Genealogists/Family Historians The National Archives offers insight into the lives of people, their families and our history. Because the records at the National Archives come from every branch of the Federal government, almost all Americans can find themselves, their ancestors, or their community in the archives. Knowing how a person interacted with the government is key to a successful search. The Internet is full of places to go to trace your genealogy. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of websites devoted to this popular and fast-growing hobby. People around the world are fascinated by their family history and are eager to learn more about who their ancestors were. If you've been bitten by the genealogy bug, here are the top 5 websites you can use to get started on your own journey into the world of ancestors. 1. Ancestry.com--This is the Internet's crowning jewel of genealogy research. In fact, most people come to this site when they get really serious about tracing their genealogy. The site has millions of genealogical records from around the world and is adding more all the time. Here, you'll find: a. published family histories b. birth and death records c. marriage records d. military records e. online census images from 1790 to 1930 (all indexed by name) f. land records g. divorce records h. passenger lists i. passport images j. much, much more. There is a membership fee to use Ancestry.com, but you can get a free 14 day trial to decide if you want to become a subscriber. There are also two membership levels, one for worldwide records and one for just U.S. records. 2. FamilySearch.org--This is probably the second site most people find when they start tracing their genealogy online. FamilySearch.org is run by the Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka the Mormons). Genealogy is a huge part of this religion, and the church has accordingly collected millions of genealogical records from around the world. Many of these records are now available on FamilySearch.org. When you use this site, you have access to the 1880 census, the Social Security death benefits index, the International Genealogical Index, family group sheets submitted by people from around the world, and more. The website is free to use, which makes it very popular. 3. US GenWeb--This free site is run by a network of dedicated volunteers across the country. Its purpose is to make hard-to-find local records available online. The site is free to use, and contains a wealth of information that's being added to all the time. US GenWeb is broken down into states, and then each state is broken down into counties. Each county page is managed by one person who has volunteered to "adopt" that page. The content of each county page is largely decided by its volunteer, so what you'll find on the site will vary widely from page to page. Some common things that can be found on a lot of county pages include cemetery records, Bible records, county tax lists, census transcriptions, biographies of prominent people from the county, and the contact information for people who have volunteered to look up local genealogical information for you at the local libraries and court houses. Most county pages also encourage users to add their own genealogical records to the site. 4. GenealogyBank.com--GenealogyBank.com is a relatively new addition to the plethora of genealogy research sites online, but it's already proving itself to be one of the best. This subscription site charges an annual membership fee, but the fee is pretty reasonable when you consider all you get with it. GenealogyBank.com has a huge and ever-expanding database of historical newspapers from around the country. These newspapers go all the way back to the 1700s, and are searchable by name. This is an outstanding genealogical resource, as local newspapers from the past may contain articles about your ancestors. The information found in newspapers is often provides details about your ancestors' lives you won't find anywhere else. Articles may be just brief mentions of births, deaths and weddings or advertisements for your ancestor's business, but could also be lengthy news articles about something your ancestor did. This is definitely information you want to put in your family tree. GenealogyBank.com also has a searchable database of U.S. obituaries going back to 1977, which can also contain valuable information, such as the names of other relatives and confirmation of dates and places associated with your ancestor's life. Additionally, the site contains access to the Social Security death benefit index, and has a searchable database of important historical papers from the national and state governments (some of which may also mention your ancestor). 5. Footnote.com--This is also a fairly new research site that's quickly making a name for itself in genealogical circles. Footnote.com is one of the most unique research sites out there, and also one of the most useful, especially when it comes to helping you solve tough research problems. The site has partnered with the National Records Administration (NARA) to digitize and make public millions of records that have been virtually inaccessible to anyone except those who have personally visited NARA in Washington, D.C. These records include such valuable genealogical gems as: a. Revolutionary War pension applications b. Civil War pension applications c. Confederate service records (not available anywhere else) d. Confederate amnesty papers e. a host of valuable historical papers detailing important events in U.S. history. *The site also includes access to the 1880 census, and has a growing searchable