Royal Obsession II

The admins on the FamilySearch Facebook page are most likely volunteers. Unfortunately one of them has a royal fixation. If you go to the original threads you'll see that these posts brought out the clickophiles.

The original post the September 27th is here with the caption,
"Admit it… you're actually from a royal bloodline. 
Which royal family have you found in your ancestry?"

The original post from September 25th is here with the caption,
"Do you have a #familycrest? Share it with us!"

It is incredibly disappointing that FamilySearch, a genealogical icon, is perpetuating myths rather than educating its users.


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Searching for Mexican Ancestry

While Ancestry.com is the first site that comes to mind when we think about genealogy it, unfortunately, does not have much for Mexico. Only the following 21 collections in fact. Most of them would only apply to a small segment of the population. Those in blue are free collections. My notes are in [ ].

✿ 1930 Mexico National Census (in Spanish)
✿ Coahuila y Texas : desde la consumacion de la independencia hasta el tratado de paz de Guadalupe Hidalgo [scanned book]
✿ Coahuila y Texas en la época colonial [scanned book]
✿ Encyclopedic History of the LDS Church
✿ Hispanic Surnames and Family History, 1996 [scanned book]
✿ Histoire des Fortifications et des Rues de Québec (in French) [scanned book]
✿ Historical and Genealogical Account of the Family of Vance (Vans, Vaux, and De Vaux) [scanned book]
✿ History of Mexico. Vol. I. 1516-21 [transcribed book]
✿ Illustrated history of southern California : embracing the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California, from the Earliest Period of Occupancy to the Present Time; also, Full-Page Portraits of some of their Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of Many of their Pioneers and of Prominent Citizens of to-day. [scanned book]
✿ Jewish Given Name Variations
✿ Journal d'un missionnaire au Texas et au Mexique (in French) [scanned book]
✿ Mexico Historical Postcards (in Spanish)
✿ Mexico, European Immigrants to USA Arriving at Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1921-1931
✿ Nacogdoches, Texas, Spanish and Mexican Government Records, 1729-1836 (in Spanish)
✿ Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, Mexico, Selected Parish Records, 1751-1880 [Index only, images are on FamilySearch]
✿ Treasures of Pioneer History [Mormon history]
✿ U.S., Returns from Military Posts, 1806-1916
✿ Web: BillionGraves.com Burial Index
✿ Web: International, Find A Grave Index
✿ The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft [scanned books]
✿ World Foreign Gazetteer, Vol. 1

The one site you won't be able to do without is FamilySearch. They have civil and church records for Mexico. No matter your religious beliefs you'll be thanking the Mormon church for digitizing them and the Catholic church for keeping good records in the first place. You can read more about FamilySearch here and we'll come back to their site a little later.

LEARN SPANISH

Reading handwritten records takes some practice and you'll need to know, or learn, some Spanish. You don't need to be fluent but the ability to recognize key words will be helpful. It will enable you to work faster and cheaper. Your other options are to wait for a volunteer to help you translate each record or pay someone to translate for you. Doing a Google search for 'genealogy word list' plus whatever language you need is an easy way to find a glossary list specific to genealogy. Here's one from FamilySearch. Google Translate is another option. If you are unsure of a letter or a word take a guess. If it's not a word but it's close Google Translate will ask, "Did you mean..." and offer a suggestion.

NAMES

Children take their surnames from both parents. For formal use the father's surname is followed by the mother's surname. In casual use the mother's surname is dropped. Of course if transcribers are not familiar with naming conventions they may enter the father's surname as a middle name and mother's surname as the last name. I haven't seen errors like this on FamilySearch but it's something to be aware of if you are searching other sites or if you get stuck. Mistakes are made.
Because children have both their father's and mother's surname and because women did not take their husband's surname it's rare to have a difficult time finding maiden names for Mexican women. I'm not sure if this carries through to today but as recent as the 1930 Mexico Census that is the case. It was quite a shock for me to see my great-grandmother's headstone didn't include my great-grandfather's surname.

Headstone for Porfiria Carreon, wife of Ysidro Dimas

A few spelling quirks to keep in mind while searching. Some letters are used interchangeably: B and V, C and S, S and Z. Vargas may be Bargas. Sisneros instead of Cisneros. Sapata for Zapata. FamilySearch has their search engine set up so these variations are searched automatically. Because of that I was able to find my Bernals in the 1930 U.S. Census even though the enumerator wrote down "Vernal" and they did not show up in the first 5 pages of search results on Ancestry.com. I was then able to go back and find them on Ancestry by searching for Vernal and attached the census to their profiles. Keep this in mind if you're having trouble finding your family in a U.S. census. What a name sounds like will give you clues to variant spellings.

