Where's the best place/site to search for your family's history?

Question

My parents and grandparents immigrated to the U.S., and before them, my ancestors did not come to America (at least, to my knowledge). Are there genealogy sites that don't only favor families deeply rooted in America? I need a site that will also cater to families with other ethnic backgrounds.

Answer 1

http://www.cyndislist.com

has sections for most countries. If your ancestors are European you may find quite a bit. If you are from India, you won't find much at all, sadly.

If you edit your question to say what country your family is from, people here will be better able to help you. No sense sending an Italian to GenUKI, the largest site around for the UK and Ireland.

Answer 2

Ancestry is good for records in the UK but I'm not sure about other countries - there are quite a lot that just don't have full collections or haven't uploaded to the net.

Answer 3

http://www.v1g.org is cheaper then ancestry, and genealogy, plus it has the same data. Another bonus is you get access to even more records then just your family history.

Answer 4

Americans are interested in their genealogy, because, with the exception of Native Americans, everyone's ancestors migrated here and people want to know where they came from.

Genealogy sites do NOT "favor families deeply rooted in America", but rather recent immigrants.  Most sites ASSUME people's ancestors came through Ellis Island, which opened long after my ancestors came to America.

However, since most Americans have roots in Europe, most sites do "cater" to European genealogy.

Still, you might check out the following:

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!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.

I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.

Answer 5

Wendy's viewpoint-

Like Ted, I like cyndislist... but the one thing that you can take from her list, is the idea that there are THOUSANDS of websites for genealogy.

Why would you limit yourself, by looking for *one best* site? My advice is that your ancestors can be located in numerous sites, and the more you have, the better your odds. If your ancestor was from Hungary, then the focus is Hungary. If your family came to the US in the 1890s, Ellis Island has a site.. but that does not mean they did not come through another port of entry. You might find an ancestor's bio on a site for railroad history (if he was an engineer).. it isn't even a genealogy site.

Pick a specific person, and define what you know about him/her.. then look for explicit info concerning what you know. It might be Ireland.  It could be a website for history of ships between Belfast to Boston.  

The site that works for me, may be useless for you, or vice versa. Instead of family history being a finished painting that you hope to find (on one site).. look at it as a puzzle, where one piece might be where the ancestor was born, and another puzzle piece can be cemetery records in another state (country).  The fun (to me) is putting the pieces together.. but WHERE THOSE PIECES ARE, is totally unique to your ancestors.