Genealogy

Question: .Genealogy.? I'm now starting to get into genealogy. I have a list of people I can use to research. But I seriously dont know where to start, I mean where do I go? Is there any website I can use to look up my ancestors? Any advice would be notified. Signed. Old Finder.

Answer: You start by getting as much information from living family members as possible, particularly your senior members. Tape them if they will let you. They might be a little confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might turn out to be very significant. Nothinguseful has already recommended your public library. Check it out and see what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can use. Ancestry.Com has lots of records and seems to be getting more all the time. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet. They have U. K. censuses also. Just don't take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is user submitted and documentation is not required. The trees are not documented or poorly documented. You might see in some cases different information on the same people from different submitters.. Then you will see the same info from different submitters on the same people without documentation. Too often people are copying without verifying and there are errors on the trees on websites. Also if people have Family Tree Maker and a subscription to Ancestry.Com, for instance, they can merged other people's trees into theirs and then upload the merged tree into various websites. When people do this they are more interested in collecting a lot of names and not quality research. A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church is very important to check out. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee. I have never had them to try and convert me or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell. I haven't heard of them doing that to anyone else either. TBM has given you some great advice about getting vital records. Now each state has its own laws about who, when and where a person can obtain these records. Also governing bodies(state,county,city), in a lot of states did not start recording vital information until the first quarter of the 20th century. Once they did a lot of people who were born at home or died at home did not get recorded. Birth and death certificates contain names of both parents, including mother's maiden name, and their places of birth on the death certificate. The 2 social security number applications I have seen also have the same parent information and their places of birth. If you find there is no recordd available then you turn to church records, Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage and Death. Many faiths keep these records and they contain parent information. But documentation is a must. Good Luck!

Question: genealogy? i would like to subscribe to a genealogy site , but my parents are Dominican and Puerto Rican. Are there any websites that would help? thanks

Answer: Do a Google search of "genealogy puerto rico". It came up with 220000 hits. Here is one: http://genealogy.about.com/od/puertorico… Do another one for the Dominican Republic to see what that turns up.

Question: What is the best genealogy software and on-line services? I want to set my Mother up with genealogy software and arrange it so that she can do research online. What is the best software and online services? Any suggestions or further advice?

Answer: Software - Roots Magic On-line services - Ancestry is expensive but they have census images from 1790 - 1930 and UK census data as well. You'll need a fast connection; census images are almost a MB each. If she is a beginner, steer her to the free sites first. Have her join the County Genealogical society, too - she will meet dozens of fellow researchers.

Question: Genealogy site where I can search for a family-tree with two particular surnames? Is there a family tree/genealogy website that allows you to search for family tree's that have two or more particular surnames in them? thanks in advance.