CIVIL REGISTRATION

The Civil Registration Office and requirement to register births, marriages and deaths was enacted into law by Benito Juàrez in 1859. It wasn't really enforced until 1867. Even then not everyone registered their family events with the government. It was rare, however, for them not to get married in the church, baptize their children, or have a church funeral. In many cases church records will go back much farther than 1859.
Most civil records are listed on FamilySearch like this: Mexico, [state name], Civil Registrations, [years available]. There are two exceptions, Aguascalientes and Tiaxcala, which are listed here. Hopefully FamilySearch is just in the middle of reorganizing and the records will all be listed in the same format soon. Once you click on "Browse Images" you can narrow down the collection by city/town and then by record type and/or year. Some smaller towns may have kept all vital records in one book.

CHURCH RECORDS

Each church has it's own format for records and that format may change over time. For decades records may be overflowing with information and then because of a change over in priests or a war the records will only have the bare minimum of information.
Baptismal records (bautismos) should tell you whether the child was adopted (adoptado), born out of wedlock (natural), or born to a married couple (hijo legitimo or h.l.). If adopted the record will have the adopted parents' names, if natural only the mother's name. A child born to a married couple should have both parents' names on the record. If grandparents' names are included there will also be a notation if any of them are deceased.
Once you have parents' names try searching FamilySearch with just parents' names without any other information.

 Click "Parents"

 

Enter parents' names and nothing else.

You may find records for other children in the family.

Other church records you'll find are confirmations (confirmaciones), marriage records (matrimonios), more in depth marriage information (informaciòn matrimonial), and death records (defunciones). Informaciòn matrimonial is a record of the parish priest's investigation to make sure there were no impediments to the marriage, i.e. related by blood, godparent-godchild relationship, impotence, criminal activity, etc..

Examples of records and more after the jump.

What's Happening?

Sorry that there is no crazy tree today. THIS is what I've been working on this week. Please bookmark and share! I love that there's such a wide variety of videos available online. If I haven't found your favorite genealogy video or YouTube channel yet let me know so I can add it to the bunch.

Here are some interesting links that have crossed my path this week...

Kerry over at Clue Wagon has made Family Tree Magazine's list of 40 Best Blogs! Check out the May/June issue for the list. Kerry's posts never fail to make me lau-SQUIRREL!

Get the handouts from this year's Who Do You Think You Are? Live.

WDYTYA? is coming back to American television! Between that and Family Tree, Christopher Guest's new show on HBO, I just might get cable.

The Ginger Jewish Genealogist has found the most depressing death certificate I've ever seen.

FamilySearch has revamped their website and it has some people concerned. (I haven't had a chance to explore the new site.)

Rootsonomy now has a researcher in Ireland! They haven't updated their web page yet but they made the announcement yesterday on their Facebook page. "Cost for Irish lookups is $20. Records will be emailed to you within a couple days. To submit your request, click the button "Request Research or a Lookup" on this Facebook page." Lookups are limited to these records:
• Births, marriages, deaths for 32 counties, Jan 1864 to Dec 1921
• Births, marriages, deaths for 26 counties, Jan 1922 to Mar 2013
• non-Catholic marriages, April 1845 to 2013
• Catholic marriages, April 1864 to 2013

I'll leave you with this great graphic from got genealogy?

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The Price is Right

Since today is the day all of us procrastinators in the U.S. are frantically doing our taxes I thought a post about money would be appropriate. Like the "Fixing What's Not Broken" posts the comments below are taken from Ancestry.com's Facebook page. Some of the threads these were posted to asked, "Would you recommend Ancestry.com?" Other threads asked for an opinion of the site.
As always my (usually sarcastic) comments are in red.

✿ The research takes a very long time and more time is needed for the trial period...I keep telling myself, when I am able to focus on it for a daily two week period, I will join for the trial. I have about 30 leaves waiting to be explored. PLEASE MAKE THE TRIAL PERIOD LONGER AND GIVE US SOME FREE DAYS EACH YEAR.
✿ Translation: I can't be bothered to become a paying customer but you should cater to my needs anyway.

