Trying to find out my family history without knowing much about my family?

Question:what are places and sites i can chack to find out my family history without paying??

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: what are places and sites i can chack to find out my family history without paying??

I'd like to be more specific to help you. Can you please provide the following:

1. Dad born in US or Holland and what year, city, state?
2. Gpa immigrated what year if available?
3. Last name in question?
4. Do you have a copy of Dad's birth cert, and is it the new name?
5. Are there older siblings of your Dad's who may have had original surname?
6. Did your Gpa marry your Gma in the US, where, what city, church? Do you have that record, cert, license?
7. Does your Gpa have any known relationships like brothers or sisters anyone knows of?
8. Is Gpa alive, if not, do you have obituary? Have you been to his grave site?
9. IN 1930 and 1920 and 1910 were census records, if Gpa was living in US you could try to find him with this new surname to see if he was using it at that time. See if you can pin point a city or address he lived at in this time frame. Go to library and use Ancestry for free for census search.
10. Can you narrow down year of immigration, no earlier than, no later than? Like if you know he married his wife in America in 1945, then this might help a bit?
11. Is there a military service for your Gpa?

First of all, you need to question your parents, grandparents, or anyone who can give you information before they pass away and take the information with them. The next thing to do is to send off for your parents birth certificates, marriage license, and death certificates, and do the same for your grandparents. You need to go through ALL the census. They usually start at 1790-1930. There are great sites on line such as ancestry.com, genforum.com, and a lot of others.

My husband searched to no avail on line and then tried the library. Then, his sister, who works in a bindery, called him and said she just worked on a repair of a book and their dad's picture was in the back. It was a family history book. The last name was spelled differently than it is now. Then, my hubby found lots of stuff on line. I don't the web site. I will tell him of your question and see if he'll pass on any information he may have for you. (Give him about 2 hours, he's not home yet.)

*smile*
Doing your family history MEANS that you don't have all the answers (names/dates/places), which is why you hope to do research to find that info. While you would START by interviewing family, remember also that they don't always have it either. Memories can help, but once they 'run out', you turn to historical records and documents. WHAT those records are and WHERE to find them, is exactly the challenge of the game.
http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/
Here is one tutorial on getting going. I can't tell you to look at the social security death index to find grandpa.. because he'll only be there if he was in the US (we have people from all over on this board).
Another site I suggest is www.cyndislist.com which is an encyclopedia of research sources. You can come back to this often (just browsing gives you some idea of all the sites out there).
One other thing to keep in mind is that you should not expect to find records of living persons on the internet. It is risky and tacky, and highly discouraged. Even illegal in some cases. That is where you USE the 'home' info to build on, until you reach where ancestors are deceased. ALWAYS ALWAYS work from 'now' backwards, without trying to jump to the "first" Smith or "all" <fill in the name>. Where your surname "originated" is also a huge error, since it is not the same as where YOUR ancestors might have come from.
Hang out here (you can also browse the completed questions), and if something confuses you, ask.
SOME of the fee places are worth the money. Try reading the tutorials before you make that choice.
edit-
G's mom should drop by- she has good background on Dutch records.

Well, the first thing you need to do is to get as much as possible from living family, particuarly your senior members. Tape them if they will let you. It might be they are confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might turn out to be very significant. See if anyone has any old family bibles,

Go to your public library and check out the genealogy section. Become familiar with what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can use. 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. They have U. S. censuses also.

Just don't take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on any website. The information is user submitted and mostly not documented or poorly documentd. Even when you see the same information repeatedly by many different submitters that is no guarantee it is correct.
A lot of people copy without veryfing. Use the information as CLUES as to where to get the documentation.

Also if a person has Family Tree Maker, they can merge other people's files into their file and upload their merged file into Ancestry.Com, Rootsweb, FamilySearch.org, Genealogy.Com. Unforutnately Genealogy.Com actually encourages people to do that as a result many people have a lot of doubtful information in their trees.

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 or if not the nearest church that does have one and then find out their hours for the general public.

I have never had them try and convert me because I used their resources or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell.
I haven't heard of them doing that to anyone else either. They are very nice and helpful.

You will need vital records, births, marriages, deaths. Also wills, deeds etc. are good documentation. Now in the U.S. each state has its own laws as to who and when a person can obtain birth and death records. Actually it wasn't until the first quarter of the 20th century that governing bodies (states,counties,city) in states started recording vital birth and death. Even after they did a lot of people who were born at home or died at home did not get recorded. Most of these records have parent information including mother's maiden name. The Death Certificate and the applications for a social security number that I have seen have not only both parents' names including mother's maiden name but their places of birth.

If a person was on Social Security at time of death and drawing off their OWN social security number, you will probably find them on the Social Security Death Index. Social Security began January 1, 1935 and most say they only started putting people on the index for deaths beginning in 1960. However, I have found an uncle who was died in 1957 and a first cousin once removed that died in 1959 on the SSDI. Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org are 2 free sites that have the SSDI.

Now, people who get Medicaid have to have a social security number and I have found two elderly people who had to get Medicaid, one went in a nursing home, and they are both on the SSDI. Neither of them ever put into SS or drew SS. However, the dates of death on both are wrong.

Before then you need Church records, Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage and Death records. Many faiths will have the parent information on these records including mother's maiden name.

Good Luck!

Go to your local library and get a genealogy book to read to give you a better idea of what's available. For your grandfather - the records you'll want will be his naturalization papers & marriage info.

The timeframe he arrived here and got married will change the info recorded. More info the further after 1880.

If he got married in the US, start with the county they got married for the marriage license, certificate, and possibly marriage returns, the local paper (esp where Grandma was) for an announcement (possible there isn't one) and inquire at the church if they got married at one - usually the Church had parents names even if the county didn't.

Your library probably has access to Ancestry Library Edition and you can look there for censuses and the like. Legwork is what will get the marriage info. A letter should get the naturalization - but you might have to pay a fee depending on when/if he filed.

Also check and see if your father or any of his siblings have a baby book or Bible that was gifted to them. Usually parents and grandparents are recorded there and might give the answer for free.