Answer: I hope you mean a Smith married to a Jones, not a Smith whose fourth cousin once removed was a Jones. No site in the 500,000 will do that last one, although Google might find them if they were on the same (massive) FTM report masquerading as a web page. RWWC's search engine allows you to specify spouse's name - it can be given or surname. The LDS site allows you to look for marriage records. GenCircles has the spouse option too. GenForum's surname forums allow searches for the other name - in my example, you'd search the SMITH surname board for Jones, and vice versa. Ancestry's surname forums do to; or you could search for both surnames across all boards. Roots Web's mailing list archives recently upgraded, so you can search all the lists at once, so you could search for both names with the AND qualifier. Illinois Marriages is sort of what you want, if your individuals were married in Illinois before 1900. So is the WV Archive marriage data base, again if you had ancestors there. RWWC and LDS are below. Write if you want the other links. --------------------------------------… This is a long answer that I paste now and again to questions like yours. The short answer to "How can I find my family tree?" is that if one of your great-aunts has spent 30 years researching it, AND has posted her research on the Internet, you'll find it. If not, you will have to do the research yourself. It is not difficult, but it takes time. Most young people do not want to spend a couple of hours a week doing research, because it is too much like homework. So, you may want to skip the rest of this answer. If not, read on. If your line has been "done", chance are it is on one of these two sites. When you search, don't fill in all of the fields. Start with given name, surname and birth year. Use (+/-) 5 for the birth year. Expect to spend 15 - 45 minutes on each. Neither has any living people, so don't enter your own name. http://www.familysearch.com (Mormon's mega-site. Click on "Search", to start with, or "Advanced Search") Roots Web http://www.rootsweb.com and in particular, http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.c… (Roots Web World Connect; 460,000,000+ entries, of varying quality) Here are a few more. The resolved questions have lots of links and tips. http://www.cyndislist.com/ (240,000+ links, all cross-indexed. If you want Welsh or Pennsylvania Dutch or Oregon or any other region, ethnic group or surname, chances are she has links for it.) Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com/ (which has free pages and FEE pages - so watch out) and, in particular, http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa… Surname meanings and origins http://www.tedpack.org/begingen.html My own site: "How to Begin" United States only: http://www.usgenweb.net/ (Subdivided into state sites, which all have county sites.) (The Canadians have Canadian Gen Web, by province) http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-b… (Social Security Death index - click on "Advanced". You may find your grandparents.) http://find.person.superpages.com/ (US Phone book, for looking up distant cousins) United Kingdom Only: http://www.genuki.org.uk/ (Biggest site for United Kingdom & Ireland) http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ (Free Birth, Marriage & Death Records) In the USA, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. This is a general hint: Even though you go in through YA Canada, YA Australia, YA UK or YA USA, all of the questions go into one big "pot" and get read by everyone in the world who speaks English. Most of the people here are in the UK and USA, but you sometimes get questions and answers from people who worry about kangaroos eating their roses. So, if you are asking about a specific individual, put a nation and a state / province. It will help people help you.

Question: What can i do with old genealogy records? My mom recently passed away and left 4 file drawers of research. I don't have a use for this information but would a Genealogy Society or something else use them?

Answer: There are 3 places I can think of that would be happy to take your Mom's research. 1. Your local LDS Center 2. Your local library if they have a genealogist 3. Your local genealogy society First I would ask Family members if any of them are doing research. If they are, then perhaps one of them would love to have it.

Question: How can I use an Immigration Visa Number in my genealogy research? I started researching my genealogy a few years ago but got off track and never resumed it until recently. In some of the material I had from before I found copies of ship manifests and some of my ancestors are on them. I noticed they each have a unique "Immigration Vista Numbers". How might I use this in my research?

Answer: If the country they came from keeps such records, you could write to the country and buy copies of the visa applications? They might have home town, birth date - maybe even parents.

Question: What is the best genealogy software out there and why do you feel that it is the best? I am looking for a good genealogy software package that will run on Microsoft Windows XP. I've used Family Tree Maker in the past; however, you never know if you have the latest version. It seems that they come out with a new version practically once per month. Please keep price, quality, and ease of use in mind when giving a recommendation. Also, I would like to store a photograph or two (at least) of the person, scans of paperwork regarding the person, and maybe even a voice recording if possible.

Answer: I use Familly Tree Maker and find it has everything in it I want. Lots of places for photo, notes, maps and such. It's usually only once a year that they update their program. I like the book making part of the program.

Question: What is the best and cheapest way to explore your genealogy on the computer? I have always been interested in my family genealogy, but have not idea where to start. My maiden name is very unusual and my father really doesn't no much about his family, so I would love to know where we originate from.