✿ I'd like to join but friends say it's too expensive
✿ I haven't joined because I've heard from too many people that it is way too expensive.
✿ Translation: I'd like to join but I can't think for myself so I just believe everything other people tell me.

✿ I would like to see the money that is spent on celebrities used to lower the subscriber price.
✿ It's called advertising and it brings in more subscribers. If they quit advertising prices will go up because they won't be getting as many new subscribers. Besides, Ancestry advertises with Who Do You Think You Are? it does not produce it. It would be great if people knew the difference.

✿ I remember when you could find things on there site for free but not any more.
✿ I know someone who remembers when Ancestry didn't have any of the U.S. federal censuses. The site has evolved. Parts of it are free. Currently there are over 800 free collections. To find out which ones go to the card catalog, type FREE into the keyword box and click search. 

✿ Make it possible to get world information for a month or 3 months so its not so expensive
✿ You can already subscribe a month at a time.

✿ It would be a much better value if the membership was for BOTH US AND International records. The price nearly doubles for the International Membership. $60 a MONTH may not be a lot of money to some .. but is much more difficult to budget than the $30 we sacrifice for only US Records.
✿ If Ancestry took your advice (they won't) the Facebook page would be flooded with a different whining: "I only need US records. Why can't there be a less expensive subscription so I don't have to pay for world records that I don't need yet?" Besides, the most expensive World subscription in the U.S. is $35/month not $60. If you're paying that much you must be talking about another site.

✿ I am very disappointed with Ancestry.com your fees keep going up and now documents we used to get have to be paid for through another company, we used to get Kentucky death certificates now if we want them we have to fork out more money!!!!
✿ I don't know what this person is complaining about. Kentucky, Death Records, 1852-1983 are still on Ancestry.com. Images are viewable if you have a subscription. I picked a record at random. The screen shot of the index is below. I was able to view it the new viewer (first arrow) and the old viewer (second arrow). The last link (third arrow) is to VitalChek. It's included on every vital (birth, marriage & death) record. The VitalChek link was in the top space for a while but apparently it caused blindness in some people. They couldn't see the "view image" link that was as clear as day below it. The VitalChek link does not mean you are required to order the record. It doesn't even mean that the record is available to order. It means that IF that record is available to order you can do so from the link for a fee. A fee that will most likely be more than you would pay if you went directly to the county or state source. 

✿ I don't like clicking on a hint and having to buy something to see it. I realize you need to make money, but if I am taking the time to put my family history in and being accurate as I can, its not fair I have to pay a significant amount of cash if I was a year or two in my tree.
✿ I'm going to ignore the last part since I have no earthly idea what they are trying to say. I think the first part is again referring to the VitalChek link. If you order a record the money will go to VitalChek, not Ancestry.com. 

✿ Lower your prices. I pay monthly & Some months I don't even use it. Thinking about canceling but don't really want to.
✿ You pay monthly, the most expensive payment option, and you're willing to pay even in months when you don't use it. They should lower their prices why?

✿ Would like a cheaper way to search international records since I have only limited need. Perhaps some form of per occasion fee. Presently not worth it to buy the whole package.
✿ So get a World subscription for a month or see if the records you want are available on ALE (Ancestry Library Edition). No one is forcing you to pay for an entire year.

✿ Reduce the cost of membership and you will make it up in the amount of new subscribers.
✿ Make it more affordable. Really, if you think about it, if you made it more affordable, more people would sign up! That could make more money and expand your database. The more connections that can be made, the happier people will be and therefore be more likely to continue and recommend it to their friends. There is a lot of information you can get out there from free sites, so you really have provide extra incentive for people to sign up.
✿ How wonderful that you two have this figured out. After all, a multimillion dollar company would never invest time and money into researching price points. They don't need to factor in the cost of server upkeep or new record acquisitions or the number of employees. I'm sure they just pulled a number out of thin air and went with it but thanks to your thorough analysis I'm sure they will lower their prices.

✿ Ya know ancestry was good til I couldn't see extra links or suggestions to family tree history the cost should be free and ancestry could still earn plenty of money by selling framed family tree information to its users. Posters of extensive trees etc could be great gifts. But I stopped researching and finding family when the free trial ran out and I could not see things that would have helped finish my tree. Hence no orders of framed trees for gifts to family members.
(same person a few minutes later)
✿ Ancestry could also earn money by charging for books of complete family history with records etc included even further items such as advertising and helping reunite lost family members. The membership fee is costing more loss of sales and users than anything since it is a very good program!
✿ Yet another solid business plan. Sigh.

