Welcome! Please jump in and add a comment on one of your favorite free genealogy resources, or add to one of the discussions underway. Thanks!

Hello! New resources -- 2 videos and a unique search tool based on your family tree -- have been added in a reply in the discussion Using Google Search for Genealogy. Click the discussion above to view. Barbara

I personally believe that all family history information should be FREE ! I dont own a credit card, and every lead I get, that's what I've got to have
( : Thank you creator of this group : )

I use :
www.familysearch.com
www.us-census.org
BOTH FREE OF CHARGE

Welcome to Finding Families for Free! There are now 6 topics in the Discussion Forum so please click View All to see the topics. And add your ideas in the forum or here on the Comments Wall. You will help others by providing your tips and suggestions on resources. Thanks! Barbara

Hello! We're almost to 100 members of Finding Family for Free, so welcome to new members and long timers alike. If you look under the Using Google Search for Genealogy discussion, you'll see I've posted a new resource outlining 18 ways to use Google tools and search strategies. I think you'll find something useful there!

I am willing to help do research here in Columbus, Ohio.
Darlene

Hello Darlene, Thank you for offering to help members of the group with research in Columbus, Ohio. That sort of genealogical kindness can make a big difference!
Barbara

The idea of free genealogy has also been a discussion in the forum under the topic "Fees for information from Genealogy sites." I encourage all of you to check out the discussion that has gone on there. In addition, I feel it is very important to say the same thing here that I did there, and that is that there is no such thing as free genealogy. A website may be free you or me, but someone somewhere is paying for it, whether it be the LDS church members on familysearch.org or the taxpayers of Missouri who bring us http://sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/birthdeath/. I'm neither a Mormon nor a Missourian, but I appreciate both groups of people because they have given me great leads in finding my family or in helping a client. Same with libraries, county courts, etc. In most instances, it is thanks to taxpayers or someone else somewhere that we can access information that looks free to us. Please say thanks to them, before you lambast those places that charge you $10 to use the library that has come under hard times during this economic downturn.

Catherine Davis, below, has a very good point -- that most genealogy resources have costs, whether to taxpayers or businesses or non-profit groups. I suppose the only truly free genealogy information comes from our family records, scrapbooks, Bibles and conversations - which is why those are so important!

I chose the phrase Finding Family for Free for a series of postings in my blog called Relative Musings. I then used it here at GenealogyWise. My aim was to encourage newcomers to try to find more about their families and not be afraid they have no chance to finding resources without big outlays of money. Because there are many resources available at no cost to someone just beginning. [See my discussion above on the newly available DAR patriot records, for example].

One of the most amazing free resources is Google Books, with thousands of digitized books including those out of copyright with the full information. I have found much of my Bradley family records from their centuries in Connecticut and from there back to Yorkshire. I salute Google for investing some of their considerable earnings into this project to make the world's published knowledge available to all.

I commend the states that are making older birth and death records easily available online. Another example is my own State of Washington which has excellent Digital Archives.

I fully agree with Catherine - always thank volunteers who help you, take time to give back by helping others, and don't begrudge the modest fees of $5 or $10 or $15 to a library or genealogy society! I encourage you to join genealogy and history societies relevant to your family research to support their work. Become a volunteer yourself. Some of the finest free genealogy information comes from people helping people!

Happy New Year and best wishes for your family research!

Hello, I am very interested in finding family without expense. I have used Ancestry. com before but since I live in australia and my history is in America, it can be expense especially when the dollar fluctuates. The 19.95 per month subscription can become 35.00 or 40.00 instead. I will surely be looking in on this section regularly.

Great Resource! Have you also seen: Best Free Online Resources at FamilySarch Forums?

Hi I have been a long time member of Ancestry and have had luck on some of the branches. But there are a couple that still give me fun at finding facts. The one I really have is find my grandfathers birth certificate in the UK. Apparently according to family he was born on a ship from Scotland to Eng. but even the Gov. UK seem to have trouble finding his birth certificate. Things become even more difficult when they changed his name during his service with the army in 1900-06. If anyone has a suggestion other the the UK gov. please let me know. I only know his father's name, James Louder, but there are some many of same name it is hard to pick,. If I can help others with info on family in western Canada please let me know.