Answer: Pick one or the other, dear. The best meal in town isn't at Denny's, and the best way to explore your family history isn't cheap. Don't they teach you youngsters ANYTHING in school any more? Standards have certainly gone downhill since I was carrying my lunch in a tin box with Roy Rogers on the lid. I had to walk, too. It was six miles uphill, both ways. Here is my standard answer. It means research on your part. All but one of the links are free. 99% of the people who ask your question lose interest when we tell them it is work, but we (we top 8) keep trying. This is a text file I paste to questions like yours. People ask similar questions 3 - 14 times a day here. You get a long, detailed answer, I don't get finger cramps. It is long because there are over 400,000 free genealogy sites. It is also long because researching your family tree is as hard as writing a term paper in a History class. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but you won't do it with five clicks. I could tell you everything I know in 30 minutes, but not 3. The fact you have to do research stops nine out of ten teens and many adults. If you didn't mention a country, we can't tell if you are in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia. I'm in the USA and my links are for it. If you are not, please edit your question to add a country. Or, better yet, delete it and ask again, this time putting inthe country. Genealogists from the UK answer posts here too. They are more experienced and more intelligent than I am. I'm better looking and my jokes are better. The really good stuff is in your parents' and grandparents' memories. No web site is going to tell you how your great grandparents decorated the Christmas tree with ornaments cut from tin foil during the depression, how Great Uncle Elmer wooed his wife with a banjo, or how Uncle John paid his way through college in the 1960's by smuggling herbs. Talk to your living relatives before it is too late. You won't find living people on genealogy sites. Don't look for yourself or your parents. So much for the warnings. Here are some links. These are large and free. Many of them have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements. If you try the links and don't find anyone, go to http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html It repeats each link, but it has a whole paragraph of tips and instructions for each one. http://www.cyndislist.com Cyndi's List has over 250,000 sites. http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/f… The Mormon's mega-site. http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.c… RootsWeb World Connect. The links at the top are advertisements. They mislead beginners. Ignore them and scroll down. http://www.rootsweb.com/ RootsWeb Home. This is the biggest free (genealogy) site in the world. http://www.ancestry.com Ancestry has some free data and some you have to pay for. http://www.usgenweb.net US Gen Web. Click on a state. Find a link that says "County". http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa… Surname meanings and origins, one of Ancestry's free pages. http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-b… Social Security Death Index. Click on "Advanced". Women are under their married names. They are under their maiden names in most other sites. http://find.person.superpages.com/ USA Phone book, for looking up distant cousins. http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/sear… California Death Index, 1940 - 1997. http://www.genforum.com GenForum has surname, state and county boards. http://boards.ancestry.com/ Ancestry has surname, state and county boards too. They are free. Read http://www.tedpack.org/goodpost.html before you post on either one. Read the paragraphs about query boards on http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html before you search them. http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/lis… Roots Web Mailing List Archives. Read http://www.tedpack.org/maillist.html if genealogy mailing lists are new to you. Off the Internet, some public libraries have census image subscriptions. Many Family History Centers do too. FHC's are small rooms in Mormon churches. They welcome anyone interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers who are friendly. They don't try to convert you; in fact, they don't mention their religion unless you ask a question about it. PS - There is a small difference between "know" and "no", and a huge one between "the computer" and "the Internet". Pedantically yours, T

Question: How can I conduct genealogy research and then create a family tree? Here's the scoop: I need to conduct genealogy research for an academic project, and create a detailed report about my family and their roots and highlight it with a family tree. How do I go about doing it? How do I begin? What are some good websites? Other sources? This is not only intellectually interesting, but its for a project grade (40%). Please help me. Thank you in advance. :)

