I want to find out my family history very badly. What are some links? =] I dont want to have to pay for it.?

Question

Free subscription genealogy websites? Please tell me what you know! :D

Answer 1

You can start out with the free sites listed and that will probably keep you busy for a while, but eventually, you will get so deep into it that you will find that you will have to join a paid site to get access to the really cool stuff.

Genealogy is a hobby for most, a life and career for others.  Like most hobbies, there will be expenses involved.  If you want to learn to play the piano, you will have to pay for music books, piano lessons, and maybe buy a piano or some type of keyboard.  To do scrap-booking, you will have to buy all types of scrap-booking craft materials.  Many people would think that is a waste of money.  But to the person who is passionate about it, the financial cost is not an issue to do something they get so much pleasure out of.

Don't limit yourself to what is free.  The really great things in life never are, and neither is access to the really cool genealogical stuff.  Even if your library has access that they let you use for free, you still have to pay for the gas to get there.  You WILL pay for something.

Answer 2

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!

Answer 3

I find these free sites very useful:

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://usgenweb.org/

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

http://www.cyndislist.com/ (this one has tons of links to free sites)

I would suggest first going to  http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html for more links to free sites and really helpful tips.

Also, many public libraries have a subscription to ancestry.com which you can use if you have to.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

The Mormon church has a lot of free info on the web.

Answer 5

Ancestry.com is not expensive.  12.95/per month or 16.95 for three months is insanely cheap to find out about your family.  You can look at actual census records that show addresses, occupations, immigration records from the ships that list where they came from and exactly where they are going, etc.  There are all kinds of military records too. The information is priceless and I think the tiny amount of money they ask for is cheap.  Cut out your morning Starbucks or something like that for a week and you will have saved up enough.  That sounds mean, but people on here complain about paying for the site as if they are asking hundreds of dollars to gain access to invaluable items.  The site is amazing and worth the cost.