Any idea how to research your family tree online for free?

[Craig-j 10]

I'm trying to trace my family tree online, but most of the sites cost. Is there a free alternative to do it online or any tricks to doing it?

[DUFFEMS 51]

It all costs unfortunately! You can get birth/marriage/death regsistrations details on FreeBMD but, unless you buy the certificates at about £7:00 each when you've found a relative it's not easy to continue without buying the certificate because all the information you need is on the certifcate, not online.

You can trawl records at Archives/Local Studies which is free and this used to be the only method available but, it's very time consuming and doesn't meet the criteria you asked for free "family tree online".

The best system is to subscribe to Ancestry/FindmyPast which costs, nowt comes free.

[Blackbeard 10]

Try your local library, I think all have a basic subscription to Ancestry.com. The best £10 I ever spent was to join Genes Reunited and let my related families help with my research

[DUFFEMS 51]

Try your local library, I think all have a basic subscription to Ancestry.com. The best £10 I ever spent was to join Genes Reunited and let my related families help with my research

 

That's a good suggestion Blackbeard as all the libraries now have Ancestry subscriptions it will just take you longer to research as you'll probably have to book and do your research in allocated time slots (I assume, I could be wrong).

 

Genes Reunited is O.K. provided that the other people posting on there have done their research correctly, when I looked at my family on there I'm afraid there were all kinds of errors, birth dates out by years and married to the wrong partners etc.

 

Duffems

[winks 10]

If your rellies come from Sheffield, a couple of excellent sites are Sheffield Indexers and Sheffield Records on Line, if you have time book a computor at the Local Studies Library in Sheffield and go on Ancestry site there.

[devlin 10]

I'm trying to trace my family tree online, but most of the sites cost. Is there a free alternative to do it online or any tricks to doing it?

 

As another poster said use Free BMD and also IGI is free. If you type this into google the family search website will come up, this is free and has some census and BMD info if its been catalogued. This is the Latter Day Saints site and its a good resource. Personally I subscribe to Ancestry, it costs me about £90 a year..... depends on how much you will use it. FH is a hobby of mine and I get hours and hours of usage a week let alone a year so I dont think it's bad value for money..... could actually spend that in under a month going to football games or such like I reckon?

[Nodens 10]

Try your local library, I think all have a basic subscription to Ancestry.com. The best £10 I ever spent was to join Genes Reunited and let my related families help with my research

 

As DUFFEMS says:

 

Be very wary of information from acquired from Genes Reunited members, it can be helpful but...

 

I provided people with information I'd researched, before the advent of computers, travelling as far afield as Kendal and Carlisle. Only for some related people to post parts of my family tree on the Genes Reunited website and get many details wrong. Some people actually made wild assumptions which were untrue - as a result I cancelled my subscription

 

As with all genealogical research, it has to be double-checked to verify it's accuracy.

Edited October 19, 2009 by Nodens

[Iwork2shop 10]

You can actually join ancestry for a 14 day free trial. I did that a couple of years ago and managed to find out loads of stuff. I think you need to register your credit/debit card when you enroll for the trial and all you have to do is make sure you cancel before the 14 day trial is up and it won't cost you a penny. It really is that simple!

 

A word of warning though - family history is SO addictive! Once you start it's hard to stop!

[wain 10]

Craig

FamilySearch.org

is totally free.

The Mormon Church make it available to anyone and it covers most of the world.

have been researching family history for years and use them all the time.

Margaret

[Minimo 59]

I am offering free look-ups on the 1911 census for SFers.

Just pm me, try to include as much detail as possible and I will do my best.

 

Please note, this offer is now withdrawn regrettably.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Minimo
Changed circumstances

[Gingerbarf 10]

I am offering free look-ups on the 1911 census for SFers.

Just pm me, try to include as much detail as possible and I will do my best.

 

Hi Minimo,

I think what your doing is great, I do the same with my ancestry subscription whenever I have free time or hit a brick wall, but please be careful of the fair usage policy find my past have, it limits you to an average 5000 credits a month over a 3 month period, this works out at less than 6, 1911 images a day. at the moment i've been subscribed 4 days and viewed over 50 1911 images so they soon add up.

Martin

[Nodens 10]

You'll find the Family History Centre at the Mormon church at Grenoside will let you research there and are very helpful.