✿ Give year subscription free when product is purchased ...can't afford membership fee so can't further my research
✿ TOO COSTLY!! Geneology shouldn't be just for the wealthy!
✿ And since Ancestry.com owns absolutely everything you couldn't possibly do "geneology" research without it. Ever.

After the jump: Freeloaders & Freebies

Visiting a FamilySearch Center

      It is pretty amazing how often new indexes and images are added to FamilySearch.org and how many indexes and images are already online. Even so, at some point in your research you will need to order microfilm if you want to see a particular record that hasn't been digitized or search through records that have yet to be indexed. All microfilm is kept at the Family History Library (FHL) and at the "Vault" in Salt Lake City, Utah. Fortunately film can be ordered and delivered to a FamilySearch Center (FSC) near you. Most FSCs are located next to a Mormon church, others are public libraries that have made agreements with the FHL. The former are considered church property. You do not, however, need to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use an FSC. They are free and open to the public.

THE MAIN LIBRARY
      I have not been lucky enough to visit the FHL yet. If you are planning a visit you've probably been reading every blog post about the library and making a list of items from the catalog. You may also want to listen to the Genealogy Made Easy podcast episode about the main library. If you've visited the library please leave your suggestions or a link to a good blog post about the FHL in the comments. My top two suggestions are:

1. Microfilms can be ordered but books never leave the premises. Put any books that haven't been microfilmed at the top of your list.

2. "Films listed in the catalog as "Vault" films need to be requested and may take up to three days to retrieve. For larger vault film requests of 15 or more films, please give at least one week notice." (from FamilySearch.org; Click HERE to order films before your trip.)

After the jump: Visiting a local center

FamilySearch

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah has the most extensive genealogy record collection in the world.

"The Collection includes over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 727,000 microfiche; 356,000 books, serials, and other formats; over 4,500 periodicals and 3,725 electronic resources."

The library's catalog is available online at FamilySearch.org and is free*. Of course not all of us will be able to make it to Salt Lake City to visit this mecca. Luckily there are library branches in 80 countries and the LDS Church is constantly adding indexes and digitized images to its website. Next week's post will be about visiting FamilySearch Centers. This week will be about using the website. 
*You may need to sign in to view some images which just means you need to create a username and password. FamilySearch will not ask for a credit card number unless you are ordering microfilm. 

RECORDS 
The first thing you'll notice on the home page is the search box which is set to automatically search records that have been indexed. You can mark individual facts to be searched exactly by checking the small box next to each fact. Years can be made exact by entering the same year in the 'From' and 'To' boxes. You do not need to enter a name to do a search. A search that has been incredibly fruitful for me has been searching on just the names of parents. No name. No place. No years. Only parents names.

Example 1: 
In the 1910 US Federal Census you see that your ancestor gave birth to 5 children but only 3 are living in 1910. Both of those children were born and died after the 1900 census and before 1910. Searching with just the parents' names may bring up a birth/baptism record and/or a death record. 
Example 2:
You're looking for descendants but cannot find the daughters because you don't know their married names. Entering just the parents' names may bring up a death certificate or a marriage record. 

One drawback on FamilySearch is the inability to make corrections. Records are transcribed exactly as they are on the page and those that are difficult to read may be transcribed incorrectly. 

TREES 
The second search tab is 'Trees'. Trees on FamilySearch can only be submitted by members of the LDS Church. That doesn't make them any more reliable than the trees on Ancestry.com and you know how I feel about those so we'll just skip this ;-)

CATALOG
There are still millions of records that have not been indexed so searching the catalog is a necessity when you can't find what you're looking for. There are two ways to search the catalog and it is worth searching both ways. The first way is to use the 'catalog' tab. The second is by scrolling down the home page and browsing by location. You can narrow down your browsing (area, time period, record collection) on the next page. All collections that have digitized images have a camera icon next to them. If the items aren't digitized and have a film number you can order that microfilm (more on that next week). 
Here are examples of search results using both searches.

