by Jessica Collins

Created on: August 26, 2008   Last Updated: September 28, 2010

I have been working on my family genealogy for a year now. I started when I became pregnant with my daughter. I wanted her to know where she came from, and researching her family tree became my pregnancy project. Here are a few of the free websites I found that were great sources of information.

1. www.familysearch.org This is the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. This organization has done a ton of family research as a part of their religious calling, and they present it freely for anyone to search.

2. www.rootsweb.com The best part of this site for me was the family tree section, which is called WorldConnect. Anyone can post their family tree research here, and if you can find a common ancestor, you can get back several generations. It is also easy to compare and contrast several family trees to check for errors. There are also links to connect to each state's GenWeb project where you can gather more free information from state census records, state cemetery records, and more!

3. www.gencircles.com This site has some portions that require payment, but other portions connect you to other people's personal family history sites.

3. www.genealogy.com and www.ancestry.com While neither of these sites is completely free, some of the forum conversations are freely available. If you can connect with a few other people who are researching the same surname as you, trading information on different branches of your tree can be helpful to you both! Also, genealogy.com offers a search option that can connect you to personal family history pages that others have created on the web.

4. www.google.com Never underestimate the value of a general Internet search! You might stumble upon a family history site all about the surname you are searching for.

5. www.findagrave.com I have only been able to locate a couple of my relatives on this site, but for the few I have found, it has been fantastic. There are often family burial grounds, so if you can locate one relative, other relatives are often listed nearby. You can get birth and death dates, which are very helpful when ordering birth or death certificates.

All of these websites are great places to start gathering free information about your family genealogy. I highly recommend beginning to build your family tree using these sites, then subscribe for a month or two to a site like Ancestry.com to confirm your information, download copies of census records and draft cards, and add even more generations to your family history!

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