Are there any free sites that you can go to, to look up old friends and family m

Question:

Are there any free sites that you can go to, to look up old friends and family members?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Before I paste my stock answer, a warning - all of these except for the phone book are for dead family members, going back as far as the 1600's. Try the phone book one or zabasearch.com for the living ones. Genealogy, the category you posted in, is about dead ancestors. You may have been misled, or the automatic category chooser may have made a mistake.

Here is my standard answer.

These questions come up every day:

Where can I find my family tree for free?
Does anyone know the {Surname} family?
What are good sites for ancestors / genealogy?

They are all about tracing your family tree on the Internet. I am not chastising you for failing to search the resolved questions first. I am explaining why this is the same answer I gave to many other people. The fourth time I typed my favorite beginner's links I realized I should save them in a text file and paste them in. This is a long, detailed and general answer. Because it is general, some of the links (or paragraphs) may not apply to your question.

These may help get you started. They are large and free. Many of them, however, have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements.

http://www.cyndislist.com/
(240,000+ links, all cross-indexed. If you want Welsh or Pennsylvania Dutch or Oregon or any other region, ethnic group or surname, chances are she has links for it.)

http://www.familysearch.com
(Mormon's mega-site. Click on "Search", to start with, or "Advanced Search")

Roots Web
http://www.rootsweb.com
and in particular,
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.c...
(Roots Web World Connect; 460,000,000+ entries, of varying quality)

Ancestry.com
http://www.ancestry.com/
(which has free pages and FEE pages - so watch out)
and, in particular,
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa...
Surname meanings and origins

http://www.tedpack.org/begingen.html...
My own site: "How to Begin"

United States only:

http://www.usgenweb.net/
(Subdivided into state sites, which all have county sites.)
(The Canadians have Canadian Gen Web, by province)

http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-b...
(Social Security Death index - click on "Advanced". You may find your grandparents.)

http://find.person.superpages.com/...
(US Phone book, for looking up distant cousins)

United Kingdom Only:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/
(Biggest site for United Kingdom & Ireland)

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
(Free Birth, Marriage & Death Records)

(If you posted your question in Genealogy, ignore this paragraph. If you posted it in the "Family" category, read on.)
Tracing your family tree is called genealogy. YA has a category for genealogy,
Home > Arts & Humanities > Genealogy
There are hundreds of more links in the resolved answers there.

In the USA, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it.

Notes:

You usually have to do some research. Sometimes you get lucky. Don't give up if your Great grandfather with your surname isn't there. Try all eight great-grandparents.

You won't find living people on any of the sites except the phone book one. You won't find many people born after 1920 on any of the sites except the SSDI one. Genealogists hide the birth dates, birth places and other facts of living people to protect their privacy. You will have to find your grandparents' or great grandparents' birth dates and maiden names somewhere besides the Internet.

The best way to get started is to ask your oldest living relatives about themselves and their parents. You may find great-grandpa's death date and burial place on the web, but only his children, your grandfather and grandaunt, can tell you what sort of man he was.

The free sites are supported by advertising, just like TV. You can't watch the Super Bowl without seeing a beer commercial, and you can't surf for dead relatives without seeing an Ancestry advertisement. Many people complain about advertisements. Please don't. They bring you the "free" sites. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

If you get serious you'll need a genealogy program. They are to family research what "Word" is to writing a novel. I like Roots Magic. Family Tree Maker is the market leader. Both cost around $29. The Mormons will let you download PAF for free. It is clunky, but it is free. You can sometimes find old versions of FTM or Family Origins (FO is the predecessor of RM) in bargin bins at CostCo.

This is a general hint: Even though you go in through YA Canada, YA Australia, YA UK or YA USA, all of the questions go into one big "pot" and get read by everyone in the world who speaks English. Most of the people here are in the UK and USA, but you sometimes get questions and answers from people who worry about kangaroos eating their roses. So - put a nation, or, better yet, if you are asking about a specific individual, a nation and a state / province, in all of your questions. It will help people help you.