Example 1: Catalog tab - Place-names search - India, Bengal

Biography 

 - History of the Cossimbazar Raj in the nineteenth century, period covered, 1804-1897

Church history 

 - History of the Catholic missions in central Bengal 1855-1886

Church records

 - Parish register transcripts from the Presidency of Bengal, 1713-1948

 - Roman Catholic returns of baptisms, marriages and burials, 1835-1856

Court records

 - Court proceedings, 1727-1774

Directories

 - A general register of the Honourable East India Company's civil servants of the Bengal establishment from 1790 to 1842

 - Scott and Co.'s Bengal directory, and register, with almanac and appendix

History

 - History of the Cossimbazar Raj in the nineteenth century, period covered, 1804-1897

 - George Nesbitt Thompson and some of his descendants

Merchant marine

 - Indian Navy, Bengal pilots, 1858-1861

 - Bengal marine, miscellaneous correspondence and financial papers, 1831

 - List of Europeans in the service of the Bengal marine, 1848-1860

 - Bengal marine annual report, 1844-1857

 - Bengal marine financial reports, 1873-1874

 - Bengal marine civil and marine casualties, 1824-1864

 - European officers and seamen serving in the Bengal naval brigades, 1858-1860

 - Bengal pilot service papers, 1796-1880

 - List of seamen in the Bengal marine who have claims on the company for wages, 1821

Probate records - Indexes

 - List of wills to be found in the Bengal Public Consultations, volumes I to VI

Probate records

 - Court proceedings, 1727-1774

 - Bengal wills 1728-1774; Bombay wills 1728-1783; Madras wills 1753-1779; index 1704-1783

 - Bengal wills and administrations, 1774-1937; indexes 1774-1909

Social life and customs

 - Marriage and rank in Bengali culture : a history of caste and clan in middle period Bengal

Example 2: Browse by location - Asia & Middle East - India (no option to narrow location further)

 - India Deaths and Burials, 1719-1948

 - India, Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947

 - India, Hindu Pilgrimage Records

 - India, Marriages, 1792-1948

 - India, Punjab, Moga Land Ownership Pedigrees, 1887-1958

The catalog also includes books. Some books have been microfilmed but those that are only available in hard copy do not leave the main library. If you find a book that looks promising try searching Google Books. If it is cataloged in Google Books click the "find in a library" link, enter your zip code and you may find a copy closer than Salt Lake City.

LEARN

On the header of the FamilySearch home page you'll see the 'Learn' button. The section of this I'd like to point out is the Learning Center. It has video research courses to help with everything from What is a Census? to the Australian Civil Registration Index to Reading Russian Handwritten Records. FamilySearch also has a YouTube channel. The videos on their YouTube channel are conveniently grouped into playlists so you can easily find and view videos on a specific topic.

UPDATE: Click here for a playlist of YouTube videos related to FamilySearch.


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Free Gen Websites

Post last updated on 12 Nov 2013

I wrote about researching for free and posted it on the discussion boards on the Ancestry.com Facebook page. Facebook discussion boards have since disappeared but I've copied and pasted it here. If you have more suggestions please add them in the comments. 

Ancestry.com

If you're just starting you may not want to spend $$ on a software program. You can create your family tree and keep it on Ancestry.com for free. Add names, events, photos, stories and invite your family to help you out. All of that is free. What Ancestry charges for is searching for records and making first contact with other members. If you're not a subscriber other members can contact you and once they do you will be able to answer them. The message boards are free and you can make contact with other researchers that way.
There is a way to search Ancestry's records for free. Go to your local library and ask if they have the Library Edition of Ancestry.com. You will need to access it from a library computer (not your laptop) and go to the Ancestry link on your library's homepage. Don't just go online and go to Ancestry.com. You'll see the same page you see on your own computer. There may be some databases not viewable in the Library Edition. Ask the librarian what other databases the library has access to that might be useful for genealogical research. Some may be accessible from home with your library card number.
Over 1000 databases on Ancestry are free to everyone and you can search them from home. In some cases the index or transcription is free but viewing the original record requires a subscription. You can limit your search to the free collections here or go to the card catalog and do a keyword search for the word FREE.

Fold3.com

Another site owned by Ancestry.com is Fold3.com which focuses on military records. This is another subscription site but like Ancestry there are some free databases in their collection. You'll see a red "FREE" next to those collections.

