| Part I -
Interview Family Members: Start with what you and your family already know
about the close generations of your kin. The key is to get it organized and recorded. Part
II - Google Searches: Thanks to a wealth of genealogy detail on plain
HTML Web pages, a basic Google search can turn up information on your ancestors, for free.
Part
III - Census Records: Census documents offer a wealth of details about family
members. See how FamilySearch.org can help you start census research for free.
Part
IV - Immigration Records: Using free online immigration databases for
Castle Garden and Ellis Island in New York City can help you discover when ancestors
arrived
Part
V - Charts & Forms: Before going too much further, obtain forms and
charts for organizing your research and the family details you discover. Links to a wealth
of free forms, charts and more provided.
Part
VI - Rootsweb.com: This free Web-based service allows people to upload
information they have gathered about ancestors -- and lets others find the postings via a
search tool. As you work to fill in details on your ancestors, check to see if any
are included here.
Part
VII - Email Lists: Rootsweb.com offers more than 30,000 email discussion
lists based on surnames, U.S. states, international countries or other. You can connect
with people with genealogy interests similar to yours -- and you may find just the missing
information you've been needing.
Part
VIII - GenForums: Genealogy.com offers a large number of free online forums
for surnames, states, counties and countries. Learn how they can really help you make
discoveries.
Part
IX - USGenWeb: Extraordinary volunteers transcribe documents, run Web sites
and more. Learn how the network of county and state sites within USGenWeb can help you.
Part
X - City Directories: Transcribed early city directories -- whether
online or in a library -- can help you discover your ancestors' line of work, their
residential address and the time period they lived in a certain locale. And perhaps
illuminate how your ancestors met their mates.
Part
XI - Obituaries: Obituaries can help fill in your family story, both with
specific facts you've been seeking and also a sense of an ancestor's life.
Part
XII - Multiple Documents: Gathering many different documents and records on a
single person or family will help you produce a hightly accurate family tree or history --
and can help you break through a brick wall in research. These will likely will come at a
modest cost.
Part
XIII - Continuous Correspondence: To keep moving forward, keep up a
steady flow of correspondence with cousins, people who post about a surname of interest,
genealogy and history societies and more.
Part
XIV - Alumni Class Notes: If your ancestors attended a college or university,
you may find class notes on engagements, weddings, births, careers, awards and, at the
end, obituaries.
Part
XV - Books: If your ancestors had their lives recorded in biosketches,
memoirs, biographies or family genealogy books, your own family research will benefit.
This is a series of genealogy and family history
research ideas to help you find your family and ancestors for modest or no cost. |
VISIT OUR 
Click banner to find great products for 135 breeds from Affenpinscher to 