Free Genealogy Search – A Step in Your Family Ancestry

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If you’re interested in rediscovering your family’s history, then you should conduct your own research or hire a genealogist to do the search for you. However, you have to consider that hiring a genealogist right away can be very expensive as well as researching for your family’s ancestry alone. It will also take quite a long time to get to your goal on finding the root of your family’s history.

If you think about it, there is a much cheaper way to start searching for your family’s history. Although it will only offer limited results, it is a great way to start your search for your family’s history. It will also save you a lot of time and money because it’s free and it’s available on the internet. The internet contains thousands of different genealogy related websites. You will find a few websites that will offer free genealogy search. Although these free genealogy websites will only offer limited information, it will serve as a great start to find out about your family’s genealogy.

Also, free genealogy search websites will serve as a stepping stone on your search for your ancestors. With this kind of website, you will never again have to leave your home and search public libraries for old newspapers and old public records that may contain information about your family’s history. Here, you can search for your relatives and obtain copies of available documents for free – right in the comforts of your own home.

Since free genealogy search websites don’t contain all the information you need, you can consider gathering what information you can and once you meet a dead end in your search, you can say that it’s time for you to hire a genealogist to do the work for you. You can provide them with all the information you gathered and the genealogist will pick up where you left off. This will lessen the fee for their services as you did some work for yourself. However, the cost will also depend on how far back you want your family tree to be. Always remember that the farther back in the past your family tree is and the harder it is to find documents, the more expensive the fee for the genealogist will be.

Free genealogy search websites are only there to give you a bit of push on your search for your ancestors. You have to remember that free genealogy search websites only contains limited information. And, if you want a more comprehensive search and a proper family tree, you should consider hiring a genealogist to do the work for you.

Professional genealogists know what documents to find and where to find them. They will also furnish you a copy of the original documents and will make a family tree for you if you want them to.

Searching for your genealogy is a fun activity. So, start uncovering your family’s mystery by searching for the preliminary information first in free genealogy search websites and continue with a more comprehensive search with a genealogist.

A great website and article for further reading and to help you in your research is on “Family Tree” article ‘Best Free Genealogy and Family History Websites’ By David A. Fryxell.

This is an awesome resource for anyone who wants to get started in their research.

Good Luck!

The Success of DNA Testing and Continuing Your Genealogy Research

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Today having your DNA tested is one of the best ways to continue a different angle in researching your family tree. It’s great if you have a family tree already started and want to get more information on your ancestors. Doing so enables you to check out potential distant cousins and discovering more about where you actually came from.

I have had my DNA tested twice with both AncestryDNA and MyHeritageDNA. The results from both are very similar and I have connected with 2nd and 3rd cousins putting faces to names in my tree and also discovering more facts about my extended family.

It’s amazing in the discoveries and where it will lead you. Taking your genealogy research to another level is something that I personally feel that you should endeavour to expand your resources. You just never know where it will take you.

Some information about DNA Testing that you should be aware of before you get it done is described below.

There are about 60,000 billion cells found in the human body. It includes muscle cells, cheek cells, and white blood cells. Each cell contains the whole genetic information which is the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The nucleus inside the cell holds the DNA or chromosomal DNA that consists of Y chromosomal DNA, X chromosomal DNA, and autosomal DNA. The external part of the nucleus holds mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). The autosomal DNA comes from both the mother and the father, Y chromosomes is inherited by a son from his father, and mtDNA comes from the mother only.

There are advancements made in testing DNA to meet various areas of interests. For example, the most common uses of DNA are related to finding criminals and proving paternity. But today, genealogy research also uses DNA testing.

For so many years, genealogy has become an important element of the society and a favorite hobby of some enthusiasts. Although this is more rewarding, somehow it brings frustrations even to expert genealogists. It can be very time consuming when doing paper research. More often, it can lead to illegible and damaged documents. But, DNA testing provides quick results without questioning its authenticity or quality. Moreover, the genetic genealogy results can endure the tests of time.