Answer: The best place to begin researching your family tree is with your very own family. Get a note book and write down everything that you know about yourself and your siblings. Include dates and places of birth, marriage and if applicable death dates and places of interment. As soon as you have all that, move back a generation to your parents. Once you have all of that, move back to your grandparents and keep going until you run stuck. Once you have written down everything you know, talk to your family members. Sometimes even your siblings know more than you do, but usually if you talk to your parents or grandparents they can go a generation or two further than you can simply because they are a generation or two older than you. One thing I should mention to you since you are a new genealogist is to document EVERYTHING! This will save you so much work later. If you get a date from Grandma's bible, simply document that information. If you can get in the practice of doing this from the beginning, you will avoid making the big mistake that most of us genealogists made while we were starting out. Think about it... if you have 50 people in your family tree, you might be able to keep this information "in your head", but what happens when this number rises to 500 or 50,000? After a while genealogy gets in your blood and 50,000 people is not and unfeasible number. What happens next is up to you. What are you interested in? Would you like to know who all of your great great grandparents are? Are you interested in a particular surname? Are you trying to prove that you are related to someone famous? Only you know the answer to these questions? Once you've decided which avenue you want to explore you can continue. There are many records out there that genealogists use. Many of them are free, but there are others that are by subscription. One thing I need to mention is that to trace your genealogy right, it is going to cost you, whether it be for a subscription to a genealogy site, paying for vital records, making copies of documentation, buying gas to visit libraries or cemeteries, but these are such worthwhile expenditures. The nice thing is that it is not money you spend all at one time. Many of my roots came from Michigan so everytime I go up there for a visit, I carve out time to got to the library or to the cemetery etc. There are many people on this forum who are avid genealogists who have never paid for a membership to ancestry; however, I have found it invaluable. You might want to visit ancestry because they do have some free areas on their site. I live next to a branch of the National Archives and they have every census record in existence. If you start out looking up people in the census using the microfilms, there is a process you must follow that requires you to look at two microfilms before you find the census page of the family that you need. This is very time consuming and if you are looking up a family member with a name that is usually spelled wrong, there is no guarantee that you will find it. The beauty of having a membership to ancestry is that they have the censuses fully indexed meaning you can type in a name and pull it right up without looking on two microfilm rolls. Further, you can manipulate spellings of the name and the places you are searching in a single search. This alone has made Ancestry worth the money I have spent for a subscription. Many times Ancestry runs specials and I pay under $100.00 per year so if you divide that by 12, the expense is less than a subscription to Netflix or just about anything else. Ancestry also offers Military records, obituaries, marriage records, birth and death indexes and much much more. With that said, there are also a lot of free resources. I have over 500 links to free genealogy records that I myself have found online. Here are some that can help just about everyone. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/f… This is the webpage to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. http://searches.rootsweb.com/ This is a list of popular searchable databases on Rootsweb. There is a link to the Social Security Death index, as well as death records for California, Kentucky, Maine, and Texas. There are some international databases included too. http://www.ellisisland.org/ If you are from the United States and know that you have ancestors that immigrated from other countries, there is a chance that Ellis Islands website could help you. You can actually look at the ships manifests on this site. It is so cool! You could even get information like how much money was in your great grandfathers pocket when he came over. Then there are the message boards at both Ancestry and Rootsweb. They have boards for surnames, counties, States, and countries. This would be a great place to post information you already know about family members and attempt to build on it. It is always wise not to post information on living family members. http://boards.ancestry.com/default.aspx.… http://genforum.genealogy.com/ You can also look at many of the existing trees out there to see if anybody has created one including members or your families. Sometimes you get lucky, but if you find one out there, I would recommend researching the information yourself before including it in your tree. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/.......… http://www.gencircles.com/ After you get so far, you may want to try to input your information into a family tree program. There are several commercially available; however, there are a few that you can download for free off of the internet. PAF (Personal Ancestry File) is a very respectable program that you can download at http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/sto… There are several different language versions available. Most programs have places for you to document your sources and have a file format called GEDCOM making it easy to share your tree with people using a different genealogy program or easy for you to change programs without reentering all of your information. So, as you can see from my answer... there is a whole lot to learn about genealogy and finding resources. I learned just by jumping in and doing it. Once you get out in the genealogy community you will see that there are a lot of people eager to help you in any way they can. Have I made mistakes along the way? You bet... who hasn't? You will find though that the rewards are numerous and that it can get quite addicting. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through my profile. Good luck!

Question: What is the best genealogy subscription site? I want to subscribe to a genealogy site. Which ones are worth the cost?

Answer: Ancestry.com still has a slight edge - but World Vital Records is coming up fast and I very often find things on it that Ancestry has missed. The other dark horse is the LDS site - this of course is free - but if you use the drop down menu on the search tab, you can go to their pilot site which has an amazing number of resources available for searching with more being added each day. Also LDS familyhistory centers have memberships in World Vital Records and Heritage quest if you visit them. Heritage Quest has the US Censuses and WVR has the UK censuses(with much better transcriptions than Ancestry)

Question: What is the best way to advertise a home-based genealogy business? I am starting a genealogy website. I do research on ancestry, finding history, names, dates, etc. I would like to persure the idea of doing family trees for other people. How do I make this successful, I have the site, and the knowledge, though I am clueless on how to revenate clients....any advice?

