Introduction to Ancestry Research

ancestry research

Online genealogy research

Researching and tracking down your family’s ancestry or genealogy is indeed a difficult task, especially if you have to do all of the research on your own. More often than not, it will lead you to several dead-ends.

There used to be quite a bit of free genealogy information on the Internet. But since subscription online genealogy databases are on the rise, there is a rumor that free genealogy will be wiped out. However, please do not fret — the fact is, there are still several websites from all over the world that hold free genealogy information. You can often find birth, death and marriage records as well as census records, military records, wills, and photos. These data have been made available from contributions by several generous individuals, companies and even government agencies.

 

Top (mostly free) genealogy websites

Here are ten of the mostly free genealogy sites that will keep you occupied in tracking down your family’s ancestry (in no particular order):

 

1. Rootswebrootsweb

Rootsweb has been made possible by the support of Ancestry.com and their own Rootsweb community. This has been a favorite of most users because it allows them to link, edit and display their family genealogy and share it with other users. It also allows users to submit their own family tree, as well as to add or omit information as needed. Although the information you will find here may not always be correct or accurate, at least it increases the likelihood of finding up-to-date contact information that might interest you. Rootsweb contains three billion names in over 300,000 family trees. You may search them all for free.

 

familysearch-record-search2. FamilySearch Record Search

For those who want to track down their family’s genealogy but are short on budget, FamilySearch is also a great place to start. This website was built by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and has been esteemed by every genealogist. Search for your family predecessors through billions of records, build up your own family tree, upload your photos to further your family history and strengthen your blood ties through this wonderful website.

 

interment3. Interment.net

Interment.net is a good website to find your deceased predecessors for the purpose of historical and genealogy research. It’s an absolutely free genealogy database that holds over three million records culled from five thousand cemeteries, not only in the US but in many parts of the world. It also contains actual and existing cemetery transcriptions as well as other transcriptions from various websites.

worldgenweb4. WorldGenWeb

WorldGenWeb is one of the must-see websites for locating your family’s ancestry. It was founded in 1996 as part of the USGenWeb project. Soon after that, this website opened its doors to provide users with access to free genealogy data gathered from several countries around the world.

ancestry5. Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is one of the most popular genealogy websites in the world. However, it is not a free website. It requires paid subscription but it does offer a 14-day free trial. Make the most of these two weeks of free trial as the website gives you unlimited access to over a billion names that you can search through as often as you like during that time period. If you like the free trial service, you may want to start a paid monthly or annual subscription.

free-genealogy-lookups6. Free Genealogy Lookups

This service has been a regular on the Ancestral Findings Website. Free Genealogy Lookups gives you access to various records — birth, census, death, divorce, land, marriage, military, passenger and state records. But you are only allowed to do one free genealogy search per day.

archive7. Archive.org

Archive.org is considered as the Internet library, which is also an interesting site to find cached copies of defunct websites or websites that have been moved or modified. Aside from that, users can also rely on its ever-expanding genealogy information through its textual resources. To locate the website’s genealogy section, click on “Texts,” then “Additional Collections,” and finally “Genealogy.” Presently it holds about over 86,000 entries.

 

8. US Civil War Soldiers and Sailorsus-civil-war-soldiers-and-sailors

If you want to search for your ancestors that had been soldiers, sailors, prisoners or anyone who was involved during the Civil War, US Civil War Soldiers and Sailors is a great site to use. Aside from getting a piece of Civil War history, it has a free genealogy database containing rudimentary facts and information about the men who participated in the Civil War, from both North and South sides, as well as prisoners who suffered the war’s consequences. You can also search the graveyards, monuments, battles and battle units.

 

 

access-genealogy9. Access Genealogy

Access Genealogy is a great free resource for finding your predecessors. Operating since 1999, it now houses 240,000 links, making it one of the largest free directories of genealogy websites of the world. One of the website’s outstanding features is its Native American genealogy website (https://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/). This contains an online index which lists Native American Indian Rolls as well as Indian Census Rolls if you need to re-connect to your Native American heritage. The website also includes Afro-American (Black) genealogy, military records, DNA, census records and a lot more.

 

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