Wayne: how to find ancestry/genealogy/etc for free?

answers1: I asked family first. 
Then I went to the web, to all the places I could Google, discarded
those asking for money, and managed to find just about everyone that
was in my country of origin. Not so much from the country they came
from though.
answers2: I would not say that ancestry is a ripoff...But I also doubt
if everyone who uses it gets there money's worth. 
 
Try all of these: 
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: 
<a href="http://www.searchforancestors.com/..."
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.searchforancestors.com/...</a>
 
 
<a href="http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739..."
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...</a>
 
 
www dot usgenweb dot com/ 
 
www dot census dot gov/ 
 
<a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.rootsweb.com/</a> 
 
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 1620,
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 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.
answers3: ask your parents, grandparents, grand aunts and uncles. or
check with the library. search the web
answers4: Try Familysearch.org
answers5: talk to your family. Ask as many questions as you can about
your ancestors. Then go to the library and city hall to look at public
records. You can find out family history, but it takes a lot of
running around.
answers6: try rootsweb.com and familysearch.org. 
 
also you can make free family trees on myheritage.com or ancestry.com.
answers7: First, start by asking all your living relatives about
family history and get any documents or pictures they are willing to
share with you for your files. You can photocopy or scan these and
return them to their owner. 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 USGenWeb at <a
href="http://www.usgenweb.org/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.usgenweb.org/</a> this sprawling
all-volunteer site is packed with how-to tips, queries and records for
every state and most counties within those states. Special projects
usgenweb.org/projects cover subjects such as censuses, tombstones and
family group sheets. Do not miss the easy-to-overlook search of the
entire site <a href="http://searches.rootsweb.ancestry.com/htdig/search.html/."
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://searches.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ht...</a>
Then, there is Rootsweb at <a
href="http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/</a> a
free site hosted by Ancestry.com where you can search for surnames and
leave queries on the message boards. 
 
Additionally, there is the LDS/Mormon site, which has many free online
records at http://www.familysearch.org/ . In addition to their online
records, they have the Family History Centers where you can go to get
help with research and look at microfilm and microfiche and they only
charge if they have to order something for you or you need
photocopies. Finally, if you need software to organize your genealogy
data you can download their Personal Ancestral File [PAF] free at
http://www.familysearch.org/ . 
 
Also, be sure to check each state that you need information from as
many have their own projects, for example, the state of Missouri has a
great website that has many free source documents online at
http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/ and South Carolina has many free wills and
other court documents at
http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/search.aspx 
 
And, do not forget to check Cyndi's List at http://www.cyndislist.com/
and ProGenealogist top 100 genealogist websites at
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/101best2009?r=adcFTMText
 
both of these sites have many links for both free and fee based sites
but I believe most of the fee based ones are marked with a $. 
 
I am certain I could list many more websites but this list is rather
comprehensive while being easy on the wallet, which is something
everyone can appreciate these days. 
You can always come back here if you get stuck and ask questions.
answers8: "Ripoff" is a word used for cheats and scams. There used to
be a site that charged $10 to let you look at the Mormon's free data.
THAT was a rip-off. Ancestry gives you an honest deal; they save you
time and money. You could book a room near an national archive and
stay there, looking at census records on microfilm 8 hours a day.
Ancestry lets you look at them from home, in your sarong and t-shirt,
at any hour of the day or night. Ditto Minnesota Birth Records, 1,000+
newspapers, Nevada Divorces . . . . They have lots of data you can't
get for free. 
 
You will probably give up your quest when we tell you it is like doing
homework, but here is my standard answer. 
 
So many people ask this question that we top 10 all have a
copy-and-paste answer to it. You may get 3 - 4 of them. All 10 are in
the resolved questions. There is quite a bit of overlap - for
instance, we ALL suggest the LDS site - but we each have our favorite
sites and tips. You'd learn a lot in a short amount of time if you
browsed them. That said, here's mine: 
 
There are over 400,000 free genealogy sites. I have a page that has
links to some huge ones, below, 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 main link: 
 
<a href="http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html</a>
 
 
It has links to 
Cyndi's List.com - A catalog of 250,000 sites; 
Family Search.org - the LDS mega-site; 
 
RootsWeb.com, plus sub-links to 
RootsWeb World Connect - almost 600,000,000 entries; 
RootsWeb Social Security Death Index; 
RootsWeb California Death Index, 1940 - 1997; 
 
Ancestry.com - some of their pages are free, including 
Ancestry.com's page on Surname meanings and origins; 
Ancestry.com's Query boards - 160,000 of them 
 
US Gen Web, with sites for each state and each county within each state; 
Superpages.com, a US phone book for looking up living relatives; 
Find-a-Grave.com - 35 million entries; 
GenForum.com - 50,000+ real genealogy query boards; 
 
My page has links, plus tips and hints on how to use the sites. Having
one real link here in the answer and a dozen links on my personal site
gets around two problems. First, Y!A limits us to 10 links in an
answer. Second, if one or more of the links are popular, I get "We're
taking a breather" when I try to post the answer. This is a bug
introduced sometime in August 2008 with the "new look". 
 
You will need the tips. Just for instance, most beginners either put
too much data into the RWWC query page, expect too much accuracy, or
mistake the Ancestry ads at the top for the query form. I used to
teach a class on Internet Genealogy at the library. I watched the
mistakes beginners made. The query forms on the sites are not really
intuitive.

Wayne

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Wednesday, 18 September 2019

how to find ancestry/genealogy/etc for free?

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