Genealogy Free Resources

There are plenty of free resources for the genealogist. It is possible to find FREE charts, forms, templates, software, lessons, lookups, databases, form letters, graphics, translations, clip art, ancestry.com free trials.

Getting Started in Genealogy

• FREE Family Tree Online
  Record your family history by creating a FREE family tree online. Start by entering what you know about yourself and your family. Enjoy FREE access to Ancestry.com.
  
  You can invite your parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins and other family members to contribute what they know to add to your online tree. Your family can add names, tell stories and upload photos.
  
  
  
  
• Getting Started in Genealogy
  New to Genealogy? This is how to get started.
  
  
• Get Started Quick Step Guide
  Watch the video to learn how an online family tree on Ancestry.com can help you trace your family story back in time and see how to get started.
  
  
• Free Genealogy Lessons and Guides
  Free guide by RootsWeb. Where to Begin, sources, record types, country and ethnic groups and much more.
  
  
• Free Research Courses
  The Mormon Church offers these online video coursee to learn basic methods and key resources to start your family history. Work at your own pace.



• Free Research Courses
  The Mormon Church offers these free lessons to learn the basic methods and key resources to start your family history.



• Free Research Guidance
  The Mormon Church offers these free genealogy research guides to help you locate genealogy records. Includes an individualized search strategy by place.



• Free Research Helps
  The Mormon Church provides free genealogy blank forms, government publications, guides, maps, research guides, and word lists to help you with your research. Organized by place.

Free Trial Offers to Genealogy Databases

• Ancestry.com FREE Trial ***
  
  
  
  • Ancestry.com US Deluxe FREE Trial
    Start your family tree online and receive a free trial the Ancestry.
    Complete U.S. census records, the largest collection of ship passenger lists & military records online, family trees and much more!
    
    
    
  • Ancestry.com WorldWide Deluxe FREE Trial
    Includes all of the US plus international databases. Great for ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, and more.
    
    
    
  • Ancestry.co.uk
    Free trial to Ancestry.co.uk - for those who live in the UK.
  
  
  
• Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com) FREE Trial
  Access every original record on Footnote.com with a free trial. Footnote.com features millions of records - with a focus on military records - from the US National Archives. View any record for free with a trial.
  
  
• Genealogy.com Gold Membership FREE Trial
  Gold Annual Membership includes Family Tree Maker software plus annual subscriptions to U.S. Census, International & Passenger Records, Genealogy Library. and World Family Tree.
  
  
  

Free Genealogy Forms and Charts

• Free Genealogy Charts
  Download from Ancestry.com the professional Free genealogy charts, forms and templates you need to document your family tree.
  
  
  • Ancestral Chart
  • Family Group Sheet
  • Research Calendar
  • Research Extract
  • Source Summary
  • Census Extraction Forms
  
  
• Fan Chart
  Basic black and white fan chart by Martha Stewart.
  
  
• Free Genealogy Forms
  Free Genealogy charts including a cemetery tracking form
  
  
• Free Genealogy Charts and Forms
  An enormous amount of Free Genealogy charts, forms, and checklists in PDF format from Family Tree Magazine.
  
  
• Free Tree Templates
  The free versions are available in Acrobat (.PDF) format: just download one, open it in Acrobat (or another program that can display the .PDF file format,) and print.

Free Genealogy Software

• FamilyTreeMaker Starter Edition
  Free Family Tree Maker Starter Edition Genealogy Software. Use Family Tree Maker to record and organize all of the information you collect on your family – create tree charts, reports, calendars, scrapbooks, heirloom-quality books and more! . 



• Bygones
  A computerized genealogical note-keeping system. Create an "index" of the information in your research notes, keep track of genealogical correspondence and correspondents, create time lines for your families, create to do lists of pending research tasks, enter information on sources that are important for your family history research, enter information on the localities you do research in.
  
  
• Legacy
  Free Genealogy software. Download the free standard edition of this full-featured genealogy program.



• Personal Ancestral File
  PAF, is available as freeware from the Family Search website. A genealogical management program that helps you organize their family history records. Although still available to download, this product has been discontinued.



• Ancestral Quest Basics
  Free Ancestral Quest Basics is similar to the discontinued PAF. It contains the core features of the more advanced Ancestral Quest. AQ comes with English preinstalled. You can download other language modules and switch between language modules to work with your data or print reports in other languages. Language modules are available for free in French, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Chinese
  
  
• GEDxlate
  GEDxlate quickly and easily translates genealogy data from standard GEDCOM format into MS Access dB (*.mdb), MS Excel Worksheet (*.xls), comma delimited (*.csv), and text file (*.txt) formats.

Free Software

• Google Software
  Free software from Google includes
  • Google Earth - Use to find addresses of ancestors
  • Picasa Photo Organizer - Use to Organize genealogy photos
  • Google Desktop - Use to search computer desktop & e-mail
  • Anti-virus & anti-spyware
  • Much more!
  
  
  
• Google Picasa
  Picasa Photo Software by Google will find all the photos on your computer and organize them for you.
  
  
  
• Irfanview
  Freeware graphic viewer. Use to view and resize graphics, or convert image type to another. Will even convert Ancestry.com's census MrSid extension to jpg or jif file.
  
