Elaina Adolfson: Yes, I have used and still use Ancestry.com for genealogy research as Ancestry.com has more online records than any other service and I would venture to say that all the top contributors on this board have a current subscription to Ancestry.com as well. Of course, you will not be able to complete your research There is an excellent tutorial for those who are new to family research at http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ; everyone starting out in genealogy should understand the basics and this tutorial covers them. 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. 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 pro! blem depending on when you grandparents or great grandparents were born, in that; birth certificates did not exist before the early 1900s. You need to get back to 1930 with personal records because those types of records are not available to the public for 50 to 100 years depending on the jurisdiction in which they are held and census records which are quite valuable in tracing our ancestors movements are not available before 1930 at this time.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 2 parents, 4 grandparents, and 8 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 free f! or 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/eng/Home/Welcome/home.... and original documents on their pilot site at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.h... . In addition to their online records, they have Family History Centers where you can go for personalized help with research and look at microfilm and while they will not do your research for you they will help you, a lot. They only charge if they have to order something specifically for you or you need photocopies and their charges are minimal. Look on the home page of their website to find a location near you and call to check hours of operation. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Home/Welcome/home.... . Additionally, USGen Web 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 withi! n 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, 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/sea... Also, Family Tree Magazine’s 101 Best Websites, 2010 http://familytreemagazine.com/article/101-Best-Web... You may have to register for their free newsletter to access this list but you will find that helpful also.And the only site that is included on this list that has some links that are free and some that are not is Cyndi’s List but it will be well worth your time to look through the list for the free websit! es because of their quality: http://www.cyndislist.com/ Also, you can c! ome back here for help with specific questions or search our archives for more “ genealogy...Show more
Giovanni Malool: I have. I subscribe to the "USA Only" package. I enjoy it. I use mine almost every day. If you subscribe hoping someone will have done your research for you, you will probably be disappointed. If you sign up and keep meaning to devote the 100 - 300 hours it will take to get back to 1850 on 75% of your lines, but never quite do it, your subscription will be like those exercise machines you see on Craig's List all the time; "Used twice, paid $800, asking $400".Be warned that you almost always have to get back to at least 1930 before the wealth of data they have starts to help. Also that a family tree that cites no sources could be solid research or could be a pipe dream.There are 400,000 free sites. For instance, if your ancestors are from Preble County, Ohio, the good people there - the genealogy society and the county library - spent hundreds of ho! urs putting massive amounts of data on-line. If your ancestors were in a neighboring county you are out of luck.Roots Web, the Mormons and US Gen Web are the biggest free sites....Show more
Dorethea Beaston: If you are just starting to research your family history before you launch into websites and get fed up because you can't find anything, do your groundwork first.......Have a look on this site, which will help you make a start in understanding the principles of researching your family history http://www.familytreefolk.co.uk/page_11010.html, then down load some family history sheets http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/genlh/forms/ and starting with yourself fill one in, you will find the sheets act as a check list and you may also find that you don't have all your own information and have to go searching in your home and asking your parents/other relations about it. Look at your own birth certificate, it gives you lots of information and don’t forget to write the registrat! ion number down on your form, as this tells you that it is primary docu! ment information, which is what you need for every piece of information you collect, once you start researching you will notice many people don’t have primary information numbers on their research...which shows you it is hearsay, copied from others and guesswork and there is no place in research for guesswork. One wrong name in your tree and it means you are not researching YOUR family. Fill a sheet in for your parents and any living relations you have, go and talk to them, ask to see any certificates they have and write all the information down they give you.....ask if they have any old photographs as this gets people talking and remembering other people in the family they had ‘forgotten’ about...write down any 'family stories' you are told....some may be correct, however many are not and you find once you start researching you can sometimes use these stories in your research for clues about where to look at records...........before you go near a website, this inform! ation give you a 'feel' for who your family is and makes it s much easier to find ancestors once you do start looking at websites ( they are not the place to 'start' your research).By using the family sheets it makes it very easy for other relations to see what you are doing and to understand the information you are collecting and they are more likely to help and give you more information....as most at first will say, “I don't know or I haven't got any idea about our ancestors". It is also nice to be able to give you relations a copy, as by doing this they will look at the information, talk about it and may remember more information for you or even find some paperwork that has been long forgotten.The very best sources of information is in your home and in the homes of your living relations with any documents, certificates and newspaper clippings that many people keep....you will get lots of information, start lots of interest in what you are doing and will get your family! involved in helping you get started and are more likely to have corre! ct information If you want to then input this information onto a computer database a free one is Brothers Keeper http://www.bkwin.net/version6.htm and you can even add photographs, print out family trees, lists or add notes/stories etcGood luck in your research...Show more
Blair Abdi: I have Ancestry, as well as access to several other research sites. If you are just starting out I would suggest using Familysearch.org, if it free. Also there are several Genealogical programs that offer "trial" versions free like Legacy and Roots Magic. You can use them until you decide if you really want to do genealogical research. If you do get serious about it, I would then suggest that you visit your local Genealogical Society, Family History Center (if one is available) or public library. Many Libraries have the subscriptions sites available on their computer and sections devoted to Genealogy. There really isn't any reason to jump into a subscription side in the beginning be! cause most of the historical records on Ancestry are also available on sites that are free....Show more
Marcelle Vanlith: I use ancestry.com and haven't found a better site. Not only have I built a tree there, I have found unknown half-brothers and long lost cousins.
