I want to search my family tree but don't want to use a pay service. Where do I start, what info do I need?

You don't indicate where you are..but some of this is basic. Asking relatives is a place to START. It only takes you as far as memory; and that can be faulty. Every thing in research depends on documentation. A very large part of your research in the 1800s will be based in census records. Many libraries (not all) will subscribe to either ancestry or heritage quest... so you may be able to use the library to get those. You can also view them at LDS family history centers.. when I was doing most of my census work, that still involved a small handling fee. That is still true for microfilms that they have, although some may have full copies now of the census. HAD ANCESTRY existed when I was at that phase.. I would have used it, and the fee would still have been less than expenses for library time (and I could have done it at 3 am, like I am doing now). If your family has maintained copies of all vital documents (birth/death certs, so forth), those will be available .. if not, they should be ordered. That isn't free, and no.. those are not GENERALLY available on the internet. I'd actually go ballistic, if I found my birth certificate online.. it puts anyone at risk of id theft. http://www.cyndislist.com/beginner.htm Here's an excellent collection of sources for research (and this is just the beginner area). The exact records that WILL identify and connect your ancestors is completely unique to each of them. If your ancestry is in the UK, you won't want or need immigration records, for instance. One thing to keep in mind is that you can and will use the internet.. but ALL genealogy is not online. The records are historical, and were all out there, long before computers. And things such as family Bibles are not public records anyway. Start with the exercise of identifying your own parents AND using a record or document to do it. Next, do the same for each grandparent. The challenge (all along) is to figure out the exact record(s) that apply to each person in your family history, depending on the person, the time, the place. THINK in terms of individual persons (who are unique) and not a ready made tree. edit- a genealogy program is a place for storing results.. it is nice, but not basic to knowing how to do the research in the first place.

I have managed to get a way back from one line of my family to the early 1800's and started with discussions with my father. Any family member who has knowledge of your family history is a great asset as well. He gave me the information I needed, the names of my great grandfather and great-great grandfather, and that got me started. While my father was alive, I was able to learn what states the family came from or through which helped a lot and some approximate years of birth, marriage, death or where the family lived. The Latter Day Saint (LDS) site, www.familysearch.org, helped me as well. When I had more information, I turned to www.ancestry.com and continued to get further. If you do not want to subscribe to their service, depending on where you live, you may be able to go to the genealogy department at a library near you and research using microfilm or books that have transcribed microfilm information. Those would be good places to start.

After asking all your older family members enter the info into a family tree software, I use and recommend Legacy. The basic software is free at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ Free sites include Rootsweb and the Church of Latter Day Saints website, http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp There is a good chance someone else has already started researching a branch of your family and if you Google some of the older members of the family you never know what you might find. Good Luck

You'll be hard pressed to find a service that doesn't require payment but Roots and Ancestry offer pretty good free stuff. As for info, you should start asking around your family (start with your parents, aunts & uncles, grandparents etc) anything they can recall as far as names and dates will help a lot.

There are various sites which provide guidance and information on creating a family tree. Tribal Junction (http://www.tribaljunction.com) is one of them. The site provides free information. It helps you to discover your roots. Create a family tree and find distant relatives without spending any money.

Start by talking with older family members and go to your local library where you can use ancestry.com free. You can search for US censuses. Ancestry.com can give you specific dates of marriages, births, death. Take that info and go to the register of deeds to find the documents.

You need a simple software program and start filling in details. The result is fantastic. The information to be keyed in be done as you obtain your data. The programs give very interesting analysises. Your tree shall grow with more and more details.

Ancestry.com offer a free two week trial