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Tracing Your Family Tree Online
Regina LewisAOL Online Advisor
Studies indicate that more than 60 percent of Americans are interested in tracing their roots, but the price tag of anywhere between $30 to more than $100 an hour to hire an accredited genealogist can be prohibitive. Millions are turning to the Internet for help.
Tips to Start Your Search
Here are some tips on making the most of the Internet when it comes to researching your family tree.
Can the Internet really help me?
Absolutely! Online genealogy is one of the fastest growing activities on the Internet because it is empowering so many people to find information that used to take years to compile. There are more than one billion records posted online. Each day, more and more information is taken from microfilm and paper records and digitized online.
Whatever your reason for tracing your family history—a child's school paper, a genetic disease, a death in the family, pure curiosity—if you don't know a lot about computers, it's a great activity to try with a young person who may know more about computers than you do. You'll both learn something along the way!
From uncovering lost relatives to making life-saving discoveries, the success stories are amazing!
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How do I get started?
It starts offline. Gather as much information as you have about your family: names, places, and dates (even if you have to estimate). A lot of online search tools allow estimations. For example, you'll type in a birth date, and it will ask you if that's plus or minus a year or two.
Next, decide what you want to learn about your family. It's easiest to begin by selecting a specific ancestor. Try to make it someone born before 1900. Then work backwards. For instance, start with when and where he or she died. From there you can trace marriage(s), then births. All of this gets plugged into a family history model, and eventually you build a tree.
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How do I know the information is accurate?
There are two kinds of information sources: Information from government sources (like birth and military records, immigration records and the social security death index) and information from books, newspaper articles and the community.
One of the types of resources you may find helpful online are the thousands of message board postings surrounding surnames with people looking for and providing information. If you have a common last name, like Lewis or Smith, be prepared to be inundated with possible information. There's a lot of sharing that goes on and a real sense of community surrounding these efforts.
Wherever you get information from, it's important to remember to make sure it's relevant to your family, and not just a family with your last name. For example, if the government record indicates your great, great grandfather was born in Ohio, and you have several other pieces of information you know to be true, then you have confirmed a piece of your family tree. If you get information from a message board, "yes, I once knew your grandmother," the onus is on you to contact the person providing the information to verify its accuracy.
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Are resources free? What kind of investment is required?
Some of the basic information is free. As you get deeper, there are annual subscription fees for access to information such as Census Bureau forms, usually about $40 per year. By far the biggest investment you'll make is time. Most people chip away at this over weeks and months.
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Where should I go online? What are the best sites?
Helpful sites include:
FamilySearch Internet Genealogy is another terrific free site from
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If your ancestors were
slaves, FamilySearch has databases such as The Freedman's Bank Records
for sale that contain records of hundreds of thousands of family names.
The Freedman's Bank Records CD costs $6.50. It can be ordered over the
Internet or call 1-800-537-5971 and ask for item #50120.www.familysearch.org
The Statue of Liberty—Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
This free site has immigration records from 1892–1924: you can purchase
pictures of your ancestor's ship and the ship's manifest.http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/
Ancestry.com, one of the most popular sites, has many different levels of
subscriptions and tools ranging from $99 per year to $24 per quarter (depending
on how long you'll want access to their files or census records).
www.ancestry.com
Genealogy.com offers free tools, but as you get deeper into your search the
tools you will need (such as census records) will cost money.
www.genealogy.com
Rootsweb.com is "the oldest and largest free genealogy site"—its
purpose is to connect people and give them a forum for sharing their research.
www.rootsweb.com
Genealogy Forum, hosted by Rootsweb, is another of the free older genealogy
sites that is primarily a community resource.
www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/gfaol/beginners/
ICAPGen will help you find an accredited genealogist if you want to go the offline route.http://icapgen.org
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Start Your Family Tree Today!
A family tree is really a Pedigree Chart. Click here for a printable version of a Pedigree Chart. Start by filling in as much information about your family as you currently know, and as you conduct your research watch it grow!
To learn more about finding your family history, download research forms, and search genealogical databases, all at no charge, visit ancestors.com
More from Oprah's Book Club
Explore more survivors' stories in Night.
Once Vice President of Sun Microsystems, Lalita Tademy quit her job and began searching for her ancestors. The rich history she uncovered became the novel
Cane River.
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