Tracing genealogy???? HELP?

Torri Tippey: First, start by asking all your living relatives about family history and get any documents or pictures they are willing to share with you for your files. You can photocopy or scan these and return them to their owner. Your public libraries will most likely have both Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest.com free for 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 USGenWeb at http://www.usgenweb.org/ this sprawling all-volunteer site is packed with how-to tips, queries and records for every state and most counties within those states. Special projects usgenweb.org/projects cover subjects such as censuses, tombstones and family group sheets. Do not miss the easy-to-overlook search of the entire site http://searches.rootsweb.ancestry.com/htdig/search... Then, there is Rootsweb at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ a free site hosted by Ancestry.com where you can search for s! urnames and leave queries on the message boards. Additionally, there is the LDS/Mormon site, which has many free online records at http://www.familysearch.org/ . In addition to their online records, they have the Family History Centers where you can go to get help with research and look at microfilm and microfiche and they only charge if they have to order something for you or you need photocopies. Finally, if you need software to organize your genealogy data you can download their Personal Ancestral File [PAF] free at http://www.familysearch.org/ .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...And, do not forget to check Cyndi’s List at http://www.cyndislist.com/ and ProGeneal! ogist top 50 genealogist websites [the fee ones are marked wit! h a $] at > http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2009....both of these sites have many links for both free and fee based sites but I believe most of the fee based ones are marked with a $.I am certain I could list many more websites but this list is rather comprehensive while being easy on the wallet, which is something everyone can appreciate these days....Show more

Lillie Yarde: So many people ask this question that we top 10 all have a copy-and-paste answer to it. You may get 3 - 4 of them. All 10 are in the resolved questions. There is quite a bit of overlap - for instance, we ALL suggest the LDS site - but we each have our favorite sites and tips. You'd learn a lot in a short amount of time if you browsed them. That said, here's mine:There are over 400,000 free genealogy sites. I have a page that has links to some huge ones, below, but you'll have to wade through some advice and warnings first.If you didn't mention a country, we can't tell if you are in t! he USA, UK, Canada or Australia. I'm in the USA and my links are for it. If you are in the USA, AND most of your ancestors were in the USA, AND you can get to a library or FHC with census access, AND you are whiteThen you can get most of your ancestors who were alive in 1850 with 100 - 300 hours of research. You can only get to 1870 if you are black, sadly. Many young people stop reading here and pick another hobby.No web site is going to tell you how your great grandparents decorated the Christmas tree with ornaments cut from tin foil during the depression, how Great Uncle Elmer wooed his wife with a banjo, or how Uncle John paid his way through college in the 1960's by smuggling herbs. Talk to your living relatives before it is too late.You won't find living people on genealogy sites. You'll have to get back to people living in 1930 or so by talking to relatives, looking up obituaries and so forth.Finally, not everything you read on the internet is true. You have to be ca! utious and look at people's sources. Cross-check and verify. So much fo! r the warnings. Here is the main link:http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.htmlIt has links toCyndi's List.com - A catalog of 250,000 sites;Family Search.org - the LDS mega-site;RootsWeb.com, plus sub-links toRootsWeb World Connect - almost 600,000,000 entries;RootsWeb Social Security Death Index;RootsWeb California Death Index, 1940 - 1997;Ancestry.com - some of their pages are free, includingAncestry.com's page on Surname meanings and origins;Ancestry.com's Query boards - 160,000 of themUS Gen Web, with sites for each state and each county within each state;Superpages.com, a US phone book for looking up living relatives;Find-a-Grave.com - 35 million entries;GenForum.com - 50,000+ real genealogy query boards;My page has links, plus tips and hints on how to use the sites. Having one real link here in the answer and a dozen links on my personal site gets around two problems. First, Y!A limits us to 10 links in an answer. Second, if one or more of the links are popular, I get "W! e're taking a breather" when I try to post the answer. This is a bug introduced sometime in August 2008 with the "new look".You will need the tips. Just for instance, most beginners either put too much data into the RWWC query page, expect too much accuracy, or mistake the Ancestry ads at the top for the query form. I used to teach a class on Internet Genealogy at the library. I watched the mistakes beginners made. The query forms on the sites are not really intuitive....Show more

Sabra Roers: Why don't you start with the Mormon Church's Family History Centerswww.familyhistory.org