OK - DD has decided to take up a new hobby - which means lots of money to be spent by me......How do I minimise it?

[Katymac]

She has been wittering on for ages about her family tree.

She wants to start to research it.

How can she do this without it costing me a small fortune. I mean I quite like history but would rather concentrate on the free easy to find stuff for at least the first few months until either she can't be bothered or it's a confirmed interest rather than a bored summer holiday day dream

Any suggestions for sites we can use? Or programmes we can download?

TIA
KMc

(PS we have an ancestor who really was hung for sheep stealing plus we bounced from side to side - always choosing the losing side - in the war between England & Scotland so it might actually be interesting)

Can she talk to all your relatves (that'd be free)

No - she wants to do it on the computer

She will phone people up & ask them questions - but has worked out that it is all about birth/marriage/death certs (which I think is quite impressive actually)

just give her a budget and let her decide how to spend it

www.ancestory.com..we got 3 days free searching, you can search electoral rolls, old census etc unlimited..costs about £70 for full year(?)..if this one doesnt give free trial try the co.uk version, both search over here, aus and other countries but the .com one was free trial for us..also our main tree is on genesreunited.co.uk, its £10 for 6 months and you can develop your tree there...to search your area look under you index lists ie for mine its teesvalley index.co.uk..your will be approprite to were you are/were you want to search..give me ashout if you need anything as we're in midst of ours now and have gotton much further than anyone in our familes

how old is she?

births deaths and marriages certificates are expensive at about £7 a pop, but can give you incredible info for ex, my mum never knew her MIL name as shed dies and her father never spoke of her..we not only found her name, but where she was from and even got to visit the actual house grandad was born in in 1916!!!...flaming fantastic IYAM

genes is prob best way to go at first.you can get B>D&M certificates and census info from a link they have but its something like £5 for so many searches and each search is never only one credit!

you can get a lot off ancestory.com without paying.

you get access to the electoral roll etc.

if you have a reasonably unusual surname, this will get you a long way

Hi Katy, bee doing family tree for years, the cheapest way is to get a annual subscription form www.ancestory.co.uk. for UK only its £70.00 per year, but it does have nearly everything on it she needs.

before that tho, try genesreunited.

Any that need to be paid by pay as you go are very expensive to use.

Be aware it is very very very addictive, almost as bad as MN

I also bought the BBC format 'who do you think you are' from PC world, this had a two week free access to ancestory.com.

email me at [email protected] if you like and I will help her get a start if want.

She is 9

So Genes reunited is the way to go....hmmm I'll have a go

there is a fantastic free site run by the mormons - can;t remember what its called will look it up for you. You have to be lucky and someone doing research has to have added your family but they also have some of the censuses online.

If you get stuck on something Katy I can look on anc.com and email you the info if she wants.

Can you tell I love the detective work of it

Hi Katymac. Hope all goes well there!!! There are censuses online where you can track people down, don't know whether they're free or not. My Mum's been doing ours and has managed most for free and I know she used the Census information.

www.rootsweb.com Kewcumber its really good, but is mostly the states although found my g grandfather on it.

excellent site

interestingly found my GGrandfather who died in 1st world war through it. Turns out that two of his brothers and sisters joined the mormons and left for AMerica before he dies (their family put the info on). Discovered a living relative who had photos of him! Very sad to think I have more info on my Grans father than she ever did (she was 4 when he died)

We are back to 1885 in Jmaaica which is dead impressive

Kew its fascinating what you can find, the most interesting i found was a gggrandmother who was lady of the night, and a distant relative who was transported to Australia. i am in touch with her descendant who lives in Melbourne.

I have got to back to 1680 on one side of the family, and 1745 on the other, although as we are a partly Jewish family we lost alot in europe in WW2, most lived in Poland.

But over a hundred years in 20 mins????

Try local record offices - normally at local libraries. Think you can go to those from free & look through microfiche etc.

Also instead of buying the software to do the trees in someone I know just uses Excel.

yep, poss, now you have to verify it and put it onto a format, I find, finding where they lived and what they did the best about it, also be careful, often when a family had a child die young they would name the next child the same name, which often causes confusion, and the Scots tens to use very few christian names, calling the eldest son my the grandfather name, all the sons in the family will call the eldest son the same name!

The BBC software is good tho cos it links you straight to the search on ancestory .

OK found stuff in Jamaica

But got stuck in UK

My grandad is completely lost.....how about that?

Katy when did they come to Uk from Jamaica?