What are some good, cheap, or free websites about family trees?

Question:Besides ancestory.com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Besides ancestory.com

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.

If you didn't mention a country, we can't tell if you are in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia. I'm in the USA and my links are for it. If you are not, please edit your question to add a country. Genealogists from the UK answer posts here too. They are more experienced and more intelligent than I am. I'm better looking and 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's List has over 250,000 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.

Read
http://www.tedpack.org/goodpost.html
before you post on either one.

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.

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.

you can go to ancestry.com , i use that site, very nice and free you will have fun on it if you know a lot of your family history

www.ancestry.com has been very good to me and it really worked.

The problem in answering your question is that we don't have a clue where your ancestors lived. Very few sites, even Ancestry.com, are so comprehensive that you can track anyone from anywhere. There are great sites in the Netherlands, France and Poland that are completely free, but they won't help you if your ancestors were from Spain. There are wonderful resources for Scandinavian research at North Park University in Chicago and Finlandia University in Hancock, MI. But they won't help if your ancestors were British.

The best place for you to start is at the largest public library in your area. See if they have a genealogy section, particularly with records from the region where your grandparents and their parents lived. You won't find much on living people online, so you have to start with the most recent generation that's now deceased and work back from there. You're looking for land records, marriage announcements in the paper, biographies of prominent local residents, etc. But just as importantly, see if they have a public use license for either Ancestry.com or Heritage Quest. With either program, you have access to magnificent record collections.

If you still live in the area where your grandparents and great grandparents lived, also visit the local courthouse and look through Probate Court records, looking for their wills. Visit the local Register of Deeds office to see who the land in your family passed to from one generation to the next.

If you have a unique heritage, particularly one outside of the major countries in Western Europe (England, Ireland, Italy, France, Germany), you have to follow the trail using records from the National Archives. Their immigration and naturalization paperwork is available to you by either visiting the nearest Records Center or by writing to the center.

If you want to send me the pertinent information (birth/marriage/death dates, names & places) I'll be glad to help you get started and see where you need to look for records.

If you are looking for British/Scottish/Irish or Welsh family members, try "genes reunited", it cost 20 pounds for a years membership and is a wonderful site.
Hope this helps.