How do you learn more about your family heritage without paying alot of money?

Question

I am part native american and i want to find out who my ancestors were and my parents don't want to tell me about it so does anyone know where i can get this kind of info i know theres away to do it i just don't know how. Im wondering what kind of native american i am because i am half native half irish.

Answer 1

Try entering the last name from your native side (either your last name or your mother's maiden name) in a genealogy forum and see what others have to say.  here is a link that is free:

http://boards.rootsweb.com/

Answer 2

Try www.familysearch.com.

Answer 3

Start with your local Public Library see if they have a genealogy section or a local Family History Library.

they Will have local records there.

Also chances are you local library allows access to Ancestry.com for FREE and other PAY Genealogy sites as well.

The Dawes Rolls at NARA.org, will also help.

Answer 4

Ancestry.com gives a free two-week trial, and lets you search census data, social security death indexes, and other things of that nature. You'll need to have some idea of the names and dates of birth of your ancestors prior to about 1930, otherwise you're going to have a very hard time. Records after then are more protected, because the person may still be living. Some libraries give you free access to Ancestry.com too, so you might be able to use it there.

Genealogy.com has a great forum where you can try to find other people interested in the same family line. ( http://genforum.genealogy.com/ ) As mentioned, RootsWeb.com has another great forum, as well as the WorldConnectProject, which holds thousands of family trees that you can search through and look for familiar names.

The LDS church has a wealth of information kept in their files, some of which is online at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/f... , but you can also access more in person from your local Family History Center, where they contain a lot of information on microfilm.

I also find that Obituaries are unbelievably helpful in finding all kinds of information out about people, so if you can try and get a hold of those of your deceased family members.