What is a good site for tracing ancestors?

Question:I found an old Bible with entries for births and deaths dating from 1802 while cleaning out my Grandfather's house. I would love to get a good family tree going off of the names i found.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I found an old Bible with entries for births and deaths dating from 1802 while cleaning out my Grandfather's house. I would love to get a good family tree going off of the names i found.

You DO know that genealogists dream of such breaks!!??
Two things to consider... are you certain this is your family?? You might not recognize the names.. they can be your relatives (even bigger bonus), or it might have been left by a prior resident.
IF the names don't ring a bell, you would want to be working YOUR ancestry BACK from you. It is far easier to work 'back' than coming "down" from the parents named. Thus, it can be that the Bible relates to your grandmother's maiden name, for instance. (If you already recognize the names, this won't apply)
The other scenario is that SOMEONE out here has already been working this line/ family, and has the descendents posted somewhere in the numerous places that we genealogists are aware of. If so.. then you may not want to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.
I REALLY would suggest that you might post at least the basic details of this family, here. Not that we want to deprive you of the fun.. but it is very likely that one or several of us, can find some records about the family in question.

edit-
Phil, I will do some hunting up, and I notice you do have your email enabled (good for genealogy!!)
you might also get some feedback from persons 'behind' me.. if I delete my reply, I can't repost.

In my opinion the best free site is www.familysearch.org its excellent, I also love www.ancestry.com / .co.uk both excellent, it was subscription only but they now do pay per view as well. I don't know if that involves you being a member as well though.
Hope this helps.

Try this sight. I found some good info on there at on charge. You can also try the Mormon Church web site. Not sure of that link.

www.ancestery.com

Rootsweb is the oldest and the best genealogy site on the web. Also check out the World GenWeb project for local help in your specific geographic areas of research. And don't forget Cyndi's List.

Make sure you verify all information found on the internet - whenever possible, follow up a "lead" by obtaining copies of the actual birth/marriage/death records (aka BMD) by sending to state and local archives, etc. Don't rely on family stories or internet sources alone - they will usually be very inaccurate. There are many people out there who add names to their trees without confirming the surety of what they've found, then they put the wrong information out on the internet and it winds up misleading people. If you download any information, do not add it to your database until you verify what you've found! Rootsweb has lessons you should read. Good luck and have fun! It's a great hobby (which could lead to a profession if you are very careful with your research, verify everything, and cite all your sources).

Ancestor.com is a great resource! If you are a new user, you can access info for free for a limited time I think. I did this when I found out about their free access during Memorial Day. I found so much about my family, my dad was startled! I even found a copy of the original manifest sheet from the ship my great great grandparents came to America on! I also saw a computer program at Office Max where you can build the family tree and get around 6-9 months from Ancestor.com. I am saving for it, as it's a bit expensive for me. I'd highly recommend them, as they have great records from other countries as well that you can access if your family immigrated.

You are one lucky fella finding that family bible!

Get as much information from your living family as possible, particularly your senior members. Tape them if they will let you. What might seem to be insignificant ramblings and story telling might turn out to be very significant.

Ancestry.Com has lots of records. It has all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet. They have U. K. censuses also.
It isn't a free site, but you can get a trial membership. Also your public library might subscribe to it and you can use it free of charge.

Just don't take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is user submitted and mostly not documented or poorly documented. You might see the same info repeatedly by many different submitters, but that is no guarantee it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying.

Another 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 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 anyone else either.

While you are there and at your library, you probably will have an opportunity to talk with other researchers and people doing genealogy learn from each other.

Good Luck!

ancestry.com and geneology.com are both good sites