Is there a website I can go to to research my ancestors without having to pay an arm and a leg?

Question

Is there a website I can go to to research my ancestors without having to pay an arm and a leg?

Answer 1

family search on church of latter day saints web site

Answer 2

I know that if you know your ethnic origin, some foreign consulates can help you trace your ancestry.

Answer 3

I won't compete with the excellent advice from Ted, but offer some additional perspective.

Quality family history is a completely different nature, than looking up one single fact.  The likelihood is that your ancestors will show up in MANY places, both online and off.

The approach from many new researchers is an expectation that they are hoping to find a completed painting, in one location. The reality is that your history is a 1000 (or more) piece jigsaw puzzle, and the FUN is in finding the different places, such as a scavenger hunt.

Some of it is free... some of it isn't.  You often get what you pay for.

Answer 4

most geaneology websites I have been to only accept credit cards.

Answer 5

The Mormon Church does an excellent job.

Answer 6

The best place first is to go to www.cyndi'slist.com.  that will give you all known genealogical sites to search.  I use www.rootsweb.com, www.genforum.com, www.familysearch.com Search all of their Surname Files and their Family Trees.  An incredible way to search ancestry is to go to Google, go to the search bar and enter in the name of the person in quotation marks.  "John Smith"Chester Co., PA  "John Smith"Descendants  use any great describing word that will limit the search to just what you want.    Also go to the More dropdown on the googlesite go to Books and do the same thing, thousands of Genealogies, County Histories and Records have been digitized and are now online.

Oh Yes, don't forget to use www.usgenweb.com which is for every State and County in the US.  There are thousands of records there as well and all are free.  Many free census records too!  Good Luck

Answer 7

You got alot of good answers and now I'm curious!!!

Answer 8

This is a text file I paste to questions like yours. People ask similar questions 3 - 14 times a day here. By pasting, you get a long, detailed answer, but I don't get finger cramps. It is long because there are over 400,000 free genealogy sites.

It is also long because researching your family tree is as hard as writing a term paper in a History class. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but you won't do it with five clicks. I could tell you everything I know in 30 minutes, but not 3. The fact you have to do research stops nine out of ten teens and many adults.

If you didn't mention a country, we can't tell if you are in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia. I'm in the USA and my links are for it. If you are not, please edit your question to add a country. Or, better yet, delete it and ask again, this time putting inthe country. Genealogists from the UK answer posts here too. They are more experienced and more intelligent than I am. I'm better looking and my jokes are better.

The really good stuff is in your parents' and grandparents' memories. No web site is going to tell you how your great grandparents decorated the Christmas tree with ornaments cut from tin foil during the depression, how Great Uncle Elmer wooed his wife with a banjo, or how Uncle John paid his way through college in the 1960's by smuggling herbs. Talk to your living relatives before it is too late.

You won't find living people on genealogy sites. Don't look for yourself or your parents. Crooks can use your birth date and your mother's maiden name to steal your identity. If your parents were married in June and your oldest brother was born 4 months later, it isn't anyone's business, which is another reason living people's dates are not on public sites.

So much for the warnings. Here are some links. These are large and free. Many of them have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements.

If you try the links and don't find anyone, go to

http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html

It repeats each link, but it has a whole paragraph of tips and instructions for each one.

http://www.cyndislist.com

Cyndi's List has over 250,000 sites.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/f...

The Mormon's mega-site.

http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.c...

RootsWeb World Connect. The links at the top are advertisements. They mislead beginners. Ignore them and scroll down.

http://www.rootsweb.com/

RootsWeb Home.

This is the biggest free (genealogy) site in the world.

http://www.ancestry.com

Ancestry has some free data and some you have to pay for.

http://www.usgenweb.net

US Gen Web. Click on a state. Find a link that says "County".

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa...

Surname meanings and origins, one of Ancestry's free pages.

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-b...

Social Security Death Index. Click on "Advanced". Women are under their married names. They are under their maiden names in most other sites.

http://find.person.superpages.com/

USA Phone book, for looking up distant cousins.

http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/sear...

California Death Index, 1940 - 1997.

    

http://www.genforum.com

GenForum has surname, state and county boards.

http://boards.ancestry.com/

Ancestry has surname, state and county boards too. They are free.

Read

http://www.tedpack.org/goodpost.html

before you post on either one.

Read the paragraphs about query boards on

http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html

before you search them.

      

http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/lis...

Roots Web Mailing List Archives.

Read

http://www.tedpack.org/maillist.html

if genealogy mailing lists are new to you.

Off the Internet, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it.

Answer 9

Your ancestors?

Try with GOOGLES?