Gilberto Cratin: I use www.Ancestry.com quite a bit and it is my preferred subscription site. I have found a lot of useful information there. Depending on the areas you're researching, your results could be different. Ancestry.com offers trial periods from time to time and you may want to try it that way before committing to a subscription. You may also want to check www.RootsWeb.com. It is now sponsored by Ancestry.com, but remains a free service.A free site that I use a lot is www.familysearch.org. It is provided by the Mormon Church, but is open to everyone.Another site you need to check out is www.Cyndislist.com. It is a directory of thousands of genealogy sites categorized by type, location, s! urname and many others.Good luck with your research....Show more
! Rosie Travino: This is an LDS Church site and they are known as the biggest preachers of genealogy. I have used it myself and it is great. It is free to use and you can also get additional help. They even offer a free software that allos you to do all sorts of stuff, such as geneology tree, upload pictures, jornals, and even publish it online. It is the best resource I have found.
Willetta Munhall: There is also an Elis Island web site. There are also an abundance of individual family name web sites once you narrow your search.When you have exhausted your online searches and you want to start looking at actual census documents (both English, Canadian, and US) every Mormon Stake center has a genealogy center (don’t worry it is open to the public one day a week as long as you don’t smoke, drink booze, or swear in the building). There are cd readers. Also available to you is the Genealogy Soc. of Utah microfilm library (affilated with the Church but not part of the c! hurch) they have vaulted european records BEFORE WWII that were totally destroyed in the allied night and day bombings. Many European governments have come to the society to rebuild their government’s birth, marriage, census and death records.Also there is a DNA data base to help find lost overseas ancestors. We here in the states move around a lot. That is NOT the case in Europe. Many generations have lived in the same village. So, if for examaple you have traced downed a Scotish ancestor named Mcgregor but there are two possible towns Glasgow and Edinbrough that have have a Thomas Mcgregor in 1715. You can give your DNA to the data base and they can compare it to the CURRENT Mcgregor's in Glasgow and Edinbrough (assuming you have a wee bit more data perhaps a street). Believe or not the DNA will NOT have changed that much and a match will might prove one Thomas or the other (if HE is in the modern Mcgregor's lineage) to be your ancestor....Show more
Emery Blando: ! I find Ancestry.com to be quite a big help in my genealogical research.! I have had subscriptions on and off for years. I use the census records and the historical newspapers a great deal and while I have access to some census information elsewhere and some newspapers elsewhere, their collection is quite a boon. I have not used the international subscriptions; only the US databases but have found them to be really helpful. I use Family Tree Maker software which also links to ancestry.com and searches from the individual record pages. You can also make contact with other people who are researching the same lines as you and see what information they have found. If you are not sure you will use it, get a monthly subscription. WARNING: Like so many things along thse lines, if you order one month (or year...) you will have to cancel the subscription or they will extend it indefinitely. I have found my subscription to be so useful that this is not a problem for me but it might be for you....Show more
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