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Position:Home>Genealogy> Does anyone know how i can look at the federal census for 1880-1930 free of char


Question:I'm am trying to look up my family history to see were i come from. Looking up my surname won't give me all the answers i'm looking for because i am an african american. Looking up the federal census would help a great deal and so would taking a geneology DNA test. The problem with the census though is where ever i go to look up past family members there happens to be some sort of a fee for just looking. Now i don't have the money to travel to my family's home state to look up historical documents so that is completly out of the question. And Ansestry .com seems like they're looking to entrap people because they want you to give them your credit card number online i'm alittle bit uncomfortable with that. They also said they would give you a free 2 week trail which is nice but they want your home address,so you can't view the records unless you give them this information, I don't want to do that because i am only a teen .


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm am trying to look up my family history to see were i come from. Looking up my surname won't give me all the answers i'm looking for because i am an african american. Looking up the federal census would help a great deal and so would taking a geneology DNA test. The problem with the census though is where ever i go to look up past family members there happens to be some sort of a fee for just looking. Now i don't have the money to travel to my family's home state to look up historical documents so that is completly out of the question. And Ansestry .com seems like they're looking to entrap people because they want you to give them your credit card number online i'm alittle bit uncomfortable with that. They also said they would give you a free 2 week trail which is nice but they want your home address,so you can't view the records unless you give them this information, I don't want to do that because i am only a teen .

Ancestry is a legitimate business, selling the service of making certain records available to you online. No entrapment at all. Just because the internet is not 'owned' by anyone, doesn't mean that millions of businesses, don't do business online. Your point about being a teen (with no credit card ) is valid.
Yes, the census is a primary place for research. You can often access the same services via your library (tax dollars pay for the subscription). It just means you don't have the convenience of doing it from home.
You may want to explore www.usgenweb.com (free US network, run by volunteers). Also.. please, check out www.cyndislist.com which is the ultimate resource list for genealogy. Most are free... but don't expect all to be free.
I agree that looking for a surname is SO not the answer, but not due to your ethnicity. You have 2 parents, each with different surnames.. 4 grandparents, 8 gr grandparents. For women, you use the maiden name. And if your surname is technically an "Irish" surname, it will not mean your ancestors came from Ireland.
http://www.pbs.org/previews/africaname...
If there is ANY way you can view this series, I recommend it. so far, what I saw is great, since it illustrates the types of records that AA persons will be amazed to learn, exist. It is on dvd also. I watched part of it last night, and the emphasis is finding records that are 'below the radar'.
I'd guess that 99% of research has to be done long distance, but there are ways to do that, combining online, LDS microfilms, courtesy networking/ exchange, so on.
Oh, cyndislist also has a section for both beginners, and for African American research.

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...
Of course, it takes you to ancestry.com, but apparently you can do some searches for free.

Also, http://www.censusfinder.com/

In google (or your favorite search engine) just type in "census" or "census records".


Also, don't forget your local library. Ours has both ancestry.com and heritagequest.com, books, periodicals, etc. And probably some census records.

everything the first answerer said....plus: The 1880 census is free at familysearch.org

Put on a nice blouse and a dress skirt/slacks and go to a LDS Family History Center.

They have access. They are not open 24/7 but they are free. Ancestry sells convenience. You can get what you need if you are willing to forgo convenience.

the 1880 census is free in many places - others have listed a few of them.

the entire 1880 & 98% of 1900 census are both available for free at http://search.labs.familysearch.org/reco...
the other 2% should be up soon.

they make you sign up, but it is entirely for free.

Ancestry.com & heritagequest.com are probably both avalable through your local library. the library version of ancestry usually requires you to physically go online into the library itself, but most libraries will allow you to access heritagequest.com at home - however, heritagequest.com only has up to the 1920 census. go to your local libraries website & check their online database list.

heritagequest.com also gives acces to a database called Freedman's Bank, which was in existence from 1865-1874 & is usually when researcing African-american ancestry.

additionally, family search labs (the first link i gave you) has a database called Freedman's Bureau Virginia marriages 1815-1866, which has records of legaized marriages of former slaves in Virginia. there are also a number of other free databases that might be useful to you on this site.

I strongly recommend that you open a free ancestry.com account & get a flash drive, thn go to your local library. yo can open a window with your ancestry account, so you you kow who to look up, & the research on the library's ancestry account. when you find documents that are useful to you - census records, military, etc, save them onto your flash drive. when you get home, you can move them onto your computer. i do that a lot.

you could also try to find a LDS library near you, you can look for one here - http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/...

but they tend to have weird hours & you may have to make multiple trips.

sometimes ancestry offers free trials without credit cards - keep an eye out for that. join ome messages boards - many people are willing to do look-us for you, who ahve ancestry.com & will email the downloads if you ask nicely.

good luck.

~~~ morgannia