database of historical newspapers from across the country. Footnote.com is unique in that it combines social networking with genealogical research. The site allows people to upload their own records, make annotations on records already on the site, and contribute valuable personal stories about their ancestors. Any record that's uploaded to the site can be commented on, annotated, or added to by other members. In this way, Footnote.com really personalizes history for you, and gives you the potential to find previously unknown and unpublished information on your ancestors that can be enormously helpful to your research. There is a small annual subscription fee for the site, but it's small compared to the information you get. Plus, Footnote.com offers a short trial period where you can try out the site for free to see if it's for you. Genealogy is a fascinating and personally rewarding hobby that anyone can enjoy. In fact, most people remain avid genealogists for their entire lives, once they get started. It's a hobby that never fails to surprise, inspire and motivate you, day after day. Not only will you be discovering who your ancestors were as people, you'll be putting together an important historical legacy to leave to future generations of your family. These 5 websites can help trace your genealogy by getting you get started, as well as keep you going with new discoveries for a long time to come. Stephanie Varney   Your Family Tree: Eight Great Genealogy Resources To Find Out Who Your Ancestors Were If you want to find exciting discoveries about your ancestors, find out when your ancestors came to the this country and from exactly where, there are great genealogy resources, both online and offline, to help you. The following eight resources are relatively inexpensive, or free, for you to use in building your family tree. 1: Go to your local public Library - Talk with a Librarian. Your best first genealogy resource is inside your library: the librarian. Your library may have Handouts, Worksheets, journals, genealogy books, reference material, access to commercial databases, and more. You need to ask the librarian what is available in the library, as well as what may be brought in to the library (microfiches, inter-library loan, and more). A wealth of resources are available for you to find your ancestors. 2: Investigate your local Genealogical or Historical Society. With regular meetings, educational opportunities, newsletter, library, professional genealogists and expert amateurs, your local or regional genealogical society is chock-full of great free or inexpensive resources. Membership fees are very reasonable for the services you can access. As a member, you will also hear first of local genealogy conferences or special events, accelerating your learning about how to find out who your ancestors were. 3: Free Genealogy Newsletters on the Internet. Free e-newsletters from genealogists or genealogy companies are excellent resources. As you look at an online genealogy site, search on it for a free newsletter. Examples may be found on Family Tree Magazine, ProGenealogists, Lost Cousins, World Vital Records, Ancestry, Legacy Family Tree, RootsMagic, and many more. Packed full of practical information on general or very specific topics, newsletters are great ways to learn about how to do genealogy research. 4: Message Boards online. Are your ancestors from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, or other places? There is likely to be a Message Board somewhere on that country or region within the country. RootsWeb is one of the largest, with Surname boards, regional, historical, and other boards. Check them out, and click on the link that will explain how to make a great post if you find a perfect message board for your purposes. Look for other message boards in the regions of your ancestors' past residences, there are so many online. Search for "message board and -topic-" to see if there is a message board on for example Ireland (at least 7). A long-lost cousin found me on a message board, so I tend to search them regularly for more information! 5: Surname Associations, Family Associations or Societies. I have been very lucky to have 5 of my ancestor family lines with Family or Surname Associations with professional-level researched family trees I could use immediately, sources and all. What a great boon to my personal genealogy research!With history, documents, photos, maps and more, a surname group may be available for one or more of your ancestors or ancestor lines, available free or a very low membership cost. Search for "-a surname- and family association" and see what turns up online. I receive newsletters from several associations; another has updated information online and available with a membership. Excellent resources. 6: Free: Databases, Charts, Forms. Much is free online these days, or available at your local library. The following Censuses are free to search and view: 1881 U.K., 1881 Canada, 1880 U.S. on most sites. In Canada, Automated Genealogy provides free access to search and view the censuses from 1851/1852, 1901, 1906, 1911. In the U.K., freeBMD will help you find your ancestors' birth, marriage, death record so you can order a copy. Olive Tree Genealogy has free searching of ship passenger lists from the early 1600s. Library & Archives Canada provides free searching and viewing of many documents, records, censuses, and more. Charts and forms are freely available to help keep organize your ancestors, your documents, your research history, your correspondence, and more. Check on any genealogy site for their Free Forms, or Getting Started items. Even government sites which provide any genealogy information will have some downloadable forms and charts for you to use. Check on Cyndi's List to find any specific sites which provide free forms. 