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Need a good FREE Genealogy Site

18 years ago

Am looking for my DSIL's dad and also to find out what his mother's name was. Every site that I find asks for a membership fee. I know there are places where you can find free marriage/divorcce/birth records, etc. Can somebody please help me?

TIA

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Comments (21)

Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
Some of the info on Ancestry.com is available for free; but other than that, I'm not aware of any sites where you can get a lot of good info for free. As far as I know, Ancestry will give you a free trial period, but I don't know how much access they give during that time.

I have total access to anything that's on the Ancestry.com web site, so if you e-mail me through my page, and send me what info you have -- DSIL's name, date and place of birth, etc., I'd be happy to see what I can find for you.
des_arc_ya_ya
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks so much, Lindsey! I'll e-mail you through the GardenWeb.
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A tall fescue lawn in a northern California winter is going to look a bit bedraggled, and hardly grow much. The thinning of the grass is probably due to lack of sufficient irrigation suitable for best growth in the hotter months, in combination with insufficient top soil with organic content added before you sodded it, and not fertilizing often enough to encourage better health and growth of grass. How many inches of topsoil did you add before rototilling, and how often and which months do you fertilize, and what is the N-P-K ratio of the fertilizer you are using? As to whether 20 minutes of spray irrigation is sufficient for a lawn in northern California conditions, especially if applied 4 times a week on a flat site, if anything this is overwatering, even with heavy root competition from the redwoods and oaks across the fence. It looks to me that you need to build up soil fertility in both the lawn, and particularly for the citrus tree, which shows signs of nitrogen deficiency in particular, and is probably also not getting water in summer sufficient to get rooting deeper. Just adding a mulch with chicken manure in it, or mushroom compost or similar as a 4 inch mulch, ought to help the citrus tremendously. I'd also suggest adding some time release fertilizer such as osmocote and work into the soil in March, for longer term/slow release of nutrients, and check with a soil auger how deep your irrigation is penetrating with the irrigation you are giving it. The lawn can also be top dressed with a light screened mulch after having it aerated with a core type aerator, and the top dressing raked in to help fill the holes, but it might be better to simply use a sod cutter to skim it all off, add a healthy 6 inches of organic compost to the lawn area, and resod. Lawns here typically benefit from several fertilizing periods, at least once in mid spring and again in summer and early fall, or refer to the web site referred to previously for recommendations. You might also consider using a mulching lawn mower that chops up the grass blades so that they return to the soil, and preserve the nitrogen that is otherwise thrown away with each clipping. As to Ink's complaint about "cliche" eyebrow plantings around the edge of the lawn, I don't think you are really looking at other solutions if you mean to keep the existing lawn size and layout, but I do second Ink's opinion that the narrowness of the planting areas against the fence is rather dull and static. Planting of vines to cover the fence, and widening the borders to allow at least some layering of shrubs and herbaceous plantings is entirely possible if borders were widened to minimum 4 to 8 feet wide if you can give up some lawn space. The proximity of those large redwoods and oaks across your fence is definitely tapping into the irrigation you are supplying. The vigor of the trees, and even some of the plants in your own backyard indicates to me that yours isn't so much a soil fertility problem, as it is poorly timed fertilizing and no ongoing attempts to increase organic content of your clay soils via mulching with compost, as well as not checking to see if your irrigation schedule is adequately wetting the soil to sufficient depth to encourage better growth and plant health under drought/heat stress of summer. Having dealt with many California gardens under or adjacent to redwoods and live oaks, the soil ph is unlikely to be the problem, as I am willing to bet your soil is only mildly acidic or even close to neutral. We just don't have moist enough conditions year round to create acidic soils from dropped leaves in a suburban garden setting. The problem is the root competition of water, and any plantings you add will greatly benefit from adding tons of organic component, mulching with compost on a yearly basis, selecting plants that tolerate root competition with redwood tree roots, shade and constant debris, and closely monitoring your irrigation cycles to see that the plants are getting what they need. Beyond a soils test and a landscape design, you need some help from a good horticulturist who can advise you what you are doing wrong/right in your particular circumstances. I'd also make darn sure the natives you have on your plans are compatible with redwood tree competition, as well as potential overspray from the lawn irrigation. Fertilizing more frequently for plantings below/adjacent redwoods is extremely helpful, and if you prefer the organic route, stick with a good organic mulch that has some manure in it, and reapply a couple of inches every year.
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It is also interesting to see how paths have crossed between not only cousins but families. For instance, in the 1850-1870 census my 5thGG was living next to a Dibble family in Flint, MI. When I was growing up in Flint, MI our neighbors were Dibble! Last year I decided to research a branch of my family that had migrated to Battle Creek, MI. There was quite a bit of info on this family in the local library and I decided to bring the research forward and contact some of the remaining family members. Not sure if anyone remembers the movie "Bitter Harvest" directed by Ron Howard? It was about the horrible problem of PBB, a fire retardant, that was accidently mixed in with dairy cattle fed in MI. I remember seeing that movie in the early '80s and I've talked about it several times over the years and it has always stuck in my mind. Come to find out it was my cousin that discovered the contaminated feed and it was on his family dairy farm! It is odd that I referenced that movie so many times and I had a connection to it other then drinking the contaminated milk! I ran into some birth records in IL for the same surname as my GC. Of course my interest was peaked and I did his genealogy back to the early 1700s. There was tons of info on his family at the local library so it was not difficult at all. His 4thGGM was named ELIZABETH but used the nickname LIBBIE. My GC has a daughter, 3yo, named ELIZABETH and they call her LIBBIE. I asked him if he had named Libbie after his GGM and he said he had no idea about his family history. Oddly enough both used "IE" instead of "Y" in Libbie. This is not the first time I've seen this either. Actually, what I started my family history research was my Mother wanted a copy of her father's birth certificate and had tried to find it but was not sucessful. I remember thinking that this was something I could do for my Mom and set off to find the BC. I finally did track down the BC but before hand found many interesting documents like his WWI military record, school records and so on. Well, that is all I needed! For me doing my family history is finding out just a bit about how my ancestors lived and what decisions they made along the way. My most precious record is that of my 4th GGM who one an award for hand spun wool at the 1854 MI State Agriculture Fair. I do tons of needlework and do weave and this connection was absolutely a thrill for me to find!
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Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
You can e-mail me directly if you still have my e-mail address from before... :-)
des_arc_ya_ya
Original Author
18 years ago
Oh, gosh, Lindsey! Are you the same person who helped me with the Winifred Thrasher "deal"!!!? LOL I had forgotten. Thanks so much.

