Getting started - why go online?
Keen to start your family tree, you type the name of an ancestor into a search engine, and literally hundreds of websites come back at you. Some are free, some pay-per-view, some subscription, some have vouchers - and suddenly you don't know where to begin.
'Databases and search engines make information accessible in a way in which it wasn't before: searches now take only a few minutes.'
There is an overwhelming amount of information on the internet, and it's difficult to know which of the pay for services are of value to you. It is fair to say that most genealogy site services for which you have to pay have some worth - it just depends whether they are going to be worthwhile for you. Here are some tips and guidelines to help make order out of the chaos so you can make the right choice when it comes to selecting your website.
The bottom line in genealogical research is that you are going to have to pay for it. You cannot manage without the basic building blocks of certificates and census returns, and money can be liberally spent in travelling to archives, paying online fees, hiring private researchers and whatever else you deem necessary as you continue your research. But there are good reasons why more and more genealogists are going online.
There is a wealth of material available on the web, and it is being added to every day. Databases and search engines make information accessible in a way in which it wasn't before: searches that used to take weeks or months now take only a few minutes. And sometimes it's cheaper and easier to do what you can online and in your own time than travelling to archives and bowing to time pressure there. You may find that you can use online resources for free or more cheaply at archives, but is it worth the time and expense of travelling there? And you will still have to pay for the photocopying!
First of all, there are lots of excellent free resources used by genealogists - here is a small selection:
- www.freebmd.org.uk for some birth, marriage and death records in England and Wales.
- www.familysearch.org for selected parish records.
- www.rootsweb.com for genealogy chat and all kinds of relevant information.
But none of these is guaranteed to hold all the records that you want. So, to start from the very beginning, which sites do you absolutely need in order to build your family tree, and how can you tell where to put your money?
Published: 2007-08-29
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