Helen, Have you tried looking in the town where his family came from in Scotland? Have you tried scotlandspeople.gov.uk, as distinct from looking at the UK, as a whole? The site, which is the official site of the Scottish archives, claims to have a free search routine, but it is really not very good, and to do a real search and look-see will require buying credits.

looking for parents and any other info on
isaac caulk
born abt 1693
died between 1748 and 1749 in “World’s End” plantation on the north side of the Sassafras River, Maryland
any leads welcome

@ Spirit Baker--
I checked ancestry.com and can't add much to what you already have. What I did find:
1. 1900 census, Pomfret, gives birthdate of Dec 1858 for John.
2. In 1860, age 2, he was with his parents in Pomfret. They were Eli G, b NY, age 30 (i.e., born 1830, which differs from what you have) and Jane H., b VT, age 18.
3. In 1870, John is in the household of Olive Sherman, age 51, b. CT. (ancestry has her indexed as Aline Shennan, but if you look at actual record, it says Olive Sherman. In 1860, she has a husband David. Also, in 1860, on the same page in as the Shermans is a Lewis Baker, age 37, but he was b CT, so no clue if he might be a relative.
4. I also checked the CT genweb for Pomfret, and in the cemetery listing for Sabin Cemetery, I found an Eli Baker d. Feb 4, 1844, age 56 and another for Elijah Baker, d. Nov 7, 1858, age 49, but since they were both deceased before John was born, neither was his father.

@ Marvin Caulk--
Have you seen http://www.colonialswedes.org/Forefathers/Matthiasson.html ?

@Catherine,

Thank you for your help. So it does look like I am going the right way with Eli and Jane into Michigan. Poor John, I wonder why he was abandoned. I couldn't read who he lived with. Funny thing is a gentleman was looking for a Sherman for 30 yrs and I found him in a family cemetery a couple months ago.
I've seen census go back and forth on where Jane was born but I believe VT and I think Eli and Jane moved to CT and things happened too quickly for them.
I didn't think the Eli in CT was the father and you helped confirm that.
Maybe Lewis is a cousin?
Thank you so much for all your help and hard work.
Sincerely,
Spirit

Hi Catherine
I have no idea what area his family comes from in Scotland. Grandfather was born on ship while family travelling from Scotland to England according to family lore. I have tried both English and Scotland for his birth but no luck so far.
thks Helen

Spirit--again according to ancestry.com, there is an Eli married to a Jane in Bloomfield Hills, MI, with two sons, but their ages don't match well to the 1860 census--this guy's approx birth year is 1822 (1880 & 1900) and hers is 1826 (1880). According to the 1880 census, she was born in NY, but bp for mother on the two sons' listing is NJ. Both sons were b in Canada. But in the 1900 census, mom for both was born in NY and both sons were b in CT. So, there's reason to speculate these people may be who you are looking for, but you probably need more research to really draw that conclusion.

@Catherine, I have seen the same thing. I have followed Jane and seen on first census born in VT and then it stated NY. But the husband and son's names all match with John not in the picture but we know he wasn't living with them. I will have to write this out better and look at the birth yr for Eli and Jane. You said Jane's mother is from NY? I didn't find that and was wondering if the grandmother that moved from NY to Michigan was Eli's who remarried or Jane's and she came when Jane passed away. It appears Eli remarried apx 60 yrs old. And Eli's son (Willie I believe, would have to look again) married Sarah and had some grandchildren living with Eli.
I do know no one was born in Canada so that family is out.
Thank you for your help.

Spirit--No, Jane's mother was not indicated as being fron NY, Jane was, but my last note was rather confusing. Here are the actual details:

1880--Bloomfield, MI
Baker, Eli, 58, farmer, New York, New York, New York
Jane B., 54, wife, keeping house,, New York, New Jersey, New Jersey
Eli H., 24, son, farmer, Canada, New York,New Jersey
William, 18, son, farm laborer, Canada, New York, New Jersey
Trumbull, Phoebe, 16, servant, Canada, Canada, Canada

1900--Bloomfield, MI
Baker, Eli, head, Jan 1822, 78, wd, New York, New York, New York, farmer
Eli H, son, Mar 1856, 44, s, Connecticut, New York, New York, farmer
Willis A, son, Oct 1861, m14, Connecticut, New York, New York, farmer
Sarah, d-in law, Oct 1873 (sic), 36 (sic) m14, 3-3, Michigan, Ireland, Ireland
Stewart, grd son, Nov 1887, 12, s, Michigan, Connecticut, Michigan, at school
Willis A.Jr., grd son, Oct 1896, 3, s, Michigan, Connecticut, Michigan
Glenn, grd son, May 1900, 0/12, s, Michigan, Connecticut, Michigan

@Catherine, this is my family:

1900--Bloomfield, MI
Baker, Eli, head, Jan 1822, 78, wd, New York, New York, New York, farmer
Eli H, son, Mar 1856, 44, s, Connecticut, New York, New York, farmer
Willis A, son, Oct 1861, m14, Connecticut, New York, New York, farmer
Sarah, d-in law, Oct 1873 (sic), 36 (sic) m14, 3-3, Michigan, Ireland, Ireland
Stewart, grd son, Nov 1887, 12, s, Michigan, Connecticut, Michigan, at school
Willis A.Jr., grd son, Oct 1896, 3, s, Michigan, Connecticut, Michigan
Glenn, grd son, May 1900, 0/12, s, Michigan, Connecticut, Michigan

It is a shame that they left their first son, John E Baker behind for the rest of his life. I wonder why? He lived with Olive Sherman, I believe his first name was. And I don't think that was the only family he stayed with. It doesn't appear to be an adoption. Do you know if there is a way to look into this further. Do you think there would be court records?
Sincerely,
Spirit

@Spirit--
I dug around a little more on ancestry.com, and now I don't think the Eli and Jane Baker in Pomfret in 1860 are the same Eli and Jane who ended up in Bloomfield Hills, and so they did not leave a son behind. In fact, I don't know what happened to the Eli and Jane in Pomfret (at least yet) but the Eli and Jane in Bloomfield Hills were in New Haven, CT in 1860 and 1870, as evidenced below. I haven't found them in 1850.

Evidence, the ages of Eli and Jane in New Haven, and the names of some of their children, better match that of Eli and Jane in Bloomfield than do the Eli and Jane in Pomfret.

1870, New Haven, 7th Ward, Post Office Fair Haven:
Baker, Eli 48, blacksmith, b. NY
Jane B., 44, keeping house, b. NJ
Eli H., 14, b. CT
Willis A., 8, b. CT

1860, New Haven, Ward 7, Post Office New Haven:
Eli, 38, blacksmith, NY
Jane B., 35, NJ
Robert E., 6, CT
Eli, 4, CT
Sarah A, 2, CT

How did you decide you were related to either the Bloomfield Hills people or the Pomfret people? Have you found a paper trail starting with you and working backwards piece by piece?

Hi Catherine,
That was more than I was able to find. I tried Ancestry for 14 days and got around pretty good although limited and after many calls and emails to my city library I found out they do have Ancestry but I was quite ill for a wk and still trying to get to myself. Going to the library this wk sometime.
I am working backwards. My Grandpa Norman Baker was born in CT. I use to visit his father George E Ely Baker and other family in CT. George's father is John. John's father is Eli. I have looked all over America for Eli Baker's and census shows Eli came from NY to CT. But I haven't been able to find an Eli that stayed in CT. It would interest me if this is my Eli since he was a blacksmith. For some reason this is a huge following for Baker. I'm going to work on your hints if my health keeps improving.
Thanks bunches,
Spirit

Hi I may be able to help a little since I see some coincidences with my great great grandfather John Edgar Baker.
Eli G Baker came to CT from Madison County, NY, and worked as a farmer in Eastford, he married Jane Henrietta Weeks who came from VT, in Eastford/Pomfret, CT.
Their son John was born in Dec 1858
In 1861 Eli enlisted into the H company of the 7th CT infantry and fought on the union side, until he was captured and killed as a POW, at the siege of Petersburg on Sept 2nd 1864.

The part I cant explain was why Jane left John, but I think abandonment was common during the civil war. I cannot find anything on Jane after 1860 but I did get some stuff on John.

here is my ancestry page on John Edgar Baker.
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/5082114/person/-61426462

this site is free to search but copies you have to buy but it helps https://countygovernmentrecords.com/texas/web/

I am all about finding your ancestors for free. After years of genealogy, I have written and published my family history book. Out of a desire to share my research tips for building and verifying your family tree, I recently published my website and blog-www.searchingforgrandfathers.com. You'll find links to all state archives and other free links that I will keep updated. Search my family history book.

Dianne, I agree.

The March/April 2011 issue of Family Chronicle has an excellent article "Top Websites to Save You Money!" by Gena Phillibert Ortega.  I found this one particularly useful because it also gave some great ideas for the inevitable travel-related expenses, including lodging and food.  For example, the website Kayak (www.kayak.com)  searches and compares prices at Hotels.com, Travelocity, Priceline, Hotwire, and Expedia.  And Gena suggests couponing  (with good webistes) to further stretch the genealogy budget.  Thanks for the tips, Gena!