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Question: I would like to research my family tree to find out what country my family was origianally from!.!?
Do you know of any FREE ways for me to find outWww@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
It is not so simple as putting a name in a website or your search engine and coming up with your family tree!.

You need to trace your family starting with yourself and working back one generation at a time!. Get as much info from living family as possible!. Interview your elderly and tape them if they will let you!. They might be confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might turn out to be very significant!.

Find out if any has any old family bibles!. Ask to see and make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates!. Depending on the faith, baptismal, first communion, confirmation and marriage certificates can be helpful!.

Go to your library and find out what all they have in genealogy!.

A good free source is a Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon)Church!. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons!. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection!. Their FHCs 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 anyone else that has used their resources!. Just call the nearest Mormon Church or visit their free website at FamilySearch!.org to get their hours for the general public!.

As far as websites, I believe Ancestry!.Com is the best for the amount of original source records they have online!. Now, there is an ad running on TV for Ancestry!.Com!. When the lady mentions finding her grandfather's WWI draft registration card, she is talking about a good original source record!. But, when she then gets so excited about finding family in a family tree, that is not an original source record and the information in the tree might be full of inaccuracies!.

Ancestry!.Com has all the U!.S!. censuses through 1930!. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet!. They have military, land, immigration and other records!. They have indexes to vital records of many U!.S!. states!. They have U!.K!. censuses through 1901!.

Just be very very careful about taking as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on their website or ANY website, free or fee!. They are subscriber submitted and very seldom documented and if they are they are poorly documented!. You frequently will see different info on the same people from different subscribers!. Then you will see the absolute same info on the same people from different subscribers but you would be very foolish to think that means it is correct!. A lot of people copy without verifying!. Documentation is the meat of genealogy!. The info can be useful as clues only as to where to get the documentation!.

I have been giving this warning constantly on this board for 2-1/2 or better!. Right before Christmas I was really hit with the proof!. I found out that me, my sister and my brother-in-law were all dead!. No dates of death were given but we died in Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey!.
Since the only time my sister and I have ever been in NJ was when we drove through with out family back in 1956 coming from New York, that means we have been dead 52 years!. Then I got to checking and found family on both sides that married and died in Newton, Sussex County, NJ!.
Since my ancestry is mostly southern American colonial with a few exceptions and those exceptions came in through southern ports, I was really surprised big time!.

Now, if that subscriber had submitted all of this wrong info to any of the other websites, FamilySearch!.org, Rootsweb, Genealogy!.Com it would have been accepted!. You can make up an entirely fictitious family tree and it would be accepted!. If you disagree on something another subscriber has on one of your family members, the owners of the websites will tell you that is between you and the other suscriber!. The tree that had all the wrong information on my family had almost 150,000 names!. Only a copy cat would come up with a tree like that!. Too many people with online family trees think it is very smart to get as many names as possible and they put relatives of their inlaws and their inlaws and it keeps expanding and they don't bother to check the sources!. What is more important is a good verifiable family tree not having a lot of names!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Your family was originally from the Garden of Eden (or whatever your belief system embraces)!.
As to searching, I would suggest a two-fold assault, embracing both paper trails and DNA:
You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history!. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department!. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc!. Our public library has both www!.ancestry!.com and www!.heritagequest!.com free for anyone to use (no library card required)!.
Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers!. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you)!.
A third option is one of the following websites:
http://www!.searchforancestors!.com/!.!.!.

http://www!.censusrecords!.net/!?o_xid=2739!.!.!.

www dot usgenweb dot com/

www dot census dot gov/

http://www!.rootsweb!.com/

www dot ukgenweb dot com/

www dot archives dot gov/

http://www!.familysearch!.org/

http://www!.accessgenealogy!.com/!.!.!.

http://www!.cyndislist!.com/

www dot geni dot com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever!.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example!.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

www dot associatedcontent dot com/article!.!.!.

Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test!. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father!. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA!.
I used www!.familytreedna!.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Without knowing the name and what you know about them, we'd be hard pressed to point you in any given direction!.Www@QuestionHome@Com