Starting Genealogical Research - Experienced

Experienced - Commercial Sites

Step 2 - Commercial Sites

The Internet isn't just filled with personal sites, there's money to be made! There are many genealogy sites that go far beyond what a personal site can offer. Most of them will let you access certain sections of their site for free, but to get to the most useful sections it will require you to pay a fee. These fees usually are based on a monthly subscription and you can really find some terrific information in them. The site I'm going to talk about is Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is broken down into several sections, each one dealing with a specific aspect of genealogy. The best starting point is to input an ancestors name into the search fields on their opening page, you can use both first and last or just use the last name. They have an extensive database and will return a list of possible matches. You can set predetermined criteria such as where they lived to help narrow out the results. I entered my great-grandfather's name for an example.

As you can see this site will get you busy for awhile, especially if you run all your ancestors thru this one by one. This site has gathered a tremendous amount of records and this is the area which will be of the most useful to you. The following records and what you can find is listed below.

Census Records: Before the Internet came on the scene this was a laborious task. You had to go to a genealogical society or library, check out a reel of film and search each record one by one. You could lose days trying to find the name you're interested in without success. Ancestry.com has a copy of every census record available in the United States and if you plan on only having one subscription, this is it.

Census records can tell you who the head of the household was, who was living there with them, and lists the ages of all people. It also tells you where they were born (important to find/verify where they immigrated from), and what their occupation was. Census records can also give you a snapshot about the family as they lived their lives. Comparing census records by different dates can help you gain some insight about their lives.

Commercial Sites - Continued.