| Getting started | | | | will find it at least inspiring. |
| Deciding to research your family tree can be a | | | | Geneabios - Biographies for Genealogy |
| turning point in your life! You never know what | | | | Search through thousands of biographies of |
| you will find out. Were your ancestors pirates or | | | | ordinary men and women posted by genealogists |
| priests, royalty or roustabouts? You never know | | | | around the world. You can also post your own |
| when you begin to unpick the tangled skein of | | | | and start to be part of an amazing global |
| wool that is your family tree. | | | | community. A useful feature of this site is that it |
| One of the really exciting things about this hobby | | | | has links to the biggest online sources of |
| is that you can do an enormous amount of | | | | information and can act as a stepping stone for |
| research online now. Things that twenty years | | | | you as you expand your research. |
| ago would have taken you a holiday and a lot of | | | | Debt of Honour Register ( |
| money to accomplish can now be done at the | | | | A touching and unusual site is this one listing |
| click of a mouse as soon as you locate the | | | | people who died in WWI and II. You will find |
| database. Not only that, free genealogy sites are | | | | personal and service details and places of |
| all over the net so this is certainly not an | | | | commemoration for the 1.7 million members of |
| expensive hobby. You can spend as much or as | | | | the Commonwealth forces (including the United |
| little as you like. | | | | Kingdom and former colonies) as well as a record |
| Subscription and membership sites are available | | | | of some 60,000 civilian casualties in WWII. The |
| too and are great places to find some support | | | | cemeteries and memorials where these names |
| and a gang of like-minded people who often know | | | | are commemorated are located in over 150 |
| some clever shortcuts to the information you are | | | | countries. |
| looking for. For many the advantages of being in | | | | My Trees ( |
| such a community make the money spent well | | | | Normally a pay-for-use subscription database, |
| worthwhile. There are also many pieces of | | | | Kindred Konnections offers a free genealogy |
| software available for building the family tree | | | | alternative which is an Extraction Project where |
| much more easily than in the good old days | | | | you are offered free genealogy search time in |
| where you would have to sit with your ruler and | | | | their subscription-only genealogy databases in |
| paper and draw and write all the details about the | | | | exchange for helping them to extract names and |
| nuclear families within your ancestry by hand. | | | | dates from original source documents. You sign up |
| Some of these pieces of software are free and | | | | free to Kindred Konnections and they will provide |
| many are to be paid for. Either way you can | | | | you with a link to an online source document. |
| spend as much or as little as you like. | | | | It will take about 5 minutes maximum for you to |
| As a starter for you here are some of the | | | | type in the names and dates from one document, |
| biggest and also more unusual free sites where | | | | and for that 5 minutes of your time, they will |
| you can get very valuable help and information as | | | | grant you one free hour in the subscription |
| you begin your quest. In these sites you will find | | | | database area of the main site where you can |
| birth records, marriage records, surnames, | | | | access over 1 billion names in their pedigree-linked |
| immigration records, wills, photographs...... many of | | | | archive as well as millions of other marriage, birth, |
| which have been entered by individuals with a | | | | death and census records, White Page Directories, |
| passion for social history as well as governments | | | | and the imaged documents that have already |
| who hold national information banks. | | | | been extracted. Unlimited hours of free |
| Rootsweb - World Connect Project | | | | subscription time are available through the |
| Out of all of the online databases of submitted | | | | Extraction Project and are well worth your time |
| family tree information this is a great resource. It | | | | once you have started to get underway with |
| allows users to upload, modify, link, and display | | | | your research. The more you know about the |
| their family trees as a means to share their work | | | | people and times you are looking for the better |
| with other researchers. The project is very large | | | | use you can make of the resource. Come to the |
| - currently 3 billion names and more than 300,000 | | | | PC prepared and this can be an invaluable |
| family trees. There is a good chance that you will | | | | resource. |
| find something of use in the database - or if not | | | | |