How to Search for Your Ancestors Online

Have you been wanting to search for your ancestors online but don't know where to start? Here are a few tips and web sites you can try on your journey to discovering your ancestors.

Things You'll Need

• names and dates of ancestors (birth and death dates)
• names of their spouses and other close relatives

Instructions

1. First get as much information as you can about the person you're trying to research. Ask family members or close family friends for any specific dates such as birthday, date of death, date of married, name of spouse or parents, etc.

2. Try to find documents on the person you are researching such as birth or death certificates, marriage license, or military records.

3. Try ancestry.com, familysearch.org, or rootsweb for more information on your ancestors. Please note that not all services are free but most provide some information for free.

4. Most genealogy web sites allow you to search other people's family trees. This will help you gather more information about your ancestors and maybe even help you find even more ancestors that you weren't aware of.

5. Simply doing a search for your surname (last name) can sometimes bring up a list of sites dedicated to that name. This may be a great way to find ancestors.