Looking for some good *free* ancestry/genealogy websites.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I think the title pretty much sums it up. I googled for a while, but I'm just wondering if anybody has any good sites they might use or have used in the past.

[ManOfTheBeer]

www.familysearch.org is a site run by the Church of Latter Day Saints and has a general compilation of many transcribed census records. You cannot view the original record via this site, so keep in mind that census takers often misspelled names like crazy back in the day.

 

Rootsweb is a free version of Ancestry.com and seems to be fairly forum-based. Still, if you're looking for a breakthrough on a family name, this is a good resource.

 

Two really obvious things that I missed when I started out in genealogy were just simple google (I see you did that already). I would just put a person's names in quotes in google and see what came up. I broke through a few brick walls using this method. You may have select the "Translate" option for some, but I was able to locate some German church records online using google. Another side option is to search for a name and select "Books"...you can sometimes view pages of some regional historical guides for the person in question.

 

A final option is using the Yahoo! Answers community. If you have a profile, log in and ask a question about the person or place in question. Put your question in the following category: Arts & Humanities > Genealogy and you should get an answer(s). Many of the genealogy answerers have an Ancestry.com subscription and don't mind copying and pasting info that they'll search for you. I've been helped a ton there.

 

Good luck!

[RyDogg66]

I used ancestry.com last year about this time. First I gathered what I could from family members and added it all into acestry.com's free portion. Then I did the free two week trial and spent about 2-3 hours a night, every night, for two weeks tracking down everything I could. By the 3rd or 4th night I had gotten pretty good at it and bottom line is that I cancelled my subscription before the billing kicked in and I still got most of my family traced back the when they came over and where they can from, which is what I set out to do.

[1992casey]

I would just put a person's names in quotes in google and see what came up.

 

If you know anything about events that would have drawn extra attention to a person, you might be able to google those events or people involved with those events. In an effort to learn a bit about a cousin who was murdered, I had more luck googling the name of the murderer and the name of the sheriff who was killed investigating the murder than I did by googling the cousin.

 

In the process, I ran across newspaperarchive.com. It's a paid site. Other than three articles related to the aforementioned murder (two of them unnamed), I found it very difficult to determine what I might gain by subscribing. Does anyone have any experience with this site?

 

I did a few test searches on www.familysearch.org. I found several of the people that I attempted to look up. It bothered me that it displays social security numbers, though. Granted, this information is on death certificates, but displaying them on this site makes them too dang available. My mom's been gone just over a year, and the site lists her number. The time frame is still well within the window of opportunity for some pretty good scams against survivors to be initiated.

[hawing]

Ancestry.com is also available at many public libraries (including the Hedberg in Janesville), though licensing restrictions mean you have to visit to use them.

 

Should you have the time and inclination to get to Madison, the Wisconsin Historical Society Library is a huge genealogical resource (both print and online). Please send me a PM if you would like more information on that. WHS is my employer, though I don't work directly with the genealogy stuff.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Hawing, I work in Madison (I must love the commute!) so that's a resource I'd likely be able to tap. The online resources would probably be more up my alley though, as I'd simply have more time to be able to utilize them.

 

Here's another interesting question that I'll pose, more for just the fun of it, and it's what's lead me on this "crusade", as it were. Has anyone ever spent their life knowing their family history, and then found something out that was entirely contradictory to what they "knew" to be true?

[hawing]

Has anyone ever spent their life knowing their family history, and then found something out that was entirely contradictory to what they "knew" to be true?

About a year before he died (at age 91), my maternal grandfather casually mentioned to my uncle that his biological father wasn't who everyone thought it was. The "real" father took off when Grandpa was a baby, and he got his surname from his mother's next husband.

My mom and her sisters were a little rocked by that admission, but it didn't bowl me over - probably because I hadn't given the issue much thought to begin with.

 

But in general, surprises like that are not an uncommon outcome in genealogy research. My library has seen its share of researchers who discovered something odd or occasionally even sordid (like criminal activity) about their ancestors.

 

RoCo, I have some more website information that's not in a handy postable format, so I sent you a PM about it.

[ManOfTheBeer]

RoCoBrewfan wrote:

Has anyone ever spent their life knowing their family history, and then found something out that was entirely contradictory to what they "knew" to be true?

I think of lot of people with a keen interest in genealogy start off trying to "figure something out" that has eluded the family to this point. For me, it was my discovery that my paternal grandmother was adopted. She found out late in life that she was adopted, and was so angry she didn't investigate anything. All 8 of her children took the hands-off approach too. When I started looking into my grandmother's birth information, I had two uncles actually get angry and tell me to stop...I understand adoption was and can be a touchy subject, but I obviously had no intentions of contacting the original family's descendents for a get together. I just wanted to know my roots. I came to a dead end when I found the original birth certificate and had two genealogists tell me it was their opinion that one or both parents' names were fabricated on the document.

 

Still, the whole hunt started a small fire of interest in genealogy for me. From false names to misspelled village names to hidden clues in census records, genealogy holds an appeal for many because of the investigation side of the hobby.

 

Hawing is definitely correct that many libraries have free Ancestry.com subscriptions, but it's not quite the same subscription as a personal one with your own tree. You do have access to many documents via a library subscription, but the family tree clues that the site suggests are unique to a subscription with a saved family tree. Ancestry will suggest merging data from someone else's tree that appears to blend with your own (a discerning eye will catch the differences, if they exist) as well as suggesting records (census, military, death) for members of your family tree. This is particularly useful when dealing with an ancestor who picked up and moved halfway across the state for no good reason http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

 

1992casey - I completely agree with SS# access on familysearch.org. I guess it comes with the record, but you're right, it could/should be hidden.

[ManOfTheBeer]

I would just put a person's names in quotes in google and see what came up.

 

If you know anything about events that would have drawn extra attention to a person, you might be able to google those events or people involved with those events. In an effort to learn a bit about a cousin who was murdered, I had more luck googling the name of the murderer and the name of the sheriff who was killed investigating the murder than I did by googling the cousin.

You're right, and in addition to this, the name of a place along with the person's name is helpful as well. The place name may require some massaging as well. For example, I was googling a person's name and a village in Wisconsin. When nothing came up, I tried the person's name and the county name. That had a hit, because of some county marriage records...just try a few different options...you'd be amazed at what google can find when it comes to genealogy.

[homer]

Here's another interesting question that I'll pose, more for just the fun of it, and it's what's lead me on this "crusade", as it were. Has anyone ever spent their life knowing their family history, and then found something out that was entirely contradictory to what they "knew" to be true?

My whole life I thought my mom's side was Irish. Then about five years ago my mom told me that her dad thought he was Scottish. Even more crazy is that his brother thought they were Irish. So I'm not really sure if I'm irish or scottish - I'm probably both given the mutt nature of my lineage. I do know that I'm a direct descendant of Lady Godiva...so, there's that.

[RyDogg66]

As far as direct descendants go, Im born from Davy Crockett of all people.

[ManOfTheBeer]

I do know that I'm a direct descendant of Lady Godiva...so, there's that.

Riding naked on horseback does not make one a direct descendant of Lady Godiva. It merely makes one well-acquainted with various profanities and pepper spray, courtesy of West Bend's finest officers. Or so I've heard.

[homer]

Did you know that the term Peeping Tom was first coined when some dude named Tom took a peek at Ms Godiva as she rode through the streets? I believe Fatter than Joey is a direct descendant of his.

[NeedMoreFans]

Has anyone ever spent their life knowing their family history, and then found something out that was entirely contradictory to what they "knew" to be true?

Yep, that happened to me. I was told growing up that I was a direct descendant of a brother of John Adams. Well, after doing my research, I found that that is not true. I did find out, however, that a part of my family came here in the 1650s, were some of the first people to free their slaves, and had an active part in the underground railroad. I also found out that farther back, in the 1500s, my family were a part of the English nobility, and the roots do go back to William the Conqueror. Another part of the family was royalty in a German principality, before Germany was unified.

[hawing]

Some of the published genealogies at my library purport to trace their family back to Adam and Eve. I haven't read them to see if they literally did this (and if so, how).

