Question Home

Position:Home>Genealogy> Are there any sites where you can look up anyone's family tree for free?


Question:Post a link if you know.....

Thanks!


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Post a link if you know.....

Thanks!

No. There are websites with family trees. You might find some of your family lines. However, you should never take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on ANY website, free or paid. Documentation is not required. The trees are not documented or poorly documented. There are errors in family trees on the internet. Even when you see the same info repeatedly on the same people by many different subscribers, that is no guarantee at all it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying. The information should only be used as CLUES as to where to get the documentation.

Anybody that tells you that their Aunt Sallie found their complete family tree on the internet, then ask them if Aunt Sallie got all the documents, copies of birth, marriage, death certificates, wills, deeds etc to back it up. If she didn't she really doesn't have a family tree that is reliable.

Also if a person for instance has Family Tree Maker and a subscription to Genealogy.Com, they can merge other people's trees into theirs and then upload their merged tree back to Genealogy.Com and alo to other websites. People who do that are just interested in collecting a lot of names not quality research.

Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org are 2 good free sites. One thing they have good instructions on how to do family history.

http://www.rootsweb.com/

Now, be careful the Ancestry.Com website is a paid site.

http://www.familysearch.org/

Your public library might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com which has lots of records. 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.

Another good free souce is a Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons.
You just need to call and find out their hours for the general public. 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.

I have never had them to try and convert me or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell. I haven't heard of them doing that to anyones else who has used their resources.

First thing, you should get as much info from living family as possible, particuarly senior member. They might be confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might turn out to be very significant. So tape them if they will let you. Find out if any has any old family bibles. Make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates. Also for many faiths the certificates for baptism, first communion, confirmaiton, marriage will have both parents' names including mother's maiden name.

The resolved questions have hundreds of links and tips. People ask the same question here 3 - 30 times a day. 99% of them get scared off when we tell them it is research. It is too much like homework for most of you.

If you are still game, click on "Advanced" up next to search, limit yourself to this category and resolved answers, and search for the word "Free".

welcome, Jennifer..
CAN you look up ANYONE'S family tree?? No. Everyone's family tree is NOT online in some file. Everyone's family tree is not in the Mormon library, either. Yes, there are place online where you can SEARCH for your family.. but nothing guarantees it will be there.
Normally, good genealogists will NOT place personal info about someone who is living, online. However.. you have 4 grandparents; 8 gr grandparents, 16 gr gr... you get the idea. Each of those are individual persons. You MIGHT find that someone has researched one of those ancestors, and their "tree" is online. YOU have to work back from yourself to the gr grandparents, and know who they are.. or you wouldn't recognize it, if you see it. Since "recent" info is confidential, you use your private documents (like your parents birth certificates) to build the foundation.
Warning... many of those online family tress are completely accurate. Others are done carelessly, and have mistakes. ONE mistake can waste months or years of your work. Example.. your grandpa says his mom was Jane Smith. That is who he remembers. If you check the records, his mom really was Mary Jones, who died when grandpa was 2 months old, and dad remarried. If you don't verify info using documents.. you could spend money researching the Jones family, and you are not related to them at all.
NOT ALL PERSONS WITH THE SAME NAME, ARE RELATED. If your mom is a Harris... you do NOT want to look for any Harris out there, we *might* be related. All you need for the moment is the Harris who lived in Birmingham, Alabama (or England..) and who was your mom's parents?
FOCUS GETS YOU EVERYWHERE.
You don't have a family crest, by the way. They belong to individuals, not families.
There are thousands of free sites on the internet. Most have records (like marriage records for 1850 for Dallas County, or land grants for Minnesota). Your family is probably in those records. The challenge of the game is to find them and put it together.
www.rootsweb.com is a good place (and there are others). On the front page, is a guide to research. After you browse that site, drop by www.cyndislist.com and see the thousands of sites.
If you want a ready made tree, no work (fun) involved, pass me by.

Genealogy is not that simple. It does not work that way.

First, you are not going to find anything on anyone who lived in the last 50-100 years. It is unethical to post anything on anyone living or that recently deceased as it protects the identity of the living from identity theft and scams. Professional genealogists know this.

Second, IF you do find anything on the internet of your family (probably starting around 1900 and going back), you cannot assume just because it is on the internet means it is accurate. The only way to know if the information you find is right is to do your OWN research from scratch. A lot of people out there copy and paste other people's bad "research" and don't verify anything. That is wrong.

Third, unless you have a great-aunt or someone who has already done some research and posted it on the net, then your family will not be on the internet. People don't usually go around researching trees of total strangers for no reason at all and just put it on the internet for that stranger to one day find their whole family tree in 5 clicks or less.

Fourth, genealogy is fun and rewarding, but also very difficult and challenging, like putting together a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. And will take longer than doing that puzzle to do.

The best thing to do is to start by asking questions of your living relatives. Collect as much information as possible regarding names, dates, places, etc. and DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

Then start an internet search as well as doing some research the old fashion way (going to libraries, court houses, cemeteries, etc.). If you find anything on the net, you need to try to reproduce the research yourself and see if you can find legitimate documentation of the individual, dates, or event in order to be sure the information is accurate. Trees on the net are to be used as clues and guidelines......not as gospel. Ask the poster about their resources and proof. Manay times, you can find scanned copies of original documents such as census records. Otherwise, I would not take their word for it that what they have is right.

Last, you will not accomplish this overnight, in a week, month, or year. It is a LIFETIME hobby and passion, that, inspite of the countless hours you spend at it, it will never be completed. There is always another piece of the puzzle to find.

If you are not willing to do all this, then you really are not interested in the truth of your family. If you expect it to fall into your lap, all done and completed, and accurate, and FREE, with no work or challenge at all, then you are in for a rude awakening.