How to Find Free Family History Information

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By Angela Lynn
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Family Tree Quilt

There are three assured ways to find free information and records in your genealogy search; family, the internet, and local libraries...

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Step 1

The best place to start your search and find some great free leads is with your immediate family. You may get lucky and find a relative with old photographs and records that they are willing to share.
Step 2

It is also a wonderful idea to branch out to distant cousins and relatives you have never met or talked to before. You may hear about these people from family, or see their name on records and in obituaries; tracking them down is relatively easy with public records and the internet. After a while you may decide to bring everyone together and host a small gathering or family reunion.
Step 3

Check the internet. The absolute best place to find free genealogy information online is at USGenweb.com. They have, in my opinion, the largest and most helpful base of free genealogy information anywhere on the internet. About.com also has a helpful list of the free genealogy web pages (see additional resources).
Step 4

Search the internet for helpful websites you may not have thought of before, such as a cemetery, libraries, newspapers, funeral homes, affiliations (such as churches), and other groups (such as veteran associations). You can also take advatage of free databases found on subcription sites when there available.
Step 5

If your doing local research the library is your best source for free genealogy records. Usually, they have some sort of historical collection, to a full department dedicated to family research. If you are searching from a distance go online for the local libraries website and look for libraries in surrounding areas. Sometimes these websites have a wealth of their genealogy information online.