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Position:Home>Genealogy> Do you know any websites that let you find your family tree for free?


Question:i really want to know about my family tree and i found tons of websites but they cost like $30.
please help me!!!


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i really want to know about my family tree and i found tons of websites but they cost like $30.
please help me!!!

This is a text file I paste to questions like yours. People ask similar questions 3 - 14 times a day here. You get a long, detailed answer, I don't get finger cramps. It is long because there are over 400,000 free genealogy sites.

It is also long because researching your family tree is as hard as writing a term paper in a History class. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but you won't do it with five clicks. I could tell you everything I know in 30 minutes, but not 3. Most teens quit about here, when they find out they can't do it without some research.

If you didn't mention a country, we can't tell if you are in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia, even if you clicked on the appropriate flag. That is the most frustrating thing YA does. I'm in the USA and my links are for it. If you are not, please edit your question to add a country. Better yet, delete it and ask again, with a country this time, so it goes to the top of the stack. Genealogists from the UK answer posts here too. They are more experienced and more intelligent than I am. My jokes are better.

The really good stuff is in your parents' and grandparents' memories. No web site is going to tell you how your great grandparents decorated the Christmas tree with ornaments cut from tin foil during the depression, how Great Uncle Elmer wooed his wife with a banjo, or how Uncle John paid his way through college in the 1960's by smuggling herbs. Talk to your living relatives before it is too late.

You won't find living people on genealogy sites. Don't look for yourself or your parents.

So much for the warnings. Here are some links. These are large and free. Many of them have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements.

If you try the links and don't find anyone, go to
http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html
It repeats each link, but it has a whole paragraph of tips and instructions for each one.


http://www.cyndislist.com
Cyndi lists over 250,000 free sites.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/f...
The Mormon's mega-site.

http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.c...
RootsWeb World Connect. The links at the top are advertisements. They mislead beginners. Ignore them and scroll down.

http://www.rootsweb.com/
RootsWeb Home. This is the biggest free (genealogy) site in the world.

http://www.ancestry.com
Ancestry has some free data and some you have to pay for.

http://www.usgenweb.net
US Gen Web. Click on a state. Find a link that says "County".

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa...
Surname meanings and origins, one of Ancestry's free pages.

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-b...
Social Security Death Index. Click on "Advanced". Women are under their married names. They are under their maiden names in most other sites.

http://find.person.superpages.com/
USA Phone book, for looking up distant cousins.

http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/sear...
California Death Index, 1940 - 1997.

http://www.genforum.com
GenForum has surname, state and county boards.

http://boards.ancestry.com/
Ancestry has surname, state and county boards too. They are free.

Please read
http://www.tedpack.org/goodpost.html
before you post on either one. You may want to read the paragraphs about query boards on
http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html
before you search them.

http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/lis...
Roots Web Mailing List Archives.

You may want to read
http://www.tedpack.org/maillist.html
if genealogy mailing lists are new to you.

Off the Internet, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it.

My Mom uses http://www.ancestry.com/ but I don't know if it's free or not.

You need to check the link Ted gave you to his website.

There are a lot of websites that have family trees, but whether they are free or paid, information in the family trees must be viewed as clues as to where to get the documentation. They are user submitted, very seldom documented and even so often times poorly documented. Even if you see the same information by many different submitters, that is no absolute guarantee it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying. Also if they have Family Tree Maker and a subscription to Genealogy.Com, they can merge other people's files into their and then upload the merge files to Ancestry.Com, Rootsweb.Com, FamilySearch.org and even back to Genealogy.Com. Unfortunately Genealogy.Com encourages people to merge files like that.

Good family research requires good documentation.

Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org are two free sites.

Good Luck!