Online Genealogy Newbie Needs Advice

Sites? Software?

[jsinger]

Dabbled in researching my (USA) genealogy for years but its time to get serious about that chore. It's time perhaps to join one of those pricey "ancestry" database groups and get some software to organize my family weed (I mean, tree).

Looking especially for a means of viewing the U.S. census microfilm without having to journey to a library.

One thing that's stopping me is the crass unsolicited email I used to get from the leading genealogical site. What are the database choices?

Any other advice?

[tangor]

Heck, most of the on-line for nearly free services are pretty fair. But if you really want the nitty gritty then you'll have to go to the source (which means neat vacations, travel plans, etc.)

Son of a family genealogist who has traced our tree back to 1350(ish, could be 1349 but is just far enough back it gets a bit muddy).

Heinz57...

Seriously, however, if looking for databases look to the GED format and any applications that accept it. There's quite a bit of data out there.

[arieng]

No exactly genealogy, but my wife and I recently purchased kits from the National Geographic Genographic project for all of our parents. We are eagerly awaiting the results.

HERE [genographic.nationalgeographic.com]

[edited by: lawman at 12:38 am (utc) on May 7, 2009]
[edit reason] Linked [/edit]

[Lane R Ellis]

Genealogy has been a passion of mine for 15 years, and one I pursued professionally for two years. I'm happy to address your questions.

Many people in the United States, Canada and England can get free online home access to at least one of the two major commercial genealogy database services through their local public library. Look at the reference, local history or database sections of your local library's Web site.

The LDS church operates a fantastic free Web site dedicated to genealogical research, including a pioneering pilot program for indexing data from image scans, and offers a good free database program.

There has never been a better time to get started researching your family history, as more scans of original source documents are available online now than ever before, however despite the billions of individual records that have been placed online, the amount is but a tiny percentage of what is available on microfilm from archives such as the LDS church and other repositories, and an even smaller still portion of the records that have yet to be either microfilmed or digitized.

I've been a full $300.00 per year subscriber to the biggest online genealogical database service since it began, and consider it a very important part of my research.

U.S. census records between 1790 and 1930 can however be viewed online at home for free as a service of many local libraries, so I'd check to see whether this is the case in your area.

General tips I give to those starting out include interviewing your oldest living relatives, or friends and neighbors who knew now-deceased ancestors, and making a practice of recording all the sources for everything you enter into a genealogy database, whether that source is "personal knowledge of Lane R. Ellis," a book, scribbled papers from great aunt Edith, a census image viewed online, or a family story handed down through your family.

Good luck with your research.

Best Regards,
Lane

[edited by: lawman at 12:46 am (utc) on May 8, 2009]
[edit reason] No Requests For Sticky Mail Please [/edit]

[phranque]

if you have a local LDS church they often have genealogical research facilities in support of the church doctrine of salvation of the dead.

also remember that all of your second hand information is a good start but don't fill in any boxes in your family tree until you have seen the actual primary supporting legal documentation (birth certificate, marriage license, death certificate)

there are secrets and convenient explanations floating around in many families that aren't supported by documentation...

[jsinger]

Thanks for the advice. I'm starting by researching just a few generations back. So I visited our library to view 20th century obits. I had previously gotten the death dates from a state database online. Easy!

Yes, I learned that our library offered card holders remote access to several impressive online databases including the U.S. census. Using my library card number, I can peruse the census (thru 1930) from my home computer and print results. That's SOOOO much better than the old method that required sharing clunky microfilm machines with 6th graders doing homework.

Our library subscribes to the full Ancestry.com database but due to licensing restrictions access is only available there.

I'm starting to look for software for organizing my research. Already I've gotten off on some detours that had to be erased. I'm looking for software that can handle ***A LOT*** of corrections!