Help!!! Need good websites!!?

Question

Its so hard to find out info about my family tree because most people in my tree are african american.i've tried afrigeneas or whatever but i cant get info.And other sites want money from a credit card and i'm still too young for that.Give me some good websites for african american geneaology.

Answer 1

How long have your ancestors been here?  If they go back to the days of slavery, try the Freedman's Bureau.  Check for Civil War enlistments.  There were African-Americans in the Civil War.  Check Reconstruction records, too.

Answer 2

SOME of your research will be based in understanding specifics of the impact of slavery, and what records can be used to possibly get around it.

However, CJ.. between now and 1865-1870, your ancestors can be found in usual records like the census, marriage records, so forth.  You don't necessarily need sites that are strictly African/American.

There always are alternatives. One, many local libraries offer free access to Ancestry.com at that location. Another option is www.usgenweb.com, which is a free network of volunteer county sites, with varying amounts of info.

Take it one piece at a time. POST a specific question here, with a name and approx date/ time. Most of the regulars here do courtesy lookups from ancestry, when you are nice about it.  Hang out here! and let people have the chance to guide you through some of it.  We won't have all the answers, but you will be surprised what we can find.

Answer 3

A good free website is rootsweb.com, click on the Homepage link.  It is full of information about genealogy searches plus they are partnered with ancestry.com so they have tons of information.  Hope this helps.

Answer 4

OK, CJ, it all depends upon where your ancestors came from and WHEN.

As to websites,

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...

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 www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.

Answer 5

I really like ancestry.com.  It's free for 30 days and after that you can get it for about $20 a month.  It will link you to actual records - I found my great grandparents and lots of information about them.