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When you are searching for your ancestors, you want a place you can turn to for help. It is important to have a resource you trust and one that you know you can find a lot of information from. Well there is a resource that is all that and more. It is an online source and a physical location as well. So you can do research in the method you prefer!
The resource I am talking about is Family Search which is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This website is an extension of their family history library which is one of the most complete genealogical libraries you will find. In fact, people travel from all over the world to do research in the library that is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. But you don’t need to travel long distances to do your research if you don’t want to, you can access most of their records online on the Family Search website.
On the website you are able to access documents such as census records, the International Genealogical Index files, and Social Security death records. In addition to these records you can view genealogy that has been submitted by other users.
Not only can you look up records that are stored in the Family Search databases, you can take free online classes as well. There is a wide variety of classes offered on the website on topics ranging from basic genealogy research to learning how to read old, handwritten documents. The lessons are in video format with downloadable class handouts. This is a great resource for people who are beginning genealogists and those who have more experience but are stuck with a certain type of research.
If you want to visit the actual Family History library, be prepared to be amazed! The library consists of 142,000 square feet of space spread over 5 floors. The library is the largest genealogical library in the world and is free to the public. They have all the resources you will need to search including computers, microfilm readers, microfiche readers, and so much more! Probably the best resource you can find at the library is the staff. There are 100 full and part time professional genealogists that work at the library. In addition, there are 700 volunteers who are genealogy enthusiasts who are more than willing to help you with your search.
Whether you choose to do your genealogy research online or at the library itself, the genealogy resources provided by the Mormon church can’t be beat. You don’t have to be a member of the church to use the resources, they are available to everyone. Give Family Search a try, you might find someone you know!
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2011
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Genealogy Research: Starting a Genealogy Search for Free
If you’re just beginning your genealogy search you’ve no doubt heard that the vast resources available to you online are going to be your best option. There are premium genealogy sites that charge so that you can access their information, but there are also free ones. These free genealogy sites won’t have the amount of information as the sites that charge, but they’re a good place to begin your genealogy search. So in you quest to discover where you came from and who your ancestors were, begin your genealogy search online and start your journey into tracing your family tree.
Before Going Online
The best free genealogy search won’t include the internet. But it does include questioning your own family about their history. You can gain a lot of information by asking your parents about your grandparents and asking your grandparents about your great grandparents. And if your great grandparents are still around you can most certainly delve even deeper by asking them questions.
In speaking to my own family I managed to find ancestors gong back to the Revolutionary War and even beyond. I found that on my mother’s side of our family my uncles, grandfather and great grandfather all worked as engineers or workers for the Penn Central Rail Road. I also found that great grandfather on Dad’s side was a long time homicide detective with the Philadelphia Police Department. Many of the things I found out, I had already known. But it was fascinating to find out the things I didn’t already know too.
Getting Online
There are several free genealogy research sites that you can use. It’s as simple as typing in the term “free genealogy search sites” in your search box. Since many people are likely to have your same surname, finding your ancestors will be an involved search process. Yet once you get on the right track just see how far it will take you. As much of a long and tedious process as it is, it’s also lots of fun discovering your roots. And when you get into past generations that you never had the slightest idea about, the real fun begins.
After exhausting the information that’s available on the free search sites then you can head on over to one of the premium sites to further your genealogy research efforts. The premium sites certainly offer more information that the free genealogy search sites, but make sure that you have a solid base before investing a lot of money into a premium site. Your best course of action is in staying with the free genealogy search site as long as possible. When you’ve covered all avenues available there then the cost of a premium site will be a great investment as you will now be accessing information that you know you wouldn’t have found on a free site.
Doing a genealogy search on your family history is an admirable task because you won’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been. This goes for individual people as well as entire family histories. The free genealogy search sites are there to help find our where you’ve come from and they’re a great tool to start your genealogy research in tracing your family tree.
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2011
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Once you make the decision to build your family tree, you’re bound to wonder where the information is going to come from. How do you find what you need to know to research your own family history and how much is all of this going to cost. To the question of, are there still free genealogy databases on the Web that are worthwhile, the answer is yes.
Free genealogy databases exist for grave sites, census information, marriage documents as well as birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates. Some states even offer their own documents as a service to genealogists. Very often you’re going to find that you’re not able to access information which is dated within the past thirty or forty years, but prior to that time period, vast numbers of groups will permit you to use their databases to gather any information that you need to help you grow your family tree.
A great deal of useful information can be found from free genealogy databases but in some cases they may not have all of the details you want. If after much searching you still can’t find the answer on one of the free databases, you will have collected enough details to perform a very specific and targeted search on one of the paid sites. This will keep your costs lower.
Some of the more interesting and older genealogy databases which exist online for you to use are the passenger ships lists for ships which came into Ellis Island (ellisisland.org), along with a huge free database of more than thirty thousand records of marriages are available on the Genea Links web site genealinks.com.
Other free genealogy databases that are worthy of note, and a good place to start are:
Social Security Death Index (SSDI) – Close to 70 million records can be searched at ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com.
Internment.net – burial records for thousands of cemeteries across the.
FamilySearch.org – this is the site for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. It contains over 700 million records.
If you enter “free genealogy databases” into your search engine as you may already have done, you will have found hundreds of results, however not all of these will be truly free. Some will only provide a free summary list of first-name, last-name and perhaps a state for the records that match your criteria. If you want details of an individual record then a fee is required, in fact most of these link back to ancestry.com. Others may require your name and email address before permitting access but the information will be free. There are also a few sites where you are required to transcribe some records in order to earn credits to access their online records.
Free genealogy databases are a service to the community of genealogists, and can always use volunteers to help them transcribe their information and get more of it out online to help people find what they need. If you’re using the free genealogy databases, consider adding some volunteer time of your own to help transcribe them.
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