[DuWayne Steurer]

My whole life I thought my mom's side was Irish. Then about five years ago my mom told me that her dad thought he was Scottish. Even more crazy is that his brother thought they were Irish. So I'm not really sure if I'm irish or scottish - I'm probably both given the mutt nature of my lineage. I do know that I'm a direct descendant of Lady Godiva...so, there's that.

NEVER tell a Scot that there's no different between a Scot and an Irish.

[ManOfTheBeer]

NEVER tell a Scot that there's no different between a Scot and an Irish.

True, but that's a bit of a white lie told to the Scots to keep them from feeling inferior.

[DuWayne Steurer]

NEVER tell a Scot that there's no different between a Scot and an Irish.

True, but that's a bit of a white lie told to the Scots to keep them from feeling inferior.

 

That's for you me and everybody not a Scot to know, and them to never find out.

[Diskono]

Once I traced my family back to Duncan I of Scotland (of Macbeth fame). Then I realised that I picked the wrong person with the same name along the way. I am not actually related to any Shakespeare characters that I'm aware of.

[1992casey]

I haven't figured out if this site is totally free or if just part of it is, but here goes:

 

Ancestor Search | Genealogy Search Engines

 

One thing that the site has is a cousins calculator. You can use it to see how you're related to descendants of a common ancestor. They actually got the calculator here: Mother of All Cousins Calculators. It has the code to include the calculator if you happen to be listing your genealogy in web page format.

 

If one of your ancestors is well known, you might be able to find some of his or her descendants via sources as simple as Wikipedia. If an exact relationship is listed, you can plug yourself and this person into the calculator to see how you're related. As an example, I'm both 8th cousins 4 times removed and 9th cousins 2 times removed to Senator John Kerry. (That's provided that I remember my exact relationship to our common ancestors; I might be one "great" off. My dad has the book. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif)

 

Having more than one relationship with a person isn't a surprise. A genealogy at my dad's house lists me as his cousin two different ways. While I haven't figured that out, I do know that I'm a 1st cousin 4 times removed to two of my 2nd great grandparents; they were first cousins when they were married.

 

Here's a question I'm not finding an answer to: what's a double great grandparent? I see internet references saying that so and so is "double 5th great grandfather of." Would that be a case where you can trace yourself back to a great grandparent two different ways? (I can do that above; my 2nd great grandparents share a set of grandparents.)

[Fatter than Joey]

I also found out that farther back, in the 1500s, my family were a part of the English nobility, and the roots do go back to William the Conqueror.

 

Mine are as well.

[1992casey]

If you're of European descent, it's often pretty easy to go way far back like that. Church records contain a lot of information. You just have to figure out where you tie in. After that, you'll likely find that someone else has done the work.

 

It's not so easy if your ancestors come from another continent. For instance, my sister in law is Chinese; she only has information on ancestors that were born in the United States.

 

Anyway, I wanted to offer a hint about www.familysearch.org. Its searches are in frames. If you want to bookmark them, you need to break them out of the frame. In Firefox, you'd right-click anywhere in the window. Then in the "This Frame" submenu, you'd choose "Show Only This Frame," "Open Frame in New Window," or "Open Frame in New Tab."

 

EDIT: familysearch.org has fixed the frame issue. Search results can now be bookmarked in a "normal" fashion.

[1992casey]

Has anyone ever poked around on findagrave.com? I've found some great information over there.

 

My main complaint is that some contributors are a bit too ambitious. One person, for instance, has put up 106,555 pages and doesn't appear to maintain them. It's a pain because you're not supposed to put up duplicate pages for the same person. You're supposed to submit suggestions, pictures, etc. to the person who added the page. It appears that findagrave.com has recognized this and is readily transferring management of his pages to other people. In other cases, people have put up duplicates (and done a much better job).

 

My secondary complaint is privacy. There are a lot of obituaries posted that contain the names of living people. My name is in two of them. I've opted not to ruffle feathers by asking the owner of the pages to remove the obits because so much of what he's contributed has been invaluable to filling in blanks in previous generations.

 

Caveats aside, I highly recommend this site. I also recommend adding your close relatives to the site simply so you can gain editorial control over their pages. If you don't enter them, someone else will. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif