How can I find my family free without paying?
So, how can I find my family tree without paying? Although it seems that nearly every site out there needs to be paid for before you can start researching your family tree, do not fret, it is still possible to put your family tree together for free.
But first, before we get into that, let’s start a little closer to home. How are you going to organise your findings?
I would suggest finding yourself a free family history software program and installing it on your computer. If you google “free family history software” or a phrase that is something similar to that, you will have a good list of free software to start with. It is then just a matter of finding the one that best suits your needs, and then downloading and installing it.
Here are three sites that compare family history software:
If you do not want to use a family history software program at this point in time (or you are having difficulties in finding one that you like) you can still start your research the old-fashioned way by using paper Family History Forms and Charts.
And, depending on your backup strategies it may be advisable, as I do, to use both.
Now, for the fun stuff.
Once you have decided on which software you want to use, or on the Family History Forms and Charts that you require, you can start entering data into them.
Starting with yourself, enter your full name, birth date, birthplace, spouse name, marriage date and date of death (if applicable) for not only you but for everyone else in your immediate family, your siblings, parents and their immediate families. You will probably know most of this information or can call another family member to find out if you don’t.
Next, move on to your aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. This will most likely take you a little bit more time and may require you to ask family members a lot of questions. Fill in every position you can and ask about great-grandparents and their parents and siblings. You can find a list of FREE interview questions here that you can download and use, to assist you with this process. As well, you should also gather all the old photos, diaries, family bibles, personal letters, wills and anything else you can get your hands on that may contain the relevant information that you need.
If you are lucky, there may even be a family historian already in your family who has done a lot of the work for you.
Once you have obtained all this family information, hopefully, you should now have a number of generations completed with, at the very least, their birth, marriage and death details. The type and amount of information you collect on each individual is entirely up to you.
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From here you can move online. There are a number of free family history search sites available.
Some of these are:
Here is a site that lists 50 Free global search sites you can use.
From personal experience, I know that a lot of local council/town or parish websites have links to Free local databases for the location where your ancestors lived. These websites may also contain advice for family historians pertaining to the local district which could be very useful so I highly recommend checking them out.
Some Australian-based sites are listed below:
Fortunately, most of the paid research sites such as Ancestry, Find My Past and The Genealogist offer Free trials which you can take advantage of. You may still need to sign up and give your payment details but if you cancel prior to the end of the trial period you should not be charged anything. They may also offer free access to particular databases on certain important days of the year (such as ANZAC day here in Australia). So keep an eye out for those.
Researching online need not be expensive but just may just take a little more ingenuity on your part. So hopefully, the information in this post can give you the start you are looking for and help you avoid paying fees to mainstream research sites. With a little thought, I am sure you will be able to obtain the information you require to produce a family tree that you and your family can be proud of.
Happy Hunting!