What's a good free site that allows me to trace my ancestry?

Question

Curious to know if I'm related to anyone famous.

Answer 1

There are over 400,000 free genealogy sites. I have put links to some huge ones, but you'll have to wade through some advice and warnings first.

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 in the USA,

AND most of your ancestors were in the USA,

AND you can get to a library or FHC with census access,

AND you are white

Then you can get most of your ancestors who were alive in 1850 with 100 - 300 hours of research. You can only get to 1870 if you are black, sadly. Many young people stop reading here and pick another hobby.

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. You'll have to get back to people living in 1930 or so by talking to relatives, looking up obituaries and so forth.

Finally, not everything you read on the internet is true. You have to be cautious and look at people's sources. Cross-check and verify.

So much for the warnings. Here is the link.

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

It has links, plus tips and hints for each of these sites:



http://www.cyndislist.com

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

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

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.usgenweb.net

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

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

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

http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/d...

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

http://www.genforum.com

http://boards.ancestry.com/

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

I used to put short tips in the stock answer. Now Y!A limits the size of an answer. You'll need the hints.