How do you trace your roots (genealogy) without spending a lot of money?

Question

I know I can always just ask my older family members, but I don't think they will have the old Birth Certificates to prove it!

Answer 1

Try this web page to start.  If you know where your parents were born and lived start there.

www.usgenweb.org/   go to the state and then county you need.  There's a vast amount of information on these sites and people who volunteer to do look ups, if you are not in the area in question.  Links to many other sites, especially CyndysList are invaluable.

Other sites as mentioned:

www.rootsweb.com/

www.Ancestry.com/

wwwMyfamily.com/

www.genforum.genealogy.com/  

www.cyndyslist.com/

Good luck!!

Answer 2

For the price of a 2 day, 1 night week-end of researching in my dad's home town, in Georgia, I can research my heritage on ancestry.com for one year.

To research my family in Virginia, in person, it would cost me twice the price of an ancestry.com 1 year subscription. It would be a full 14 hours of driving, plus gas, motel, food and the cost of leaving my dog in a kennel.

To fly to Massachusetts, for a week of research, I would pay 4 times the amount of a 1 year subscription, to cover airfare, car rental, motel, food and the kennel.

Since I can not afford to take the entire summer off from work, I am restricted to 1 vacation per year. My family would not appreciate being stuck in a motel in "East Podunk", bored silly, while I spend everyday of our vacation time in a research library.

Researching, via your own footwork or the Internet, does not guarantee you will find evey single birth, marriage or death certificate, census or war records, etc.

A subscription to ancestry.com gives me access to all of the records available thru their site. But, it also gives me a place to store my family tree and a chance to connect with others researching my family surnames.

Decide which subscription you can afford and divide the cost of it by 12.

If you truly can not afford it, after that, then use the genealogy site offered at your local library.

Answer 3

Family bibles are accepted as legal documentation for genealogy. You can check county records, church baptisms and local historical societies. You can check into Ancestry.Com and the LDS archives as well. There's no reason to spend billions of $$$. Here's a few links to get you started:

http://www.ancestry.com/?o_xid=36193&o_l...

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default....

http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/re...

Good luck, you never know who's in your family tree!

Answer 4

Sure. You can access the available records on ancestry.com or other similar sites. If you don't want to pay the site fee most local libraries have a subscription.

You may be able to find someone that has uploaded a gedcom on one of the free sites like LDS or rootsweb and contact them to see if they'll give you a copy of their original records (don't take the gedcoms as fact without the proof!)

Some local libraries have extensive geneaology resources as does the national archives if there is one near you. There are also numerous family history centers, libraries, and societies that can be of assistance and may already have the record.

Many repositories charge a nominal fee for a records search regardless if they turn up a record or not. By refining your internet and index research skills you can save a lot of money just by being certain your are requesting the right records from the right place in the right way.

Answer 5

Nick. I would suggest that you get a book called Unpuzzling your past by Emily Croom. It is a great guide that takes you step by step. You can even find some death records online now thru the Mormon Church.

You really have to be careful of what you use off the net. There is some really bad research out there. There is nothing better than real life dusty research in courthouses, etc. I've been at this a lot of years and it is not free and its not cheap but it is so satisfying to know more about my ancestors and their lives. I'm able to pass on to my grandchildren their legacy in print. From there its up to them to keep it up to date

Good luck with your quest

Answer 6

Depends how far back you want to go.....and how accurate you want to be!!   You may get back a few generations without spending too much, if your family stayed in the same area or country.  This may be achievable using the free websites the poster above mentioned.  

But, if you are serious about tracing your family back a few hundred years - and/or you have a complicated lineage, you will have to spend quite a lot of time and money.