Where is the best site , starting with very limited knowledge to start researching my family tree?

Question

Tried searching several websites but end up searching america. Need idiot proof site if poss!

Answer 1

For UK research.

Start with what you know about your parents and grand parents, the most difficult period is often from your grand parents back to the latter half of the 19th century, so you need as much info on dates of birth and marriage, that you can get, before you have to begin paying for your searches and certificates. Church records of baptism, sometimes they also give the birth, marriage and burial, sometimes they also give the date of death, are invaluable, if you know the counties your ancestors lived in, you can get free access to the parish registers on fiche or film at the relevant County Records Office. If you are near to a LDS Family History Centre you can use their facilities free, they have the largest and most comprehensive collection of records in the world, and the people who help at the FH Centres really are very helpful. Civil registration began in 1937 so prior to that you have to use the Church records, the LDS have what is called the IGI which is an indexed transcription database of (almost) all of the parish records that exist in Britain, if you find what could be the person you are looking for, you must then check it against a facsimile of the original entry in the Church register for accuracy, once you have positively identified your ancestor you can usually then find the rest of his family by the same method. Census returns are another good source of information to find family groups, again once you have positively identified your ancestor.  The most important thing is to work back one generation at a time, and prove each person in each generation, do not make guesses and use them as fact (far too many people do that, so of course their family 'tree' is not their 'family tree')  You can find the nearest FHC to you by this link : http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/...

There are a lot of other good genealogy sites/resources mentioned here by other posters, most of them are not very useful until you have managed to go back a few generations, a possible exception might be

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk

and if you have to use a pay site for access to census and birth, marriage and death records I can thoroughly recommend as, I believe, they are the cheapest, and British !

http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/nameinde...

And the best of luck !

Answer 2

That really depends on three things:

1.  How commonly used your surname is - the more common the more difficult to separate out your branch in initial/ongoing searches.

2.  How much work has already been done and is also published for easy access to it.

3.  How much information you have with which to start.

GenForum is a good place to start if some or all of the above are satisfactory.

Best wishes with your search.  There are a lot of good folks out there who will be willing to share what they've learned. Seek them out - their collective generosity will amaze you and start you on a journey of very interesting proportions.

Along the way, remember one thing -

10 generations ago, about 300 years, you hade over 1000 separate grandparents.  20 generations ago, over 1 Million, and 30 generations ago, a mere 900 years, over 100 Million. You can quickly see we are all our brothers' keeper, and we are all related.

Answer 3

If only one site, then I would suggest ancestry.com.  You can always check to see if your local library has it in their genealogy department.

Overall:

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 4

UK answer.

The best UK site that I know of is www.ancestry.co.uk , I have world deluxe membership with them, that means I access to any document on their database, it's amazing.

Here in the UK civil registration began on 1st July 1837, so any life event was registered after that date. Prior to that happening it was down to the parish registers, these date back to 1538. The only problem with the parish registers as far as I'm concerned is the fact that, birth dates were never recorded only baptism dates.

There are lots of willing researchers here in the UK and the USA, the devilishly handsome Mr Ted Pack, Boomer Wisdom is another excellent USA researcher, and just about everyone offers help.

Answer 5

ancestry.com

Answer 6

Churches keep books on baptisms and marriages... so it would be best to start looking at a church register, where your oldest relative was born!

Answer 7

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

This is a text file I paste. People ask your question 3 - 14 times a day here. By pasting, you get a long, detailed answer, but I don't get cramps in my fingers from typing.

Researching your family tree is harder than posting on MySpace. It is about as hard as researching a term paper in a History class. You don't have to be a Ph. D., but you won't do it with five clicks. Many people stop reading here and pick another hobby.

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 in the 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 funnier.

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 8

Try genes reunited , or a free trial to Ancestry when you know you will be able to get some searching done.  Don't forget to try and collect family memories etc before you start.  You may well find others who have traced what you need.  Curious fox website is another good one, or you might try searching using google (www.google.co.uk and select only UK pages).  Put a few surnames down - preferably slightly unusual ones.  Put complete names in quotes "Alfred Tennyson" so it does not give you loads of Alfred's who are not also Tennyson or tennysons who are not also Alfreds.