How can I find my family history for free.?

In genealogy, we document everything. Too many budding genealogist get frustrated and quit because they copied something from someone else’s tree that was improperly documented and later learned they were researching the wrong ancestor. There is an excellent tutorial for those who are new to family research at http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ; I recommend it to everyone starting out in genealogy. After you complete the tutorial, the following is a basic plan and generally only requires the tools that you already have like your computer and Internet service provider.

The person you know about is you, so, start with your birth certificate, which has your parents, and then ask your parents for copies of their birth certificates, which will have your grandparents on them. Then if you grandparents are living, continue the process. At some point, you will experience a problem depending on when you grandparents or great grandparents were born, in that; birth certificates did not exist before the early s. Therefore, you need to get back to with personal records because those types of records are not available to the public for to years depending on the jurisdiction in which they are held.

By copying or ordering these documents, you have gone to relatively little expense and you have three generations plus yourself and you have it documented with primary documents. That will give you parents, grandparents, and great grandparents names to start researching. Now, you can use death certificates, marriage records, census records, immigration records, church records, court records and many other sources to research your ancestry. Your public libraries will most likely have both Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest.com free for anyone to use while at the library and with a library card you should be able to use Heritage Quest at home.

Another free online resource is the LDS/Mormon site, which has many free online records at http://www.familysearch.org/ and original documents on their pilot site at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.h… . In addition to their online records, they have the Family History Centers where you can go for help with research and look at microfilm and they only charge nominal fees if they have to order something specifically for you . Find a location near you on their website and call to check hours of operation. http://www.familysearch.org/ . These Family History Centers are tremendously helpful and very knowledgeable.

Additionally, USGenWeb is another free online resource at http://www.usgenweb.org/ . This site is packed with how-to tips, queries and records for every state and most counties within those states. Then, there is Rootsweb at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ a free site hosted by Ancestry.com where you can search for surnames, post queries on the message boards and subscribe to surname mailing lists.

Also, do not forget to check Cyndi’s List at http://www.cyndislist.com/ and ProGenealogist top genealogist websites at http://familytreemagazine.com/article/best

both of these sites have many links for both free and fee based sites.

Source(s): Sources in text of answer.

Start with yourself and then your parents and Grandparents. You do not start with some one who lived in the and work forward, start with you and work back. Genealogical research is not cheap, and the an entire family cannot be researched in one afternoon. If you have family stories get them recorded (use word and print them, store them in acid free plastic covers in a binder and label the binder) Document the information you do have. Get pictures of the ring, and other heirlooms. When researching beside a computer, a digital camera is a must these days. Some libraries will not allow copying, but will allow pictures. When you ready get a book (local library) and contact local library, genealogy or history society and the Family History Center, most are having classes these days (they are usually free). eventually you will probably become a member of several societies and will have invested a lot of time and money. Oh, you can always type the surname into any search engine and see what comes up, but document your sources (it is important if you want to be taken seriously by Genealogical Researchers) When you are ready for that book there is currently a site called LULU.com. They do self-publishing and are priceless to the family genealogicalists. Good luck.

Source(s): Genealogical researcher + years

Have you tried your local public library? Or Mormon Family History Center?

Otherwise, try:

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=…

www dot usgenweb dot com/

www dot census dot gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

www dot ukgenweb dot com/

www dot archives dot gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/…

http://www.cyndislist.com/

www dot geni dot 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 , plimouth, massachusetts” as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

www dot associatedcontent dot 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 % to % 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.

Source(s): genealogical research

You could go to the library and do some research on geneology and maybe borrow some books on how to do it, my brother has traced our family right back to the th century, but i do know he bought some software to help him and also visited the places relatives were born and researched there as well, he was able to find out so much of our history

I use ancestry.co.uk and many other pay for sites, they give you about days free but you have to put in credit card or payment details. Don’t forget to cancel the subscription before the free time is up otherwise you’ll end up paying for a year!

Do this with a few sites one at a time and you’ll get a lot of info, especially if your on the site daily.

Also try sites like

http://www.genmarket.com/

http://www.genealogysearch.org/

http://www.freesurnamesearch.com/search/worldwide….

http://www.genealogysearch.org/auctions.html

http://www.ukisearch.com/

http://tinyurl.com/yalmtg

http://tinyurl.com/yauhy

Source(s): Good Luck ! I managed to get back to year on my mothers side, Silk weavers in Norwich UK moving to Newcastle and becoming Slipper makers then Grocers.

wow, you know a lot more about your family than most people.

it sounds like fun making a book too!

you try talking to other family members?

or googling?

i’m not sure if ancestry.ca is free or not, but a lot of people use that.

My daughter done this last year and there is no free ones, the cheapest she got was £. per month, Good Luck

ask your parents where they came from