Family Tree Research (merged)

Anastasia

https://www.genesreunited.co.uk is great for asking for free info on the tips or records board. Other members will do look-ups for you on census and Births, Marriages and Deaths. It costs £9.99 to sign up for the year. Just putting your tree on there can bring you into contact with relatives. I found a relative in Germany and we share info.

Also Google - search with names, dates place etc. and see what comes up.

alikat_3

Something to bear in mind is FreeBMD as good as it is, is incomplete so if you don't find what your looking for there, you need to search the GRO indexes, which you can now do for free on Ancestry or more difficultly on FreeBMD.

Rootschat.com is another good forum & UK based. If your family came from Cornwall take a look at the cornish online census project & West Penwith Resources.

Whilst I find others research helpful I would always check it well, as I have often been given inaccurate information on Genes Reunited & Rootsweb World connect project.

alikat_3

Shez, the GRO index is free to view on Ancestry & goes upto the 1980's although this is fairly recent, you can also search it on freeBMD, but more difficultly.

billycasper_2

Just to follow on from what everyone else has been saying, the sites mentioned are all brilliant. on google try typing in the area your looking at, like "bradwell family history" or "north derbyshire family history" or even the surname. There are 1000's of smaller independent sites people set up with loads of information given freely. census returns, surname lists etc etc.. But remember such sites are only successful if you share information so if you have any you think might be useful let them know. I've found loads of info this way.
good luck

pug_in_a_bed

there was a free trial for 30 days on ancestry in the paper t'other day, just searching round now for the details and will get back to you:)

edit: here it is, i hope its ok to post this on here, if not please board guides do what you must.

It was in the daily mail on saturday the 18th (i think) of march, if you call 0800 783 1280 you can get free 30 days. You do have to give over your credit card details, but if you end up like me - totally addicted - then you might be happy to keep up the subscription.

comperking

Hi Folks

Anyone know of a good FREE Family Tree Builder Site?

Also family finder site that is freeish!

Many thanks

Comperking

PM me if poss.

Lillibet_2

Hubby has over 400 confirmed relatives & hundreds more unconfirmed on Genesreunited.co.uk

Free upto a point then nominal (£7?) annual subscription & worth every penny.

HTH;)

StockportGerbil

Hi!
I guess by Family Tree Builder you mean a program to record your research. PAF (Personal Ancestry File?) is free from https://www.familysearch.org and in some respects is very good.

I guess you are just starting out, if so before you hit the internet get as much info from your family, talk to them and take notes, borrow old photos, documents, letters whatever. If possible scan the photos and old documentation in so it's recorded for posterity.

Use your family tree software to collate and record the info
you have collected. It is important to record your sources - you will come across info that is misleading or just plain wrong, so when you've got conflicting info, if you know where it came from you may be able to work out which is the good.

Free and useful sites are :-

https://www.freebmd.org.uk - most birth, marriage and death indexes, coverage is very patchy for more recent events
https://www.familysearch.org - 1881 census and the IGI
https://www.genuki.org.uk - details of sources and their locations
https://www.cyndislist.com - Dirty great list of Genealogical web sites.

Assuming your family originate from where you live now your main library (failing that the county record office) should have census entries on microfilm and with a bit of luck indexes for the period 1841 to 1901. Otherwise if you live in London this is all in the Family Records centre.

Another place to go is your local mormon church, (details from family search above), which have local resources on microfilm and can order microfilms nationally for a nominal fee (£3 or so).

Ancestry is busy making the census available, which is dead useful - but it's a pay site. I believe they do free trials, but there are lots of stories about difficulties cancelling the trial before you get charged. Some libraries have accounts with ancestry. Depending upon what your ancestors got up to then there may be some info in the public records office at Kew. Free to use and visiting the place really is an experience.

Good luck and have fun! :-)

Kevin

stellagypsy

If you want a programme to download to keep your database on and make tree(s) familysearch.org has Personal Ancestral FIle (PAF) which is totally free and very easy to use.

HTH, Stella xx

AdrianR_2

If you are a linux user and you want a geneology program, There is none better than GRAMPS. Now at version 2.2.2. It is just a touch more pro than the ancestry.co.uk program but takes a bit more to get into. http://www.gramps-project.org/ for more. There is an ability to use it on windows http://www.gramps-project.org/windows/ but it is worth trying ubuntu at the same time. Gramps even has a live CD download, so you get Ubuntu, and Gramps on a bootable operting system. It don't get much better!