7: FamilySearch and Family History Centers. The world's largest database of genealogical records is available through the work of the Mormon Church, the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in Utah. From official records and registers around the world, to individually-submitted family trees, FamilySearch has many sources to help you. Remember to look for the proof or source of the details in every tree or individual as you search. In the Family History Center (FHC) in your community, there are more resources as well, such as free access to commercial databases, books, microfilms of commonly-searched records in specific countries. Staffed by knowledgeable and helpful volunteers, the FHC is an excellent resource for building your family tree. 8: Free Family Tree software. To keep your family tree organized with details, photos, stories, proof/sources, and more, there are many software programs available. Two free versions are (a) the Standard version of Legacy Family Tree (a "Deluxe" version is US$29.95), or (b) the PAF software available from the FamilySearch site (right side of page). Commercial databases sometimes offer a family tree software program free with a one-year subscription; call and see what is possible. Check on Cyndi's List for comparisons of software programs. Get started easily with a program which helps you do all the necessary steps to build your family tree. These eight great resources should help any beginner in Genealogy keep to a budget while learning a great deal about researching their ancestors. Enjoy your searches. Retired from the fields of individual rehabilitation and family counselling, Celia is excited to offer quality information, resources, and services for beginners in Genealogy. If you are a beginner, check out the RootsBasic booklet, at http://www.rootsbasic.com - an inexpensive guide to help you get started, including 16 practical forms to help keep you organized. FREE resources: articles, newsletters, online links and more on RootsBasic:Genealogy for Beginners.

If you plan on researching your ancestry, there are a lot of things that can be done on your own so you do not need to bring in a genealogical research service that you have to pay for. The first step is writing down everything that you already know. This can be done by gathering birth dates, names, dates of death, if applicable, of siblings, grandparents, parents, uncles, and aunts going as far back as you are aware of. If you have information containing the wedding dates this too can be very helpful. After you have gathered all of those pieces of information, turn your attention to one of the many free genealogical search sites that can be found on the internet. You can put the data that you have gathered into the system and search for other people in your family tree. It is likely that you can put together a decent family tree and you never had to get help by paying a genealogy research sites. You will soon discover that there is definitely a connection between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, and the majority of the genealogical search sites. The Mormon religion prescribes "saving ordinances" such as confirmation, baptism, and endowment must be made readily available to each and every person that has ever lived. In order to do this, Mormons identify ancestors and arrange for the ordinances to be performed by proxy in a temple. Because of this, the Mormons have gathered large amounts of genealogical data and publish that information on several websites. This is a list of many different free genealogy databases - Mormon and other sites - that are great places to start. Familysearch.org The site familysearch.org is, like a great deal of the other genealogical services, hosted by the Mormon Church. If you want to perform a search on the available indexes, you must first enter a person's full name including their first, middle, and last names, and then enter which "life event" you are searching for. This could be a marriage, birth / christening, death / burial, or you can select "all." You will be asked, as well, to enter an exact year or even a span of years. The engine will search online birth, church, marriage, death, census, and other resources and will display any matches that are returned. The site also provides links to African American ancestry, Hispanic ancestry (in both Spanish and English), Jewish ancestry and more. If no matches are returned, or if the results do not match what you are looking for, the option to go to other sites to find information is found in links on the results page. Genealinks.com Genealinks.com is a database of online marriage records that provides links to surname queries and other genealogy sites that are more obscure and ones that are better known. On genealinks.com you can search an astounding 30,000 marriage records that have been stored in the United States by using surname, full name, or location. All you need to do is click on a listing of states to go to many different genealogical resources (marriage and others) from that particular state. Many of them operate with very large databases while some of them are personal websites that have been made by genealogical enthusiasts who have put together links and tips to aid in your further research of the records that are online. OliveTreeGenealogy.com The Olive Tree Genealogy site was created by genealogical researcher Lorine McGinnis Schulze to aid people in finding free search sites that