I know a lot of you wonder how I find and put together my information, so I thought I would share some of the excellent sources I use in most of my stories. Occasionally I do have to make a direct phone call to a small town library, request old court records, spend hours on the phone with an old lady at a records center, etc...but if you're a beginning genealogist then I highly recommend these sources:
1. Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com is my #1 place to start my search. I got a subscription for free when they had a special promotion partnership thing with Familysearch, so I'm not sure how much a regular subscription costs. But it's worth it. The "leafs" that pop up have been instrumental in finding cool stories. It's also my favorite database for copies of census records, birth certificates, death certificates, draft cards, pretty much any government document your ancestor's name might have been on. Also, if you have a spare $100, try sending in a DNA kit through Ancestry DNA. I can't wait to do mine!
2. Familysearch.org
Familysearch is definitely comparable to Ancestry. Its my favorite place for family tree generation. I love the fan chart layout. It's a great source for all ancestry, but especially any LDS ancestors you might have. You can also schedule research appointments with familysearch missionaries who are always happy to help you figure stuff out, track something down, or point you in the direction to great sources. I also enjoy the ability for people to upload their own "stories" called "memories" on the site. If someone posts a picture of someone on your tree, you can contact them and make connections with family you never knew about!
3. Government Archives
This is mostly a place to get census info and information like that. It's also my favorite place for locating military records and immigration records!
4. Geni
I love Geni because whoever runs it has typed up summaries on people that read like stories. Excellent for when you can't make head or tails of other records. Fair warning, you're going to need to vet anything you pull off of here. It's not always accurate.
5. Fold3
Again, this isn't free. But if you have any military people in your past, you're going to regret not looking them up on here. On all the other sites I have only been able to find my grandparents draft cards. On Fold3 I can get muster rolls, service records, pictures, ship logs, etc.
6. Find A Grave
Have ancestors buried half a world away? Find A Grave has got your back. People all over the world volunteer and go take photos of headstones and markers. There's a 90% chance whoever you are looking for has already been added, but if not you just send in a request and it finds a volunteer near the cemetery and they go take a picture. I am a Find A Grave volunteer for Utah County and I love it, it's like a treasure hunt when people send me requests!
7. The American Genealogical Biographical Index
This is one of my "If I call them and act super excited they will help me for free" places. Some ladies on here helped my track down several documents not available anywhere online and got them scanned and sent to me.
8. Facebook
This is a link to a list of all the familysearch facebook groups. They have tons of them, often down to groups for specific states. Im a member of at least 5. If you are having problems tracking down anything, or finding information on someone, you post about it in the group and lots of amateur level to professional level genealogists help you! I have made some amazing new friends in these groups, as well as finding information that I just couldn't find on my own.
And that's a good place for you to start!!!! As you get more advanced, and the more you reach out to others, you will start to make research connections and geni-buddies all over the world!
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