FREE Genealogy Course

FREE Genealogy Lesson #2 

Where to Put Your Information 

Shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall! 

Most trees can be transferred from one genealogy program to another by putting the information into a gedcom (genealogical data communication) file. All of the names, dates and relationships will transfer correctly but media (stories and pictures) does not transfer in a gedcom file. So choosing a good base file is important if you like to add ancestral stories and their pictures. 

Free sites:

https://www.familysearch.org - This is my favorite free site. It has never charged and it never will. There is no small freebie section that will become too full so that you have to purchase a subscription in order to continue to build your tree. No need to make a purchase to see documents. 

www.rootsweb.ancestry.com - The free version of ancestry.com. You can download an existing gedcom file or build your tree from scratch. My second favorite choice. 

www.myheritage.com - A good site but you have to purchase a premium account to build a large tree. This site uses family tree builder. www.archives.com - Claims to be a free search site but you have to register for a free 7 day trial if you want to see the information that they found. After the free trial you must pay. 

usgenweb.org - This is a good place to search if you know the area where your ancestors lived. It is more complicated than some other sites but it does have a lot of historical county information. 

Sites that charge: 

www.ancestry.com - $159 per year for US records. $299 per year for world records. Give or get gift certificates. This is my site of choice because of the number of world-wide records. The charge is reasonable for what you get. You do need to be careful and verify the information that you find already collected on other family trees. 

www.progenealogists.com - has a good list of the 50 most popular genealogy websites, which includes search sites, at: http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2011.htm 

A review of the top 10 best genealogy websites http://genealogy-websites.no1reviews.com/ cyndislist has a comprehensive, categorized & cross-referenced list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online. 

http://www.cyndislist.com/ I have never been able to figure out how to use cyndislist for research so if anyone out there knows how to use this list and has been successful in using it for research please let me know how you did it. 

Families are like fudge... mostly sweet with a few nuts!!! 

If you have any questions or you need help getting started or if you are stuck pushing at a brick wall, please contact me and I will help you.