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Question: How to find relatives who lived during 1800's!?
My family has a relative who lived during the 1800's, i guess he lived in the south because he fought for the confederates!. His last name was williams and he was a general, but we have a completely different last name!. Are there any sights that i can go to to find like a list of all the confederates who fought during the civil war!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
http://www!.rootsweb!.com is a free Q&A forum, owned by ancestry!.com!.
You can post a query and search the message boards!.
A lot of ancestry subscribers, who have access to Civil War records, use rootsweb to share and collect information!.

You can list his name and all pertinent information: (full name, if you have it, dates and places of birth, death, wifes name, which may help locate any pensions paid to him and/or her for his serve during the Civil War, names of siblings, children, the State he enlisted in, places of residence!.

You can do the same here!.

None of my Civil War ancestors share my maiden name, either, but I was still able to obtain certified copies of their Civil War records!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I'd start like this: "I have an ancestor whose name was Williams and was a General in the Confederate forces who lived in ___!. He also seems to be known as ___!. Using the census and military sites, can anyone tell me the correct name!?" Maybe you'll get somewhere!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If you can give anymore information on his name, birthdate, where he lived etc!. One of us can look on ancestry!.com for you!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Start with:
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 websites:
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 hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father!. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA!.
I used www!.familytreedna!.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program!.

And, yes, there are many Civil War sites; try Cindi's first, or just google "civil war genealogy"!.Www@QuestionHome@Com