Help with Family Trees?

Question

I am interested in learning more about where my family originates from, what my ancestors did, etc...

I know everyone up to my great grandparents as i have grandparents from each side of my family still alive to have helped me that far, i know their birth dates, death dates, etc.

I'm wondering whats the best way of finding out the rest,

I've tried online and most sites require a payment, are there any sites which are accurate and free? Or anyone that can help me?

I live in the York area, Near Selby to be exact, are there any places or anyone i can see to help me?

Also does anyone have any tips or anything that i would find helpful?

My surname is quite common too and i have a very large family so finding people who are actually related to me may prove to be difficult as im finding as many of my older relatives had many children!

Thank you

Answer 1

Sounds as though you are a Brit, so don't know how much this will help:

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.

http://www.geocities.com/griffith_histor...