she has used in the past. This site contains many links in the categories that follow: Almshouses, Huguenots, Canada, Immigration Tips, Mennonites, Loyalists, Military, New Netherland, Native American, Odds and Ends, Palatine Genealogy, Orphan Records, Passenger Lists, Quakers, Photo Albums, UK Ireland and Ships Search. It also has a guide that is helpful for people that are just starting their experience as a genealogical researcher. There is also a link where readers can provide resources that they have found to be helpful. Rootsweb.Ancestry.Com The site Rootsweb.Ancestry.Com is a subset of Ancestry.com, and is also a Mormon genealogical research entity. On Rootsweb.Ancestry.Com, you will locate a link to a massive list of indexes like surname lists, Social Security Death Indexes, mailing list archives, death records from several states, and an extensive list of records that have been submitted by the users in databases for Australia-New Zealand, Canada, Britain, and many European countries. For the United States, you will find links to state indexes, birth records, African-American records, cemetery records, divorce records, church records, land records, voter and tax lists, and also many other sites. It also offers links to projects that are user-supported like WorldConnect Project. There are also message boards that can be used to browse or search. There are other sites that offer free genealogical databases like ancestorhunt.com, searchforancestors.com, and geneasearch.com. As well as free search resources, the majority of these sites also will provide tips from people who have already completed some pretty extensive genealogical researches on how and where to search. A lot of them also offer user forums that allow you to ask questions and learn from people who, like you, are researching their ancestry. If you are willing to do some digging on the internet then you can locate a lot of no charge information that you can go through completely before you decide to pay for a genealogical search. The word genealogy derives from the Greek "genea," meaning family or race, or "genos" meaning race. It is the study of lineage, tracing family roots as far as possible into the past. There was a time when your lineage dictated your place in life, your future, and your possibilities. In many parts of the world, this still holds true. In democratic societies, lineage may be important, but it does not dictate your future earnings or social position. However, your ancestors bequeathed to you your genetic make-up and a history of events that do contribute a great deal to who you are. Why should anyone want to attempt genealogical research? Today's world is busy and crowded. It's easy to lose touch with your personal roots. Understanding your family's history helps you have a solid sense of who you are and where you're going. Genealogical research strengthens your sense of self in a world of relative strangers. Genealogical research helps you re-connect with long-lost relatives, discover and form relationships with new ones, and bring your modern family together with a common purpose. Learning about your family's ancestors is a way to honor them and their contributions to your life. Solving the mystery of your family's history helps you learn about important historical events that brought your family to where they are today. It lends understanding and appreciation for the hardships and victories that formed your family's values, hopes, and fears. Genealogical research also turns up some very unexpected surprises. People learn about ancestors with colorful and interesting lives - from the illegitimate child who bore the father of royalty to the hero who saved a village to the villain who plundered it. People learn that their ancestry includes different races and combines different cultures. Some people even find long-lost rich uncles and vast inheritances! In North America, where most people descend from immigrants, genealogical research helps you locate far-away family branches. There's no better reason to travel around the world than to meet "new" relatives, who are also a great source of interesting tales about your common ancestors. Sometimes, genealogical research can turn up information to help you understand some rare and mysterious medical condition that seems to plague your family. What you learn might help you identify both genetic and environmental causes and solutions for the problem. In some cases, it might convince you to adopt rather than have your children naturally. Many people have gathered enough interesting, entertaining information about their family to write a book, even a best-seller. Others keep it within the family and create an heirloom volume that future generations will cherish. Okay. I want to learn about my ancestry. Where do I start? Before you begin, you should know that genealogical research can be difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating. You'll run into dead-ends and go on wild goose chases. But the benefits well out-weigh the costs. A good beginning for your genealogical research is to search through public records in communities where your family has lived. Local governments maintain records of births, marriages, and deaths as well as things like land sales and purchases. Local newspapers maintain archives where you can search for your family members' names. Another early step should be interviewing the oldest family members. Get the names of their fathers, mothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Perhaps more personally satisfying, listen to their memories and the stories they learned about your family from their oldest