  
• FotoFlexer
  An advanced online photo image editor for use in your browser.
  
  
• TreePad
  Enjoy better access, organization and control over all your data, documents, addresses, letters, photos, research, collections, Web pages, links, bibliographic listings for good organization, easy access, and safe storage.
  
  
• PrintKey
  Capture a screen shot or the whole desktop with this small utility. Any image you capture can be saved as a bitmap file or edited in your favorite graphics editor such as Irfanview (see above). Great if having difficulty printing an image from a genealogy site.
  
  
• Transcript
  A program designed to help you to transcribe the text on digital images of documents.

Free Genealogy File Backup

• BackUpMyTree
  The Easiest Way to Preserve Your Family's History. Fast, automatic backup and off-site storage for all of your family tree files. All of the popular family tree file formats are supported. Download your files at any time. FREE, simple, easy, safe & secure. Preserves multiple files up to 1GB each.



• Mozy Backup
  2 GB Free automatic off-site and secure backup. Set Mozy to backup your genealogy files automatically.
  
  

Free Genealogy Databases Online

• Ancestry.com Always-Free Databases
  Ancestry.com has hundreds of always free databases.
  
  
• Ancestry World Tree
  The Ancestry World Tree contains more than 160,000,000 names in family trees submitted by users. The Ancestry World Tree is the largest collection of its kind on the Internet and it's free.



• Ancestor Search
  Tons of free genealogy search engines. Your gateway to the largest and best free databases online.



• Family Search
  The genealogy site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has vast record collections online - all free.



• Fold3.com
  What's Free on Fold3 (Formerly Footnote.com)



• Rootsweb
  The oldest, largest free genealogy site.
  • RootsWeb General Search
  • RootsWeb Meta Search
  • RootsWeb Surname List
  • US GenWeb Archives Search
  • World Connect Project

Free Biography Assistants

• Biography Assistant
  Biography Assistant by Genealogy.com helps you put together stories about your ancestors. It's divided into a series of questions about a person's ancestors, life experiences, medical history and military service.



• Interview Questions
  Interview family members to learn about the family history, culture, and the traditions of your ancestors. Exhaustive list of interview questions.

Free Genealogy Lookups

• Free LookUp Forums
  Post a lookup query



• Free LookUps (GeneaSearch)
  Free Genealogy Look Ups for Each State



• Free Lookups Central
  Free lookups in US states, Native American and Military books, surname books.



• Free Genealogy CD Lookups
  Free Lookups on Family Tree Maker (Genealogy.com) CDs.



• Free Obituary Lookups
  An all-volunteer web site and mailing list dedicated to providing obituary lookups all over the world.



• Random Acts of Genealogy Kindness
  Volunteers will videotape cemeteries or visit county courthouses or archives in their specified area.



• RootsWeb Books We Own
  A Look-Up Resource for International Genealogical Research

Free Genealogy Forums

• Rootsweb/Ancestry Message Boards
  Over 130,000 message boards. Surnames, Locality, and Research Topics



• GenForum Message Boards
  Surname, Regional and General Topics.

Free Genealogy Tools & Calculators

• Free Age Calculator
  Calculate present age or age at death.



• Free Tombstone Birthday Calculator
  Calculate birthdate online from date of death and age at death found on tombstones, death certificates or obituaries.



• Free Perpetual Calendar
  Enter any month and year to view calendar.



• Free Soundex Calculator
  Calculate soundex online. Learn how soundex works including its limitations and uses.



• Free Inflation Calculator
  Calculate today's monetary value for your ancestor's salary, amount left in wills, etc..
  
  
• Free Roman Numeral Convertor
  Convert Roman Numerals found on tombstones and documents to numbers.



• Free Easter Calculator
  Find the date for Easter for any year.



• Free Day of Week Calculator
  Calculate day of week from date online.



• Free Time Capsule
  Generate a page of headlines, consumer prices, US presidents, birthdays, songs, toys, and books for a selected date between 1800 to 2001



• Free Time Line
  Just enter the name of your ancestor with birth and death year to create a free timeline and see how your ancestor's life fits into history.



• Free Gedcom Reader
  Download UncleGed free. Gedcom Reader, GEDCOM to HTML Converter and GEDCOM Cataloging Tool .

Free Genealogy Relationship Charts

• Cousin Calculator
  A free online tool to calculation the family relationship between two people who share a common blood ancestor. Also contains a dictionary of cousin and relationship definitions.

Free Genealogy Form Letters

• Free Genealogy Form Letters
  Free genealogy form letters for requesting genealogical information from an institution or from family members in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

Free Genealogy Translation Services

• Free Translation Service
  Real People. 36 languages. Translations for genealogy from FranceGenWeb.



• Free Translation Service
  Real people. Free genealogy translations in Czech, English, Dutch, French, German, or Polish



• Free Online Translator
  Online translator by Google.

Free Webhosting to build a Genealogy Webpage

• RootsWeb FreePages
  Unlimited space plus your site is entered into RootsWeb's search engine. Hint: the free genealogy software listed above will automatically create linked genealogy pages that you can upload to Rootsweb FreePages. These include Ancestry Family Tree (AFT), Legacy, GenoPro and Personal Ancestral File (PAF).