FamilySearch

FamilySearch is the most extensive collection of free genealogical records. It's run by the LDS church. Their goal is to make all the microfilmed records they have in the vault in Salt Lake City available online for free. Since there are millions (not millions of records but millions of microfilm rolls!) it's going to take some time. They have records from all over the world and are constantly adding new collections. If you'd like to see if they have anything for a part of the world you're interested in go to their homepage (link above) and scroll down. Click on the area you're interested in.
To see some of the images you'll need to create an account and sign in. Don't worry, unless you're ordering microfilm they never ask for a credit card number.
The entire collection is not indexed so it's also helpful to search the catalog to see what's available. There's a small fee for renting the microfilm and you'll have to search the old fashioned way, page by page.
FamilySearch also has libraries around the world. You can use Ancestry Library Edition, Fold3 and many other subscription sites free at any FamilySearch Center. For a list of those sites and more information about visiting a center click here. Each center will also have a permanent collection of microfilm that is free and, of course, books.
FamilySearch also has a Facebook page and a number of Facebook communities. Those communities focus on different states, countries and areas of research. I've used the Hispanic Genealogy Page and the volunteers have been extremely helpful.
If you find their site helpful you might consider volunteering with indexing new records. Click "Indexing" at the top of their homepage to learn more.

Cyndi's List

Cyndi has done an amazing job of categorizing and cataloging genealogy websites. She includes a $ icon for pages that require a subscription. Have ancestors from Cuba? Do a search for Cuba and see if there's any site online that caters to exactly what you need. Or maybe you'll find out about an online group of genealogists who have done research in Cuba and they can help point you in the right direction.
Like the Cyndi's List Facebook page to keep up with the latest site news.

RootsWeb

Some counties/cities may have a page on RootsWeb. If you're lucky their page will have information about vital records for the area (what years are available and who to contact if they're not online) and they may even do newspaper look ups. You can also connect with others on the surname pages where you may find distant relatives.

Find A Grave

The volunteers at Find a Grave have created a huge database of graves, headstones and, in some cases, family lines and obituaries. Families are only connected IF someone has come along to connect them. So if you find a family member not connected to anyone use the handy search in the left hand column to search the surname in that cemetery or in that county. The search engine at F.A.G. is different than what you may encounter elsewhere so experiment with name variations (i.e. John Walker Smith, John W Smith, J Walker Smith, J W Smith, J Smith).
I've written more about the Find A Grave site here.
UPDATE: Find A Grave has been purchased by Ancestry.com but is still free.

Dead Fred

Dead Fred is a photo archive that covers over 17,600 surnames. There's also a mysteries section where you can search by photographer, state, time period, subject...

Google Books

Your ancestor didn't have to be famous to be in a book. Many towns/counties would publish a book on the anniversary of their founding. A book like that might have short bios of the oldest living or most prominent town/county residents. Or you may just want to find out more about the time or place your ancestors lived. If you find a book you're interested in, there are links to see if it's available for purchase or to find it in a library. If it's out of copyright you may be able to read it online or even download a PDF copy.

Other free sites

You may want to search a surname on Flickr.com or take a look at groups there like AncestorShare or Geneaolgy Documents. There are others, like me, who have started family group pages on Facebook so search for a surname and see if there are any "groups" in the results.

Your Local Library

With the surge in family history interest a lot of libraries have an introductory class or may even have lectures or genealogy help on certain days. Don't be afraid to ask. If they don't currently have something they will consider adding something if enough people ask. If you're looking for books about internet genealogy research be sure to check the copyright date. Since the internet and websites change so frequently a book written in 1999 is not going to be much help in 2012.

Learning is Fun

Ancestry.com has an online Learning Center as does FamilySearch. Legacy Family Tree (software) has webinars.
Podcasts are also a great way to learn. Family History: Genealogy Made Easy is a series I've listened to about 3 times all the way through. Do a search in iTunes for genealogy or family history to find more including tutorials from Ancestry.com.
I've created playlists of genealogy related videos available free on YouTube. The lists include videos from (links go to YouTube channels) Ancestry.com, the National Archives, the National Genealogical Society and many more.

There are sites where you can view other people's trees for free but I'm not going to link to them. Too many people copy error filled trees and think they're doing research. They're not. Once you get started you'll understand why anyone posting, "I did the 14-day free trial and traced my family back to Charlemagne" on any genealogy centered Facebook wall is subsequently mocked.

If you have other options for free research, tutorials or a favorite genealogy podcast or book to recommend please add it in the comments!

This is a time consuming but incredibly rewarding hobby.
Best of luck climbing your family tree!


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RELATED POSTS: FamilySearch, Visiting a FamilySearch Center, Find A Grave, Ancestry for Free: Genealogy Research Sites That Don't Cost a Dime (On FamilyHistoryDaily.com)