whats a good *free* genealogy site?

Olin Hallin: There are over 400,000 free genealogy sites. I have links to some huge ones, below, but you'll have to wade through some advice and warnings first.If you didn't mention a country, we can't tell if you are in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia. I'm in the USA and my links are for it. If you are in the USA, AND most of your ancestors were in the USA, AND you can get to a library or FHC with census access, AND you are whiteThen you can get most of your ancestors who were alive in 1850 with 100 - 300 hours of research. You can only get to 1870 if you are black, sadly. Many young people stop reading here and pick another hobby.No web site is going to tell you how your great grandparents decorated the Christmas tree with ornaments cut from tin foil during the depression, how Great Uncle Elmer wooed his wife with a banjo, or how Uncle John paid his way through college in the 1960's by smuggling herbs. Talk to your living relatives before it is too late.You won't find ! living people on genealogy sites. You'll have to get back to people living in 1930 or so by talking to relatives, looking up obituaries and so forth.Finally, not everything you read on the internet is true. You have to be cautious and look at people's sources. Cross-check and verify. So much for the warnings. Here is the main link.http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.htmlThat page has links, plus tips and hints on how to use the sites, for a dozen huge free sites. Having one link here in the answer and a dozen links on my personal site gets around two problems. First, Y!A limits us to 10 links in an answer. Second, if one or more of the links are popular, I get "We're taking a breather" when I try to post the answer. This is a bug introduced sometime in August 2008 with the "new look".You will need the tips. Just for instance, most beginners either put too much data into the RWWC query page, or they mistake the Ancestry ads at the top for the query form. I used to teach a clas! s on Internet Genealogy at the library. I watched the mistakes! beginners made. The query forms on the sites are NOT intuitive....Show more

Hope Lundmark: www.familysearch.orgwww.rootsweb.comwww.gencircles.comThose will get you started!...Show more

Romeo Tinnea: What is a good site for you may not be a good site for someone else. Which site is best depends upon when & where your ancestors came over. Here is my short list:You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc. Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).A third option is one of the following web! sites:http://www.searchforancestors.com/... http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739... www dot usgenweb dot com/ www dot census dot gov/ http://www.rootsweb.com/ www dot ukgenweb dot com/ www dot archives dot gov/ http://www.familysearch.org/ http://www.accessgenealogy.com/... http://www.cyndislist.com/ www dot geni dot com/Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.Good luck and have fun!Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:www dot associatedcontent dot com/article...Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the ha! nky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on t! he internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program....Show more

Irvin Guiles: It's a bit late now, I'll find the one I go through tomorrow and let you know, but by then, you will have some replies

Marion Wieboldt: www.cyndislist.com It is the largest collection (thousands ) of genealogy resources. To succeed at research, you need to shift to thinking of MANY sites, not one "best" site. Your ancestors will be in many places. There is a great beginner section at cyndi's.