Answer: Getting traffic is a combination of a lot of things. The key to success is to create great content that visitors want to use, search engines will love and other websites will naturally link to. Of course, it's easier said than done. "If you build it, they will come" is not necessarily true on the Web. Putting a website up is one thing, but getting visitors to come to your site is another. The process becomes even more difficult if you have limited resources to market your business. You can use pay per click advertising in the search engines to reach audiences looking for your products. You can use Google Adwords http://www.google.com/adwords or Yahoo http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com Here are some shoestring marketing ideas that can help you get the visitors you need at the least cost possible: 1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possibly offer. Your content is your best advertisement - if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others. 2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important -- and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends. If only 10 people go to your site, but these 10 people invite 10 more - that's additional traffic that you get for FREE! Recommend Site Scripts (various) http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Sc… Big Nose Bird Recommend this Site http://bignosebird.com/carchive/birdcast… CGI Resource Index http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_an… Hostscripts http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_an… 3. Rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area. If you are going to read only one piece on search engine optimization, I suggest you read Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com's "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 steps to 15k a day." http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/201… 4. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News. http://www.prleap.com/sign_up.html http://i-newswire.com/ http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/ http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/… http://www.pr.com/press-releases http://www.prfree.com/ http://www.clickpress.com/releases/index… http://www.theopenpress.com/ http://www.przoom.com/ http://www.prweb.com http://www.newswiretoday.com/ http://www.free-press-release.com/ 5. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. If 50 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 50 links from a single article. The more links you have, the greater your chances for increasing your search engine rankings. Here is a comprehensive list of where to submit your articles http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=… 6. Improve your conversion. Getting visitors is one thing; getting them to buy your products is a whole different story. Read the article " How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site " http://www.powerhomebiz.com/092006/ecomm… for tips on how to improve your conversion rates. 7. Post a link to your site for free where it is allowed (always read the Terms of Use). Examples are: Craigslist http://www.craigslist.com Google Base http://base.google.com Classifieds for Free http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/... Text Link Exchange http://www.txtswap.com/ Recycler.com http://www.recycler.com/ Yahoo Classifieds http://classifieds.yahoo.com/ US Free Ads http://www.usfreeads.com/

Question: How can I find my genealogy tree through internet? I hear that I can find my genealogy tree through internet but I don't know how,anyone suggest me a step by step answer and I will give the best answer to whoever helps...

Answer: It requires research and Ted has given you some good websites. However, you probably won't be able to get it all on the web. Now, there are websites with family trees. They are not prepared and put on those websites by expert people who run the websites. They are subscriber submitted and mostly not documented or poorly documented. There are errors. You cannot take as absolute fact everything you see in them. You might in some cases see the different info on the same people from different subscribers. Then you wil see repeatedly the same info from different subscribers on the same people, BUT that doesn't mean it is accurate. A lot of people copy without verifying. Use the information as CLUES as to where to get the documentation. This is true whether the website is a free website or if you have to pay a membership to be a part of it.

Question: How do you do a genealogy when your family won't give you any info? My family is paranoid about identity theft and won't tell me anything about themselves or others in the family? Makes it really hard to do a genealogy. Are their fears justified?

Answer: How do you do a genealogy when your family won't give you any info? Either go around them via the paper trail (BMD certificates, obits, newspapers, census entries . . .) or convince them you will keep everyone born after 1900 on your PC and not publish them. Get a GEDCOM privitizing utility or use Roots Magic, which has one built in. When I upload my data, I export the four data bases I have for differerent branches and make sure I check the "Make Private" box each time. Then I import them all into a new data base named "Public". I check 20 - 30 people that are still living to make sure they have been privitized, then I make a fifth GEDCOM out of the "Public" data base and upload it. Makes it really hard to do a genealogy. Yes Are their fears justified? Probably. What one person can encode another can decode. If RWWC, Genes Reunited, GenCircles, and Ancestry don't have the data about living people to start with, no one can hack their privitizing codes.

