How to Research the Family History of Your Ancestors

Genealogy -- tracing your family roots -- can be a fascinating and revealing experience. Research tools available on the internet have made it relatively easy to get started unearthing your family history. Here are the tools you need to get started.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. **Check ancestry.com**
   
   This is a fee-based service, and so, it's not for everyone, but it's still a great place to start. You can search on family names and get preliminary information for no charge. You can also sign up for a free trial, if you want to explore it more deeply.

2. **Visit XooxleAnswers.com**
   
   The Free Newspaper Archives section at this website offers hundreds of links to (go on....guess!) free historical newspaper archives that go back hundreds of years. You'd be amazed at how often people get their names in the newspaper (your relatives included) even if it's little more than a birth, death (obituary) or wedding announcement. The archives at XooxleAnswers cover newspapers from the US, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere around the world.

3. **Use the Free Resources at FamilySearch.org**
   
   This is another wonderful family history research tool, that can very quickly unearth information and leads to several generations of your family's history. They are particularly strong regarding ancestors coming from England, Scotland and Ireland.

4. These tools will go a long way towards getting you started unearthing the history of your parents, grandparents, and the generations that came before them.

Resources

• Get Started With Family History Research
• Free Newspaper Archives
• More Newspaper Archives

[missforty]

on 2/5/2009 It is so rewarding to find out about your ancestors and your family history.