I'm trying to trace my genealogy back to 1870 with minimal cost?

Question:My mom said several years ago that we were related to the Queen of the Roma(gypsies) who are burried in Rose Hill Cemetary in Meridian, MS. I want to be able to either confirm or Deny this rumor. I can trace my line back to my grandparents on either side but past that i am lost. my biggest problem is that i dont have any way to pay for the ammount of public records i would have to send off for, or even for one of the pay genealogy sites. can anyone suggest some way that i can find this info without a major cost?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My mom said several years ago that we were related to the Queen of the Roma(gypsies) who are burried in Rose Hill Cemetary in Meridian, MS. I want to be able to either confirm or Deny this rumor. I can trace my line back to my grandparents on either side but past that i am lost. my biggest problem is that i dont have any way to pay for the ammount of public records i would have to send off for, or even for one of the pay genealogy sites. can anyone suggest some way that i can find this info without a major cost?

To get access to census records on Ancestry.com, you will need to get a paid subscription. However, there are other ways to find out some information. First, if you know the counties where your people were likely to be living at during a given time, you can search that county's genealogical website. Most will have them. Just google for it by entering something like "Hanover County Virginia genealogy" or "Hanover County Virginia census records". Many counties will have on their genealogy websites at least SOME of the census records transcribed and access is free. The degree to which info is available varies by county. Some put everything on their site, some not very much. Also, on genealogy.com you can post messages on the message board for free (just be sure to post them under the correct surname), and other people will respond. It may not be immediate, but eventually someone will read it and try to help research for you.

EDIT: Kelly Mitchell had 15 children. That is a lot to research. She died in 1915, so why do you need to go back to 1870 to prove relation? If you are a descendant, that should not be so difficult. If you are trying to prove a "cousin" relationship, that may be impossible.

we've got a site for a king of the gypses here... their name was "marks" and there is a huge tower in the cemetary for them

There are lots of free geneaology web sites that are free.
one of my favorites is: www.rootsweb.com
this is a free site, but some of the links will take you to: Anscestry.com
they will offer you a 30 day free trial, they are a good site though.
You can also access the government genealogy web sites, and a lot of their sites are free, but start with rootsweb.com first, I have had the most success with them.

Since cost is an obvious factor to you, I would suggest staying away from internet searches and try a library search. You can order all sorts of books and records through Interlibrary loan at your local library. This includes detailed books on the Rom. Even if your own library doesn't have a book on the topic on their own shelves, they can order it from another library in the state or even the main library in your state for usually $1. You get it for a few weeks, which gives you time to scrutinize the info and copy pertinent parts. Then you can order other books, films and records through your library that come from places like the State Library and State Archives.

You can also contact the Mississippi GenWeb project to see if any of their volunteers has access to information for you. http://www.msgenweb.org/

You can easily trace your family back to 1850 using just the federal census, if your grandparents were born before 1930.

You can find census records on microfilm, at ancestry.com, and at heritagequest.com. To use the pay subscription sites, go to your public library, which is free. They usually have a subscription for patrons to use.