What is a good website to look up family members or deceased family members without having to sign up or pay?

Question

Lets say I want to find my grandfather I never met. Where could I go? Or what if I want to find out who my great grandmother's mother is? Where do I go? Please reply soon!!!

Answer 1

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!

P.S.  Read a variety of books.  One that I especially enjoy is "Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes" by Steve Olson.  On p. 47, he makes the bold assertion that EVERYONE alive today is descended from Nefertiti (through the 6 daughters she had with Akhenaton), Confucius (through his son and daughter) and Julius Caesar (through his illegitimate children; Julia died during childbirth). Read books such as his; they are based on scientific facts and theories such as "Out of Africa" and "The Seven Daughters of Eve".

Answer 2

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.