Does anyone know any good genealogy resources on line?

Do you have any favorite resources (other than web sites)? Do you know any "secrets" or tricks-of-the-trade to help out beginners?

ASK YOUR ELDERLY RELATIVES. Once they're gone, so is all their wealth of knowledge - who married whom, what happened to people, stuff it would take years to track down from the records. Also they can tell you, which no records can, that Uncle Joe was a womaniser or a drunk, or was suspected of having a string of mistresses etc.

My parents were both from England. My father went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka now) to help a friend on a tea plantation. My mother emigrated to Australia, hated it, and came back. Her boat put into Colombo, my father boarded to come home on leave - shipboard romance - marriage - life back in England. OK, I know the story, but imagine trying to piece that together from written records. You wouldn't even believe it if you did!

Second piece of universal advice. Write everything down and don't throw anything away. Years later you may find the place where that piece of the jigsaw fits.

Best of luck if you're just starting out. Be warned, it can take over your life. If you decide not to continue, don't throw out what you have done. Someone else may be grateful to pick the ball up again and run with it.

Here are a few sites, just to get you started. Some are pay, some are not; most will have more links you can go to. Also, the first two have links to the Social Security Death Index.
Genealogy.com
Rootsweb.com
geneasearch.com
familysearch.com
familyhistory.com
Also, check with your local library to see what they offer as far as genealogy books, microfilm, etc. We have a genealogy branch to our library, and it is wonderful!
And, Mahal, God bless you for asking this question! While I was checking out some sites for you to see if they were still valid, I found a cousin and a missing link I've been hunting for 15 years! You just never know!

I haven't done much genealogy research online, but one site that has helped me is:

wwww.ancestry.com

Some portions are available free, and other records you can pay for. However, you can see the number of "hits" for your search name before you buy.

They also have message boards available.

Piece of advice: Gather as much information as you can - alternate spellings of names/nicknames, birth dates, death dates, spouse's name, marriage date, parents' and children's names, locations (birth place, death place, property purchases, etc.). More information helps to narrow your search to the people you're looking for.

Teresa

Three things to always do:

1) Document

2) Document

3) Document

Document all information!

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