How do I go about starting my family tree?

Question

do you know any good web sites that I can look at for more information?

Answer 1

There were several places that helped and still help me.

First, I went to www.familysearch.com and downloaded their free genealogy program. Its free and easy to use. It actually helps you organize your information and gives you a better picture of where and what to do next. Later on, you may choose to buy one of the other genealogy programs

Next: write down everything you know about your family ,then interview as many of them as you can. Get full names, birth, death, marriage dates and places. Write down all family members, dead or alive. Ask about cemeteries, schooling, jobs, occupations, where they lived etc. Become a family detective! See if there are any old bibles, letters, old documents. Be sure to document where you got all this information (e-mail from Cousin Jack on June 5, 2008, interview with Aunt Rose in stockton nursing home, May 13, 1998, Grandpa Bill's obituary, St Louis Dispatch, Page B21, Oct 10, 1959, Mom and Dad's marriage certificate from the Tarrent County, Ft Worth, Tx archives, from genweb.com Usher homepage by [e-mail], etc ) Put all this information into the genealogy program you just downloaded. (Congratulations,You have just started your family tree.)

Then, you can try www.rootsweb.com, www.tribalpages.com, www.myheritage.com, and www.familysearch.com  

www.cyndislist.com is a very helpful site that you will want to visit as it has links to a lot of helpful sites.

www.ancestry.com is also a must see. However, it is a fee based site. They do have "free" 14 day trials or you can go to most larger public libraries and access it for free. Here you can see census records, which are most important in tracking down your ancestors. They also have military application card , death records, etc. For a fee, you can access loads of information on your own home computer. Valuable resource.

You can write to several Gov. agencies for birth certificates,death records, military records. These usually involve a fee but they are the official records.  Cemetery look ups can give you new information. Not everyone is listed, but you can try www.findagrave.com and www.interment.net

There are message boards, forums, volunteer look ups and much much more out there to help you. Many libraries have a genealogy section and the Mormon (LDS and RLDS) Church maintain Family History Centers which contain lots of useful information. Be sure to ask for help if you get stuck.

If you wish to put your growing tree on line, you have several options. One of them is www.tribalpages.com. but there are many others.  Use one with a guest book and long lost cousins may get in touch with you to exchange information.

Remember that most of the people doing generalogy research are just like you, looking for family information. And be warned that many of the family trees on line have some errors. That is to be expected so try to document as much as you can from reliable sources. Use the online trees as a great starting place and where you may have a question as to its validity, do your own research, seeking out official records (which can and do ,sometimes, have errors too)

Good luck and happy hunting. Genealogy can become a wonderful hobby or even a serious profession. Either way, it can be very rewarding!

Answer 2

Oh, yeah!

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...

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.

More suggestions: just google. I.e., if your surname is "jones", google "jones genealogy society", "jones genealogy frankfurt, kentucky", etc. Genealogy is a numbers game; if you can go back several centuries, odds are that you will find a part of your family tree already published.

Have fun and good luck!

Answer 3

I find that Kimbery Powell at About.com is very informative for beginners.  She lists her top 10 websites for researching and much more.  Check her out.

Answer 4

familysearch.org

great site that has helped me out quite a bit.

Mark