Here's How: Genealogy Research Online

Yes, it is much easier now, with so much information available online.

Our family did it the hard way decades ago, and there is still something you can do that I promise will touch your heart.

Our family went to England with all our research, did some more at St. Catherine's House, where British records are kept.

Then we located the churches our families had attended, and at each church the pastor was more than happy to dig out the baptism records. We were able to touch the page with the handwritten records of our family baptisms going back a couple of centuries.

The trip, expensive. The experience PRICELESS!

Good job Bob

Serge, while technically true, very little personal data that was current was stolen. They seem to take far better care of customer data than the 'big guys" whose websites are often hacked with credit card info stolen.

https://www.hackread.com/ancestry-rootsweb-breach-plaintext-accounts-leaked/

I appreciate your extra-dry humor.
Greetings from almost locked down Israel.

According to Firefox the site https://www.ellisislandrecords.org/ has an invalid certificate and Firefox thinks it is dangerous.

You missed one of the BIGGEST DNA websites - it's Family Tree DNA, and it's got HUGE resources and links to most other DNA sites. That's at www.familytreedna.com

Many happy returns of the day to the author.

Here, I thought you were going to say you were Irish! Oh, well, Happy St. Patrick's Day!!
you are doing a great job! Thanks!!!

Be very wary of the accuracy of the records. Ancestry.com and the Mormon church sites contain a lot of inaccuracies due to people guessing about their histories. My mother physicall researched the records for part of my family and they did not match many of the records people were getting from the ancestry sites. We contacted the source people and they said they were using best guesses so not good data.

That would be nice to be able to use some of those resources. However, for those of us who happen to be adopted, it's really pointless. I was adopted at birth in N. Carolina. When my wife was pregnant with our first, I wrote Raliegh HHS just to find out if there were any physical conditions of which we should be aware. I received a terse response on the order of 'we don't give out information to adoptees, and that the pregnancy was normal as was the delivery. People like me simply don't exist.

I didn't notice Geni.com mentioned.

Jim, if you get a genealogical DNA test and if your birth parents had other children, you may connect that way. Respect that your birth parents may not want to be found. Yet you may still learn the information you want to know. I know other adopted people who learned their ancestry that way.

A word of caution about using someone else's family tree for your information. Such as found on Ancestry. It may be wrong. Many people take the first thing they see and copy it as true.
Many sites are good sources for clues. Get a copy of the document.
Please verify the information you find. Good Genealogists site their sources for proof.

I've been doing genealogy work now for over 40 years. I started back before internet at a time when you mailed off letters and actually visited people to get information. What I have noticed with the popularity of the internet is the abundance of misinformation people have collected with Ancestry being the worse. Ancestry is the simplest to use but also the most expensive. Your success will depend largely on what states you are doing research. With some states such as Oklahoma your extremely limited on what you can get. Family Search is absolutely free and has essentially the same information as Ancestry but is a bit more complicated to use. Other sites generally refer you back to Ancestry and you may catch yourself running in circles. Usually each state will have a genealogy page on Facebook and can be a great source of information.

Many libraries have online resources (accessible from home) with links for local and general genealogy sources. Another reason to keep your library card and support a threatened treasure.

Thank you, BobRankin.
I don't much care for my genealogy but I sure would like to find a way to get a fast notification, when relatives/friends pass-away.
This may sound pretty morbid but is due its own app!

Nice jjob, but you left out a major genelogical site namely "myheritage.com". Yhis site also has a software producr called "Family Tree Builder" which you can download for free. FTB keeps you family tree data on your computer synced with an online version. My Heritage is free for smaller trees, but if your tree gets to large you will have to subscribe and pay a fee. Check it out.

1. Rootsweb is no longer functional (as of Mar 2, 2020. But it is in an archival state and can be searched.
2. Find-a-grave (www.findagrave) can be a very valuable source of information.
3. Ancestry is better than portrayed above. No, you cannot trust their unsourced trees, but they have extensive images available of documents - census - vital records - histories. Images are necessary.
4. Always record the source of your information
5. It is not all on the internet. You can get a long way, but over half the useful records are not on line.
(Another pre-PC genealogist)

Thank you, Bob, for this article! I've been doing ancestry research for 13 years now and I've been a member of ancestry.com the entire time. It is money very well spent, but yes, you cannot go on other people's info or even ancestry's "hints" alone. Use several different sources and you will get a great picture of dates and places, although exact dates and women's maiden names can be tough. It's a challenging hobby but very rewarding. And you can keep branching out (pun intended) for as long as you want!

You say: " I was also able to find an ancestor of my grandmother who was born in 1620, and came to New Amsterdam, a Dutch settlement at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, around 1640."

Similar to my family. Pieter Claesen arrived about the same time as your grandmother. Born 1625. Frisean Islands of the coast of Netherlands-Germany. Indentured servant. When the British came, had to change his name to Peter Wyckoff. Wyckoff house is still in existence on Manhattan Island. Do a google.

My grandmother was 8th generation still carrying the Wyckoff name.