How can I find out more about my family history?

Question:

How can I find out more about my family history?

Especially online. I'd like to use a FREE WEBSITE to figure out more about my history. Other ways to find out about my family history would also be appreciated. Thank you!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: To start out, get a genealogy program. The Mormon church has one that is available free on their web site (tracing ancestry is part of their beliefs). You will need to answer a few questions, but they do not contact you simply because you download their program. Their program is called "Personal Ancestral File" and runs on even a really SLOW computer.

Once you have a program, you need to start gathering information. Put your own information in, and go from there. Talk with your parents if they are living, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. DON'T put it off; I learned the hard way that people leave us when we least expect it, and the information they carry around in their heads is lost forever when they die. That may sound self-evident, but I suspect it is something every novice genealogist has experienced at some point.

Once you have information from as many living family members as possible, start working with records online and (if possible) in the real world. There are lots of great resources like RootsWeb (free), Ancestry.com (a yearly or monthly subscription service - yearly is cheaper, but monthly may be better suited to your budget), and Genforum.com.

There are tons of information out there; many people have their own family web site. I've found an amazing amount of information sometimes by simply Googling a family member's name.

I've been working on my family's tree for about 15 years now; I always joke that it's the never-ending hobby, and that's pretty much true. So far, I'm up to about 140,000 names, and counting!

Enjoy!