Genealogy Day 2025 is on Saturday, March 8, 2025: Genealogy?.?

Saturday, March 8, 2025 is Genealogy Day 2025. Day Genealogy‎ Research Day Genealogy on Ancestry.com. Get started now!

Genealogy, or study regarding genealogy, is among the quickest growing hobbies today. Using the creation of today's technology, for example computer systems and also the internet, trying to find records of the forefathers is becoming a lot more accessible.Established in 1997 included in Celebrate Your Title Week, Genealogy Day was produced to inspire a pursuit on one’s genealogy.Activities you can take part in for Genealogy Day vary from an easy family tree, that is a great activity for kids, to beginning your personal research for any bigger project. An excellent beginning point for genealogy is meeting with family and family buddies, and making notes, then going after that. You will be amazed how rapidly things can begin to fall under place. If you wish to try a task with children, draw a tree and also have them write what they are called of the family to the hands or legs leaving, together with pictures.

I'll paste my long, standard answer below, but first - The Mormons will let you download PAF for free. It is a basic genealogy program that lots of people use. It has a good HELP section that will teach you how to use it. Go to

Click on Order/Download Products ->

Software & Databases ->

Personal Ancestral File

===========================

Here is the stock answer.

These questions come up every day:

Where can I find my family tree for free?

Does anyone know the {Surname} family?

What are good sites for ancestors / genealogy?

They are all about tracing your family tree on the Internet. I am not chastising you for failing to search the resolved questions first. I am explaining why this is the same answer I gave to many other people. The fourth time I typed my favorite beginner's links I realized I should save them in a text file and paste them in. This is a long, detailed and general. Because it is general, some of the links (or paragraphs) may not apply to your question.

These may help get you started. They are large and free. Many of them, however, have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them - ads that ask for a name, then offer a trial subscription. Watch out for those advertisements.

(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.)

(Mormon's mega-site. Click on "Search")

(460,000,000+ entries, of varying quality)

Surname meanings and origins

My own site: "How to Begin"

United States only:

(Subdivided into state sites, which all have county sites.)

(The Canadians have Canadian Gen Web, by province)

(Social Security Death index - click on "Advanced". You may find your grandparents.)

(US Phone book, for looking up distant cousins)

United Kingdom Only:

(Biggest site for United Kingdom & Ireland)

(Free Birth, Marriage & Death Records)

(If you posted your question in Genealogy, ignore this paragraph. If you posted it in the "Family" category, read on.)

Tracing your family tree is called genealogy. YA has a category for genealogy,

Home > Arts & Humanities > Genealogy

There are hundreds of more links in the resolved answers there.

In the USA, 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.

Notes:

You usually have to do some research. Sometimes you get lucky. Don't give up if your Great grandfather with your surname isn't there. Try all eight great-grandparents.

You won't find living people on any of the sites except the phone book one. You won't find many people born after 1920 on any of the sites except the SSDI one. Genealogists hide the birth dates, birth places and other facts of living people to protect their privacy. You will have to find your grandparents' or great grandparents' birth dates and maiden names somewhere besides the Internet.

The best way to get started is to ask your oldest living relatives about themselves and their parents. You may find great-grandpa's death date and burial place on the web, but only his children, your grandfather and grandaunt, can tell you what sort of man he was.

The free sites are supported by advertising, just like TV. You can't watch the Super Bowl without seeing a beer commercial, and you can't surf for dead relatives without seeing an Ancestry advertisement. Many people complain about advertisements. Please don't. They bring you the "free" sites. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

If you get serious you'll need a genealogy program. They are to family research what "Word" is to writing a novel. I like Roots Magic. Family Tree Maker is the market leader. Both cost around $29. The Mormons will let you download PAF for free. It is clunky, but it is free. You can sometimes find old versions of FTM or Family Origins (FO is the predecessor of RM) in bargin bins at CostCo.

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 - put a nation, or, better yet, if you are asking about a specific individual, a nation and a state / province in all of your questions. It will help people help you.

.Genealogy.?

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!

What can a modern day genealogy test actually decipher?

I am in the UK and DNA genealogy research is not so popular here as in the US for that very reason. Most people know where there ancestors came from, while in the US a lot of people get family stories and legends about their origins that need to be checked out scientifically.

The best bet is to trace as much of your ancestry as you can and then see if any kind of DNA research can help. Remember that Ireland had a lot of settlers from England at the time of the Plantation Acts and they may have had ancestors from other places in Europe.

Although this was for the English upper classes to take over Irish estates, they would have taken other English servants and assistants with them, and this would have led to a large influx of poorer English families who intermarried with the Irish..