relatives. This should be an early step, as you can't know how long they will be around. And the information you gather from them will give you invaluable clues to follow later. Conducting genealogical research, you become an investigator. You find clues you don't even know are clues until you learn that one fact that puts it together. You find friends of friends of friends that can help. Like Sherlock Holmes or a crime scene investigator, you find the evidence, analyze it, and track down more leads. Using the internet as a source is both fun and profitable. You'll find many websites dedicated to genealogical research that not only give you access to national and international databases of surnames, family branches, and nationalities but that also offer tips and guides that will help you through your journey into the past. You can also find public records online that contain information in places you can't afford to travel. Many families already have websites devoted to their line. Scottish clans, for example, already have a huge amount of research online. You may get lucky and find that a distant relative has already done much of the work for you. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers free to the public access to its Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 3,000 Family History Centers in 64 countries worldwide. While established and maintained to help Mormons trace their ancestry, the information is available to everyone. If you enjoy your research project, you'll probably want to join online communities of genealogical researchers like you. You can share your problems and find solutions that others have already used. You can get hints and tips on where and how to find information. You may even find a distant relative who's engaged in the same pursuit. Most countries have organizations and associations devoted to genealogical research. Family History Societies and governmental agencies have archives and records about families in their country and information on migration patterns and times. Genealogical research is an interesting, exciting project that will produce information about your family and your ancestors to enrich your life and your relationships. It often becomes a family project, bringing together relatives who hardly speak. The more you learn, the more you want to learn, and family friends will want to be part of the adventure. On a personal level, genealogical research can enhance your sense of self, help you feel more grounded in this world, and give you a new perspective on your life and future. Think of your reaction at learning you're related to a famous political figure or, on the other hand, an infamous villain. You might even be in a line of kings! You'll never know about your family history until you take that first step on your journey into the past. Genealogy is an interesting hobby that has many psychological benefits. Technology enables even a non skilled researcher to gain more information faster and more efficiently and in turn benefit significantly! The actual definition of genealogy refers to the tracing of unified languages and the tracing of vital data. Although I will be using the terms interchangeably, family history refers to a number of forms of research which we commonly refer to as genealogy. These forms include; - Genealogy which is using archival records to trace a living person's pedigree from the present back in time or the tracing of a historic person's decadency forward, - Genetic Genealogy which is the comparison of DNA of living individuals to discover relationships. - One-name studies which refer to an investigation of person's with a common surname. - One-place studies which refer to an investigation of the population histories of a particular location. - Heraldic and Peerage studies which refer to the investigation of the legal rights of a person to bear arms or claim noble status. - Clan studies refer to a comparison of individuals with shared patrilineal or matrilineal connection to a tribal chieftain regardless of blood relation or surname. - Family Social and Economic History which refers to the overview of a person's place in society or economic achievements. Information about lives from wider historical sources using oral and written records is utilized. Genealogical research often begins with an approximate notion of the extent of the entity and always ends at or before prehistoric times. The motivation to conduct genealogical research varies from religious belief systems, pride of decent from certain groups, the desire to know medical and family history of an adopted individual or celebrating resilience of families who survived poverty or slavery. Families can celebrate the success of integration across racial or national boundaries. Families have even been known to emphasize their link to celebrity criminals! There are psychological benefits to conducting genealogical research. In its most general sense people adopt this past time as a leisure activity. Any leisure activity will have generic benefits. The psychological benefits of this particular leisure activity are much more significant. A sense of accomplishment and independence is gained from the simple act of researching and compiling information. Tracing family heritage can help elderly people accept the concept of death and mortality. They gain the perspective that they are a part of a long line of relatives that leaves a legacy for future generations. Genealogical research fosters a sense of self worth and belonging by mentally digesting that your ancestors and you yourself play a part in history.

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