Question: What gift would you like to receive if you are into genealogy? I am looking for ideas for a birthday present for a friend who is very interested in genealogy. He spends hours and hours researching his family. I was thinking of a filing system, as he prints out many documents, but would that be useful and "gifty" enough? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Answer: Here is a site that offers gifts for genealogists. http://www.cafepress.com/jmkbooks How about a gift subscription to an online resource? If he/she keeps his records on computer, a USB key to assist in tranporting information from one computer to another might be useful. If he has a collection of photos he has gathered on his various lines perhaps he is anxious to share the information. Perhaps purchasing a year's subscription to a site like My Ancestors (http://www.myheritage.com/FP/Company/gen… would be cool. Last, but not least, how about a family tree plaque at http://www.plaquemaker.com/FT/home.html? Good luck!

Question: Why are there so few genealogy questions in the genealogy category? Most of the questions are nonsense, or just in the wrong category. How do they end up genealogy asking a question?

Answer: I was wondering the same thing. Gets rather tiresome wading through all the stupid garbage. There's always some in any crowd trying to ruin a good thing for others.....

Question: Is there good Free software for organizing Genealogy? My family has a huge genealogy line and would like to organize onto a flashdrive. Is there any free software to do so? Perferrably virus and spyware free.

Answer: There are several good free programs, any of which could be installed on a flashdrive, assuming your drive is large enough: PAF, Legacy, Family Tree Builder, Family Tree Legends, GRAMPS (for Linux/Unix), and others. These are all reputable programs without spyware, viruses, etc. Be sure to download from the maker or a reputable source to avoid malware added later (not part of the original program). To find more, google "free genealogy software". You will want a program that does not need a lot of space to leave more room for data, notes, and other files.

Question: What is a good family tree maker /genealogy that you can link siblings with people? I have tried Family Tree Maker 2008 but I couldn't add/link a brother or sister to a family member so I am doing this genealogy project and I need a software to add siblings to family members. All help is appreciated.

Answer: No matter how fancy and expensive they make these software programs, PAF still blows them all away. It's also the only one that is completely compatible with all of the others. So you can not only link your siblings, but you can also share your files with other people without any hassles. Here's the link...and it's completely free from the Mormon Church: http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/sto…

Question: What is the best search engine for genealogy? I know there is no such thing as internet genealogy but some info on the internet is good. Which search engine is best?

Answer: That could depend on the surnames you are working on, the more unusual the better, So for a start try Google then Google News and Archive, if you want family history sites in general then the best is http://www.ancestry.com but this is a subscription site but it is one of the best, you might just be able to use it at your local library, Then there is http://www.familysearch.org http:labs.familysearch.org and http://www.rootsweb.com They are free to use and can be helpful, please remember one thing WHEN EVER POSSIBLE DOUBLE CHECK WITH THE ORIGINAL SOURCE. Hope this helps

Question: What is a good introductory sentence for a genealogy essay about my family? I need a good and strong introductory sentence for my genealogy essay about my family.

Answer: Here are a couple more quotes: "In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage - to know who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness." -- Alex Haley, Roots "Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present and future." -- Gail Lumet Buckley You live as long as you are remembered. -- Russian proverb I like these though: The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future. - Stephen Ambrose, 1936-2002 The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future. - Herbert Spencer

Question: Is it legal to keep a digital copy of a birth certificate for family genealogy and records purposes? I notice a 'small print' on many birth certificates that it's illegal to make a copy or use the birth certificate for any illegal purpose ... certainly it's o.k. to keep a digital copy as part of family history or genealogy records, no?

Answer: Genealogy is not an illegal activity, therefore there is nothing wrong with digital copies, other than serious most researchers, still want paper copies of record. Some counties charge less for copies of documents if they are for genealogy research and stamp them as such.