I am trying to make my family tree and do not have much money to spend.How can I find info for free?
I am doing a family tree and do not have much money to spend on it.I would like to know if there is any way to research records for free?Every site I have been to has wanted to charge money for a "free" service.
Tagged with: family tree • much money • research records
Filed under: Ideas For Family Tree Project
There are over 400,000 free genealogy sites. I have links to some huge ones, below, but you’ll have to wade through some advice and warnings first.
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 in the USA,
AND most of your ancestors were in the USA,
AND you can get to a library or FHC with census access,
AND you are white
Then you can get most of your ancestors who were alive in 1850 with 100 - 300 hours of research. You can only get to 1870 if you are black, sadly. Many young people stop reading here and pick another hobby.
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. You’ll have to get back to people living in 1930 or so by talking to relatives, looking up obituaries and so forth.
Finally, not everything you read on the internet is true. You have to be cautious and look at people’s sources. Cross-check and verify.
So much for the warnings. Here is the main link.
http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html
That page has links, plus tips and hints on how to use the sites, for a dozen huge free sites. Having one link here in the answer and a dozen links on my personal site gets around two problems. First, Y!A limits us to 10 links in an answer. Second, if one or more of the links are popular, I get "We’re taking a breather" when I try to post the answer. This is a bug introduced sometime in August 2008 with the "new look".
You will need the tips. Just for instance, most beginners either put too much data into the RWWC query page, or they mistake the Ancestry ads at the top for the query form. I used to teach a class on Internet Genealogy at the library. I watched the mistakes beginners made. The query forms on the sites are NOT intuitive.
Ancestry.Com is not free, but your public library might have a subscription to it you can use for free. Ancestry.Com’s real value is in its original source records. They have all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet. They have lots of military draft and enlistments records as well as a good many immigration and other records. They have transcribed the records but you can view the original images. There are errors in their transcriptions, particularly censuses, but when you view the original you will have pity on the transcribers.
Just distinguish the difference between their records and subscriber submitted family trees. You have to be extremely cautious about information in family trees on ANY website, free or one you have to pay to subscribe. The info can be helpful as clues as to where to get the documentation, but nothing else. 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 that doesn’t mean it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying.
If you disagree on something someone has posted on family members, the owners of the websites will tell you that is between you and the other subscriber.
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 have I heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their resources. Just visit their free website, FamilySearch.org, to get their hours for the general public to the nearest Mormon FHC.
Your first free source is your own family. Websites as a rule will not have info on living people as that is considered an invasion of privacy and can lead to identity theft.
Interview your senior members and tape them if they will let you. People who do this state they go back and listen to the tape again after doing research and hear things they didn’t hear the first time around. I won’t say that they won’t be confused or wrong on some things.
Fiind out if any has any old family bibles. Ask to see and make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates. Depending on the religious faith, baptismal, first communion, confirmation and marriage records from their church can be helpful.
Here is a link with links to various websites, some free and some not.
http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2008.htm
Don’t forget about your local public library. Also, if there is a Mormon family site near you, avail of their services.
Otherwise, check out all of these:
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 http://www.ancestry.com and http://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 http://www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.