what are some good family history and genealogy sites?

answers1: First of all don't expect it all to be online. You want to
find websites that have records, not necessarily family trees.
Information in family trees on any website, free or fee, must be
viewed with caution. <br>
They are subscriber submitted by folks like you and me. The internet
has been a big boon to genealogy but errors have multiplied big time
because of people copying from other persons' family trees. <br>
All too often you will see different info on the same people from
different subscribers. Then you will see the absolute same info on the
same people from different subscribers, BUT that doesn't mean it is
accurate. Too many people copy without verifying. The information can
be useful as clues only as to where to get the documentation. Also one
genealogy website encourages, or at least use to, people to merge
other's family trees into their own which is downright sloppy
genealogy. The information in family trees you find online can be
helpful as CLUES ONLY as to where to get the documentation. <br>
<br>
My favorite is Ancestry and if you find it too pricey, your public
library might have a subscription to it you can use for free. . What
is so good about Ancestry.Com is the amount of records they have
obtained and put online Still you must distinguish between the records
they have obtained and their subscriber submitted family trees. They
have several family tree programs and one that I feel is definitely
trash is their One World Tree program. I actually saw a few days ago
where someone used "One World Tree" as documentation. When they set it
up they took all the information people had submitted to the old
Ancestry World Tree program and combined all the different info people
had on the same person into one. However, I have seen at least twice
where they combined 2 people into 1. For records I don't think
Ancestry.Com can be beat. They have all the U.S. censuses through
1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet. They
have military, land and other records. Not all records are online but
the ones you find will save you time and money. When I go into their
website I prefer to go under "Old Search" as I can pick out the
specific records I want to search. <br>
<br>
They have transcribed the records but you can view the original
images. There are errors in their transcriptions but when you view the
original images you will pity the transcribers. <br>
<br>
Here is a link with links to many other websites, some free and some
fee. Some I like and some, particularly those that only have family
trees, I don't care about at all. <br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2008.htm"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.progenealogists.com/top50gene...</a>
<br>
<br>
A good source is a Family History Center at a Latter Day
Saints(Mormon) Church. 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 FHCs can order microfilm for you to
view for about $3. I have never had them to try and convert me or have
I heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their
resources. They are very nice and helpful and actually a lot of their
volunteers are not Mormon. Just visit their free website,
FamilySearch.org, to get the hours for the general public to the
nearest Mormon FHC. <br>
<br>
If you haven't done so you should get as much information from living
family as possible. Don't expect to find the living on genealogy
websites as that can be an invasion of privacy and can lead to
identity theft. <br>
<br>
Interview your old folks and tape them if they will let you. I won't
say that they won't be confused or wrong on some things. <br>
However, they very likely will get into story telling that you might
not bother to write down and in those stories will be clues that will
later on help you break through a brickwall in your search. People who
have done this say they have gone back and listened to the tape again
after doing research and they have heard things they didn't hear the
first time around. <br>
<br>
Find out if any family has any old family bibles. Ask to see and make
copies of birth, marriage and death certificates and depending on the
religious faith, baptismal, first communion, confirmation and marriage
certificates from their church can be helpful.