1. Mitochondrial testing is utilized for tracing the maternal heritage of a person. The mtDNA testing is very important since genealogists are mostly females. When they marry, maternal lines are often lost because of changing their surnames. In this manner, they can learn and trace their maternal ancestry. There are advances made in understanding genetics and using laboratory techniques in helping a person to identify maternal lineage through mtDNA tracing services. The distinct mtDNA of person is analyzed and compared to the databases of other samples of mtDNA worldwide, revealing information about the lost ancestry.

The mtDNA remains nearly unchanged even for so many years. You can share the same type of mtDNA with your mother, maternal grandmother, and maternal great grandmother. The same exact mtDNA code can track your direct maternal lineage way back from the time where mtDNA code’s natural mutation occurred. Women who are living today can trace their origins 150 thousands years ago through natural mutations or mitochondrial eve. In connection with matrilineal descent, Eve is the common ancestor. But it doesn’t necessarily imply that Eve is the only woman who lived in that era. There were also other women alive but only the lineage of Eve has survived.

2. Y chromosomal DNA testing is the most common used form of genetic genealogy testing. Some people can even trace if a deceased man is related to them by conducting this test. Like mtDNA, Y chromosomes can be also traced back from one prehistoric father, Adam. The DNA mutation of the first Y chromosomes naturally occurs over many generations. Determining the present Y chromosomes can trace your paternal lineage through searching the Y database worldwide.

Moreover, genealogists can find out if two people are related because they have similar surnames through Y chromosomes testing. It is not impossible since in most cultures, surnames or family names are inherited by children from their fathers like the Y chromosomal DNA.

A successful genealogy research lies on DNA testing because its usefulness is proven as time has passed by. Expanding your ancestry research through your DNA and also researching potential family tree hits on the Internet (Online Genealogy Websites) are worthwhile goals.

Finding relevant original sources is the main goal of any genealogist where I hope you as a family historian will succeed.

DNA Testing is another resource for you too utilize in your quest and continuing family saga.

Link to AncestryDNAAncestryDNA

Link to MyHeritageDNA

For further reading check out the article ‘The Best DNA Testing Kits for 2021’ at PCMag By Molly McLaughlin Updated February 3, 2021

Why You Should Create a Family Tree?

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My mother is your grandmother and my brother is your uncle.

Is this how you teach your kids about your families? How each of us relate to one another and who is the mother to whom?

Why not use a family tree with detailed information and properly cited on how we are connected to each other?

A family tree is not only exceptionally useful as a teaching tool for kids, but it gives us a whole new perspective in life too. Building a family tree can also be a fun lazy-Sunday-afternoon activity with the kids.

Building a family tree can be simple, depending on the kind of family tree you want to build. An elaborate one will take a much longer time, for example, if you want to cut out pieces of coloured paper and pasting them with pictures and short write-ups on the family member. Some people will just draw a family tree and colour portions of it into the family tree. Kids love it and even adults will enjoy this simple and calming activity.

Innovation and advancement in technology catches up with our needs too because there are family tree creators in the form of different online ancestry websites, software and computer programs that can help people create their family tree easily. Using software to create a family tree takes only minutes and can be coloured in and pasted over too. Using software or online genealogy programs to create a family tree is for people who are not keen on the paper, scissor, glue and goo concept of creating family trees. Don’t be surprised, there ARE people who are not too keen on getting down there with art papers sticking to their clothes! Kids can have fun creating family tree online too or with a software program. It depends on individual preferences, really.

A family tree is nothing more than a bunch of charts that links one person to another in a family. You can start from whichever ancestor you want when start your family tree but you should start with yourself then work back through time. For those who are interested in genealogy, you can go as far back as you want.

Creating a family tree that is in-depth will definitely require some investigation and detective work, such as interviewing of family members, and also lots of research.

If you can’t find your family members or are not in touch with them over some period of time, it may be a little bit more difficult to fill in the blanks in your family tree. However, with tools like www.ancestry.com, www.familysearch.com, www.rootsweb.com, and www.usgenweb.com, things are much easier than before.

So, go ahead and have some fun creating your family tree now!!