#Trace my family tree for free online plus

These are just a few amazing stories of how the Internet helped people reconnect with a part of their family's past. Where should I go online? What are the best sites? Most people chip away at this over weeks and months. By far the biggest investment you'll make is time. As you get deeper, there are annual subscription fees for access to information such as Census Bureau forms, usually about $40 per year. If you get information from a message board, 'yes, I once knew your grandmother,' the onus is on you to contact the person providing the information to verify its accuracy.Īre resources free? What kind of investment is required? For example, if the government record indicates your great, great grandfather was born in Ohio, and you have several other pieces of information you know to be true, then you have confirmed a piece of your family tree. Wherever you get information from, it's important to remember to make sure it's relevant to your family, and not just a family with your last name. There's a lot of sharing that goes on and a real sense of community surrounding these efforts. If you have a common last name, like Lewis or Smith, be prepared to be inundated with possible information. One of the types of resources you may find helpful online are the thousands of message board postings surrounding surnames with people looking for and providing information. There are two kinds of information sources: Information from government sources (like birth and military records, immigration records and the social security death index) and information from books, newspaper articles and the community. How do I know the information is accurate? All of this gets plugged into a family history model, and eventually you build a tree. From there you can trace marriage(s), then births. For instance, start with when and where he or she died. It's easiest to begin by selecting a specific ancestor. Next, decide what you want to learn about your family.

#Trace my family tree for free online plus

For example, you'll type in a birth date, and it will ask you if that's plus or minus a year or two. A lot of online search tools allow estimations. Gather as much information as you have about your family: names, places, and dates (even if you have to estimate). You'll both learn something along the way!įrom uncovering lost relatives to making life-saving discoveries, the success stories are amazing! Whatever your reason for tracing your family history-a child's school paper, a genetic disease, a death in the family, pure curiosity-if you don't know a lot about computers, it's a great activity to try with a young person who may know more about computers than you do. Each day, more and more information is taken from microfilm and paper records and digitized online. There are more than one billion records posted online.

Millions are turning to the Internet for help.Ībsolutely! Online genealogy is one of the fastest growing activities on the Internet because it is empowering so many people to find information that used to take years to compile. Studies indicate that more than 60 percent of Americans are interested in tracing their roots, but the price tag of anywhere between $30 to more than $100 an hour to hire an accredited genealogist can be prohibitive.