'Cheap & Free Ways to Trace Your Ancestry'

hnisc

http://www.myheritage.com :money:

princessdaisy2k

The familysearch.org website is fun by the Church of the Later Day Saints (Mormons) but don't let this put you off. It is free and can be very useful for finding out birth, baptism, marriage records from all over the world along as the information is pre 1900.

Ancestry.co.uk is also available, a lot does cost but some of it is available to non members.

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ is also an excellent and totally free search engine which is versatile for a wide range of searching pre 1930.

Mountain_Ash

If the surname that you are researching is unusual, visit the Guild of One Name Studies and see if anyone has already registered the name. If so, drop them a line with the information that you already have and they will let you know if they have got any more information on your family.

Ro

Karmacat

I knew there was something I'd forgotten - One Name Studies can be wonderful, and the people who run them are real enthusiasts.

choosewisely

Whilst not strictly a genealogy search tool I've used Google Book Search to find published documents and manuscripts containing some ancestor names.

You can't always view the books in the search result or sometimes you just see a snippet but it's good for identifying possible alternative sources of information as it searches published documents rather than official records:

http://books.google.com

tstockford

I've just noticed that Your Family Tree magazine is now available through Tesco Deals for £16.50 in Clubcard Vouchers. For 13 issues a year that works out as only £1.27 an issue.

The usual price of an annual subscription would be £45.40 (although there are often free gifts or discounts for new subscribers).

http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=845
http://www.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk/

**woody123**

When ordering the certificates make sure you find the gro reference from the freebmd.org site (posted above) and then the certificate will only cost you £7 not £10.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

edit: all this has been described in some detail on a few posts above, apologies!!

It is best when possible though to order it from your local register office and if your given details do not match the certificate they will just send your cheque back, with the gro they charge a £3 search fee i think.

I am on genes-reunited and it has its good points and bad points.

There are some wonderful people on there who are willing to help you in many ways and offer you some amazing information but then there are those with just a minimal number on their tree who are just hunting for info from you without giving anything in return.

nanokitten

if you have ancestors who fought in the great war the folks on this forum are amazing and are a great help with interpreting old photos (eg cap badges) or details of specific units (but newbies should read the notes on the site first to avoid obvious questions).
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showforum=42
also don't forget the (commonwealth war graves commission http://www.cwgc.org/ )

for those with Australian relatives, the Aussie archives are a great free resource especially for service records http://www.naa.gov.au/

If you want something specific such as a UK WW1 medal card (which costs on the national archives or needs a subscription on ancestry) many local libraries (such as here in york) have a subscription to ancestry which you can use to download the image for free.

If you are lucky enough to have a Welsh mariner in the family Dr. Reg Davies' brilliant site has an extensive free database http://www.welshmariners.org.uk/

also, if you have relatives in Carnavon, the Carnavon Traders website written by Keith Morris has free transcribed directories, census extracts and some obituaries etc. http://www.carnarvontraders.com/index.html

ellanvannin_2

If you need help with specific queries try Look Up Exchange Central http://aztecrose.tripod.com/LookupExchange.htm which lists websites for the UK's counties. Volunteers will look for specific people/records in resources that they have access to. The volunteers are just like you and me - family historians who just happen to have access to some records and are willing to give their time freely to help others. If you have resources yourself and a bit of spare time, perhaps you'd like to voltunteer - have a look at the relative county. I am a volunteer myself and it isn't time consuming but very satisfying when you find something useful for someone.

Uniscots97

Is there any free ways of finding Scottish ancestors? Every time I've tried various websites they keep trying to charge me!