Family roots?

Question:

Family roots?

I want to find my family roots does anyone no a website were i can trace my family roots for free?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Free sites are one thing, getting results from them may well be another. However there are a few step by step processes that should give you a fair amount of information.

Step one: www.familysearch.org
This site is free, has records from all around the world, and has the most indexed names except for Ancestry.com (which is a subscription site). That situation however will not last much longer than a few years as Family Search is on a very aggressive volunteer effort to index every microfilm they have ever taken. There are two aspects to Family Search that are important, first you can do searches based on the names of your ancestors and will likely get some hits. The LDS church which owns Family Search has been doing extraction work from records (like parish records back to the 1500s, census, family histories etc.) for a long time and those names have been placed into the indexes. Perhaps just as important is that the site also gives you access to the Family History Library which can be searched based on the locality where your ancestors lived and then you can take out films that contain records from that area, many of which might contain information on your ancestors. Now here there is a cost of borrowing and reading the films at your closest Family History Center (there are over 3000 of them so one is likely close to you) of $5 to $6 to cover shipping.

Next you will want to go to www.rootsweb.com which is the largest, oldest free site for genealogy on the web. They have the most active family history people who communicate constantly with each other, helping out each other through email lists and posting family pedigrees. You need to register with the site but there is no cost and a huge amount of information.

Lastly is www.worldgenweb.org this is the world site for a world wide "movement" of genealogists who are trying to insure that researching genealogy on the web remains free. These are locality sites, based on country, state/province, and then down to the county level. Each of those country sites where your ancestor lived may well have a great deal of material that members have extracted and posted to the site to help others.

Now one can't miss www.cindislist.com which is the most complete list of genealogy links most of which are free. Once you've worked through those you will be well on your way.