Had already sent you a message thru the GardenWeb when I saw your response.

Will be away from the computer for the next couple of days but will check back later.
puppygirl1962
18 years ago
You can try Rootsweb and Genforum.
Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
Yes, I'm the one who helped you with "the Winifred Thrasher 'deal'"!

I'm gathering stuff to send to you...
Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
Ok.... I've got several Census pages to send, as well other stuff. Do you have a broadband connection, or dial-up? I don't want to bog you down...
junkyardgirl
18 years ago
rootsweb.com is the best free site out there. It's owned by Ancestry, which would make it pay to play if they could, but the deal was that when they bought it, it had to stay free. The World Connect project is the best tool I've used, and also, the free Social Security Death Index.

You can buy a copy of the SS records, which have mother's and father's names and other information. They also have message boards for surnames, and people who do have memberships will usually do lookups for you.
jaybird
18 years ago
here you go

Here is a link that might be useful: Gen forum
frostedc
18 years ago
I know of a couple of goods sites. I post
the links for ya.

Here is a link that might be useful: Family search
frostedc
18 years ago
Cyndi's list has everything you need to known
about getting started with a genealogy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cyndi's List
frostedc
18 years ago
Here's another, called GenCircle.

Here is a link that might be useful: GenCircles
frostedc
18 years ago
This site is great for searching major newspapers, by
state. It's called NewsLibrary.

Here is a link that might be useful: News Library
frostedc
18 years ago
Another good way to find family information, is to Google
the your surname..comma, then "obituaries", or "genealogy."
des_arc_ya_ya
Original Author
18 years ago
I have broadband. Thanks, everyone, for all of the sites. I already had several of them, but you've all been helpful!
Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
Ya Ya, I e-mailed a bunch of attachments to you earlier, and now I see that they failed because your mailbox is too full!
beckibelle
18 years ago
You can get a free 14 day trial subscription to ancestry.com and genealogy.com. And you can access all the records.Also www.usgenweb is one of my favorites.
des_arc_ya_ya
Original Author
18 years ago
Lindsey, didn't seem to have that many messages in my box, but I DID clean it out some! Please try again and thanks SO MUCH for all your trouble.
Lindsey_CA
18 years ago
Bounced again. But it's really kind of odd... The messages from me are clearly addressed to you, but the failure notices show a different name (same stuff after the "@" in the address), and says it's THAT mailbox that's too full.

Did you get three messages with attachments from me?
elizabethzen
18 years ago
des_arc_ya_ya - Did you ever find the information you were looking for?
I may be too late in answering but you might try looking on the state and county websites if you know which they are. It is usually less expensive to order records directly from the state or county rather than going through a third party that charges a service fee.

Here is a link that might be useful: vital records
grittymitts
18 years ago
Church of the Latter Day Saints site: (http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp (FREE)

It is said they have the most complete records in the world and even a pop up guide to help.

Some cities have genealogy centers in the LDS church that you can use & ones I've been to offered a lot of suggestions/help. If there's one where you live give 'em a call to ask.

DH's great GrandDad fathered 18 children & the sons all named sons after their brothers- what a tangled mess that was to solve, but I loved tracking them all.

Visit your local library- they are tremendous help & when visiting another state I went to library for info, signed their visitors book & was so surprised to later get letters, e-messages from others who gave info/clues, etc.
The librarian there had a book of stories of earliest county residents which I was going to copy to get info on my ancestors when she told me the author lived in that small town. She even called her to see if she had any copies left. Gave me directions to her home where I rushed to buy her last years out of print copy. In the years since the kids 'n grands have so enjoyed reading about the gunfight their GG Grandfather & his brother had with a local scoundrel who later shot & killed the Sheriff.

Ask your librarian abour a local genealogy society/group; genealogy buffs LOVE to help others in their quest.

Happy Searching!
Suzi

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