Is there any sites that you can trace your family tree for free?

-i really want to trace my family tree but i don't want to payMost free sites can be helpful tools and hints, but you really need to know what they are and what you're doing to make use of them for accurate research. There's no one site that will trace your entire family tree for you accurately for free.



Free sites tend to use subscriber submitted information. This means that I make a family tree and post it to the site. Then you come along and see that your grandma is on my tree and you can use the information I have to find out about your great-grandparents, for example. The problem is, you have no idea what sources I used or how good I am at research. Heck, I could have made it up entirely. All of a sudden you think you're related to Superman because that's what my tree says. But, maybe I'm a really good genealogist and listed my sources and they're all primary sources. Then you can go back and verify my work.



Also, people's names are not unique. If you don't have proper techniques you may find a record image on a site that shows Jane Smith lived in Boston. Well that's nice, but how do you know that this is the same Jane Smith you are related to?



Keep in mind that keeping, storing, maintaining, copying, and distributing records costs money. If you order a primary record from the County Clerk they will charge you a nominal fee because it costs them money to provide this service.



Free or low cost sites can be very useful for finding clues or finding out where a record is located. There are plenty of resources available that are indexes, lists, or images of records. To start it's not a bad idea to collect information from these sites and skip over things you have to pay for. You can always use this information to dig deeper later if you do decide it's worth paying for.



I also recommend finding your local genealogy society. They may have meetings, classes, workshops, or resources for the beginner genealogist at little or no cost.
You know for hundreds of years people have researched their family history, believe it or not you don't have to pay to do that and from looking at many more recent family trees which have only been 'researched' online they are not correct anyway...one mistake and you are just collecting unrelated names and that is very easy to do when taking 'hints' from commecial websites who have no idea if they are YOUR ancestors or not, or using the IGI as a main source of information or even other peoples trees which are copied and pasted over and over again...so



Before you rush to the internet and start looking for websites to find your ancestors.



Do your groundwork first or you just won't know who you are looking for, where they are from and if who you do find are your ancestors or not. Read this first, http://familytimeline.webs.com then.....



Collect all the information you have in your own home and in your relations homes is the first place to start , its free and it will encourage your family to look for more and help you.



This is primary information, so it is more likely to be correct and you will achieve an impressive start with your family tree, also learn a lot about your family which will help you when you do start looking at records in the Records Office or on Internet cited databases.



I was researching 20 odd years before home computers, no internet exisited when I started, so no commercial 'websites'...I did it free and researched back 300-500 years
You'll get the most free help from your nearest big public library. For example, the library in Bedford has various links on its website - try this one:

www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl