Geneology websites?

Question

Howdy there y'all! I'm lookin geneology websites that are free and don't send out spam or harrass you in any ways. If so, please list sites out there that I could go to or if you know anything that might help me out, I'm starting out with not knowing anything about my family(besides immediate family and a little down the line, of course!) Thanks.

Answer 1

Oh, yes!  I want it, and I want it now, and it must be free.  Does that about sum it up? (I hope so, because that is what I always want...)

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...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

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

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.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:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Answer 2

You could also try Rootsweb http://www.rootsweb.com/ which has a large number of mailing lists and message boards covering different regions, surnames, occupations etc. All are free to use and on the whole the members are helpful. Plus, there is always the chance that you will come across someone researching the same family as you.

Answer 3

The first research you should do is ask elderly relatives what they know. sometimes it is suprising what information they come up with that they do not share unless asked. In the United States the first site I would check is the Mormon's Beta site. You have to register to use it, but more information is added weekly and it is free. The next valuable sites would be the regular Mormon Family Search site, World Connect, and GeneaNet to see is someone has already started your family tree. In the United States, the GenWeb sites have a great deal of information by State and County. Census information for 1880 is free at Ancestory and Free on the Mormon Site. The beta Mormon site has the 1900 census. I would suggest setting up a Genealogy email account just for use registering for sites. I set up an account on Yahoo. I have not had to deal with spam on my regular email since I started using a second dummy account. I use this dummy email account on message boards also. The last thing to do is just try a google search for instance of your surname and genealogy. If nothing comes up in English, try searching using another language, French for instance. For some reason my family Walloon information popped right up in French, but not English on search engines. Of course, the websites are in French also.

Answer 4

The warm, witty, well-read and devilishly handsome genealogist who answered first has most of the links I would have listed.

This page:

http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html

repeats the links and has a paragraph of tips on how to use each site.