Free Genealogy Research

By  JR Minor

We have all seen those ads on TV about clicking on the leaf and finding all this information on your family history! While some of this is true, the process is not quite as easy as clicking on a leaf and presto it all appears! To make matters more complicated the cost of the service is not cheap, and usually only last six months at best! Adding to that, many of the popular free sites have and are being bought up by these large service providers until soon there will be no free competition left!

The good news is that you still can do a lot of free research before hand so if you have to use the paid ones you will be well prepared before you spend a lot of cash! And we are going to use the resources of the US Government to do it!

Start At The Beginning

Build a family tree by starting with yourself and siblings, then your mother and father, grandparents, and whatever you know first. Leave blanks with question marks if you just don’t know, and fill them later when you do! HERE is a simple one you can download, or HERE is a six generation one you may like!

Where To Research

The United States Census Bureau Provides data from it’s Population and Housing Census which it collects in 10 year increments. This data is provided about every resident living in the United States! The agency also gathers data through more than 100 other surveys of households and businesses every one to five years. You can research and collect data from these surveys or find popular quick facts.

Historical Records

Historical and government records can help you trace your heritage and build your family tree. Check out the links below and read the “Resources for Genealogists”

The National Archives and Records Administration
 
Also check out these pages at -- Resources for genealogists

Records of military service from the Revolutionary War to the present

Census data from 1790 - 1940, and ship passenger arrival records from 1820 - 1982

Information categorized by research topic from African American to Japanese American research and from court records to tax records.
Other Resources To Follow

State archives contain historical information including state census, microfilm, Native American records, and pioneer certificates
Grave site Locator

The Nationwide Grave site Locator - Find burial locations of veterans
Native American Heritage

The Department of the Interior – guide to Tracing Your Native American heritage
Ellis Island Foundation

The Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation – 51 million passenger records
searchable database – Ancestors who entered the United States there

The American Fact finder Website – This is a Large data base of hundreds of different types of data on population, businesses, economic, and other censuses! They also provide a how to guide for research HERE

The American Fact Finder Website
Other Non Government Sources

Midwest Genealogy Research Center (Division Of Mid-Continent Public Library System)

WorldCat – Connects you to the collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide

United States Online Historical Directories – A work in progress but a good State by State Listing

California Digital Newspaper Collection – This collection contains 344,588 issues comprising 4,278,211 pages and 24,856,450 articles.

Family Search – This is the only truly free genealogy search website left – You will have to sign in but it is still free at this writing!

You may need to download a PDF reader if you are using a PC – Download it from the link below
(PDF, Download Adobe Reader).

There are many good ways to research a family history without using the internet! Much of the digital world is still missing millions of books, photos, and records that have not been digitized as yet. The best place to start is to visit your local main library branch and get a free library card. Many of these books and documents are locally written and kept in the research department and cannot be checked out! You can make copies or use your phone camera to collect the data and properly sort it when you get home. 

A day trip to the local Courthouse and Record Of Deeds can also unveil a wealth of information from wills to arrest records! You would be shocked, and maybe addicted, to what you can find digging around in these places! But whatever you wind up doing, share the info with others, and have a good time!