How to find my ancestors online for free?

Question:anyone have any siess please tell!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: anyone have any siess please tell!

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.

ancestry.com
You can be a guest for 14 days, free.
Remember to print any info you find, each time you visit the site, so that you can refer to it later.
Be aware that some of the info may not be correct.
Good hunting!!

Thank, for the lists, Ted Pack! Sent it to myself and a couple of friends, who thank you also.

First of all, not everyone's family is on line.
You might find some of your family but you must be careful about taking as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is submitted by folks like you and me and mostly not documented or poorly documented. Even when you see the same info repeatedly by many different people, that is no guarantee it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying. Also if they have Family Tree Maker and a subscripton to Genealogy.Com, for instance, they can merge other people's trees into theirs and then upload the merged tree into various websites. That means those people are just accumulating names for their data base and really don't have a reliable family tree.\

The first thing you should do is get as much information from your living family as possible, particuarly your senior members. 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.
See if anyone has any old family bibles.

Go to your public library and find out what all they have in genealogy. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can use. Ancestry.Com has lots of records and is obtaining 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. K. censuses also.

A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church as lots of 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.

They have never tried to convert me or have they sent their missionaries by to ring my doorbell just because I availed myself of their resources.

You will need vital records, such as births, marriage and death certificates. In the U.S., each state has its own laws about who, when and where a person can obtain birth and death certificates. Before this information was being recorded by governing bodies such as states, counties or cities, you need to turn to churches for Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage and Deaths. In a lot of faiths, these records will contain parent information.

Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org are 2 good free sites for information as to how to trace your family tree. Also try the links to Ted Pack's site.