is there a site that can do this or something?

Some records are available at Ancestry.com, but to really access anything you have to pay. However, the records they have there will probably do you absolutely no good if you don't have any idea who your immediate ancestors were.

Without anything else, you need to ask your parents who their parents were. Collect all the information you can, including where they were born (county and country), when they were born, when they died. If your grandparents are still alive, try asking them the same thing. Who were their parents?

With this information in hand, if they lived in the United States, all counties keep on file all records going back to the 19th century. You can go to the Registrar of Deeds if you live close by to the place where they were born or died, and look at the microfilm (or computer files) for birth, marriage and death records.

If you live far away you can write them, or some counties have the records online. If they have the records online, then you can obtain unofficial copies for free, by simply downloading or printing them. If they do not have the records online you can usually obtain them for a small fee via the US postal service.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the census records are a good way to see where people were living. You can search by last name, or by location. The easiest place to do this is at ancestry.com because everything is cross indexed. Really useful, and well worth a month's subscription. The 1880 census is free at http://www.familysearch.org/. You'd need to know some idea of where your family was at the time to utilize that, or know their names at least.

There's also a free site that can be accessed at your public library that has the censuses, but it's not as well indexed as ancestry. Some libraries will let you access it from home. The database is called Heritage Quest.

If you're stumped, Genweb (http://www.usgenweb.com/) has county forums. And Genweb is free. It's all volunteers. You'd be surprised how many strangers will be willing to help you out, even if they're of no relation just because they love doing the geneaology thing.

I would suggest before you do that, that you interview people in your family and make notes of what they can tell you.

hope this works

I'm afraid that tracing ones family tree is not quite as easy as visiting a site on-line...or without paying for anything.
If you want an "instant" family tree, one someone else has already compiled, you might get lucky and come across one already posted on-line that may have something to do with your family. But even if one of your ancestors is listed on it, you would still have to personally confirm all the data to be sure that it is correct. And unfortunately many most of the trees posted on-line were compiled by folks who's primary goal was a bit of Internet fame. That is...to get their name posted on-line via an "instant" family tree. They skip all the actual research, paste together information collected from anyone and everyone and then claim it as their own work.
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When others do confirm the info (as all good family historians do) they are found out, of course, but many more won't bother to confirm the work. They will, however, pass the misinformation onto their family members. In all likihood, you will not be able to connect your family to someone else's family tree on-line just by knowing your grandparents' names. Most likely you would already know someone whose family tree is that closely related to yours. You or your parents would probably have heard that this relative is a genealogist or the family historian, and you could contact them directly. I got my start in genealogy through my grandfather's brother, family member's told me about his records and he was kind enough to share them with me, etc. before his death.
You will probably need to track your family back another generation or two at least to find a "instant" family tree on-line.
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To research your family tree properly, you need to begin by creating a file, aka "family group sheet", starting with one on yourself, then on each of your parents, then on your 4 grandparents, and so forth. You always work backwards. List full names, birth dates and birth places and when a person is deceased, their death date & death place. What information your relatives can't supply will have to be looked up. Many sites on-line do offer such records for free look-ups, but not all states or countries offer this yet. A properly researched family tree takes time. This is not something that, if done right, can be put together in a few hours, days, weeks or monthes.
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However...each fact you collect on one generation will help you to find information on the next.
Birth, marriage and death records (as well as land deeds and many other types of records) can be searched (for free if you do the look-ups yourself) at county courthouses & county & state historical societies.
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Rootsweb.com, familysearch.org and Genuki.com also offer many on-line resources for those wishing to research their family tree.
If you are impatient to have a honest family tree that goes back further then your parents' grandparents (surely they can give you some info on their own grandparents) then this is not a project for you.

Kaye has given you some great advice.

First of all start with your living family, particularly your senior members and get as much information as possible. Tape them if they will let you. It might turn out they are confused on some things, but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might turn out to be very significant.

Go to your public library and see what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can utilize. Ancestry.Com has lots of records and is getting more all the time. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet.
However, once you fiind the records, it is important to order a copy from the state, county, city or church. That will cost.

Just be wary of information found in family trees on any website, free or paid. The info is submitted by folks like you and me and mostly not documented or poorly documented. You might see different information on the same people from different submitters. Then you will see repeatedly the same information from different submitters without any documentation. A lot of people copy without verifying. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation not as absolute fact.

A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church has records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee. Just call your nearest Mormon Church and find out if they have a FHC and their hours for the general public. No admission fee is required.

I have never had them to try and convert me or have they sent their missionaries by to ring my doorbell. I haven't heard that they have done so to anyone else either.

Original vital records are important, birth, marriages and deaths. Now, in the U.S each state has its own laws has to who and when a person can obtain these records. InTexas if you were not immediate family,you had to wait until 50 years after a person was born to get a copy of their birth certificate. Now, it is 75 years. Due to identity theft states are clamping down. The funny thing is that the entire State of Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics Birth and Death Index from 1903 to 2000 is online atAncestry.Com giving the birth person's full name and date of birth and the names of both parents, including mother's maiden name.

It wasn't until the first quarter of the 20th century that governing bodies(state,county and city) in most states started recording vital information. They didn't all start at the same time and many people who was born at home or died at home did not get recorded. Before the records were made, you need to check with church records on baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriages and Deaths.

Good Luck!

There's great advice above. Usually trees that are posted are from distant relatives who have your family wrong. But go to rootsweb.com and put in your gr parents names and see what comes up. Probably only their SS death index, or listings of other people with similar names. And if your grandparents are part of an online tree - good chance that some or all of it is wrong.

See if your parents have their parents' obits and perhaps their grandparents'. Ask to see old photos, their baby books, and if they remember if anyone in the family was researching the family history - perhaps a relative has done part of the work already (and perhaps did it wrong like my uncle or right for another second cousin from another part of my family).

Start with your parents and work back. Go to the library and check out a book on Genealogy maybe one by Emily Croom.

Or you could get a DNA test, and get a vague idea, for 80 bucks or so. But finding out what ship your ancestor came here on is worth the work.

http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/
I usually type out a long reply, but am tired this a.m.
No, not totally free. Educating yourself on how to do it, can be free.