Heartland Genealogy

Genealogy can be an expensive hobby—or at least it can seem that way. When someone tells me they are interested in researching their family but don't have enough time to justify paying for a subscription to Ancestry or another genealogy site, I don't want them to think they can't do genealogy. They can. In fact, there are an amazing number of genealogy resources available online for free . The challenge for a beginning researcher isn't necessarily finding records. Sometimes the challenge is knowing where to look. So, if I were helping someone get started without purchasing a subscription, where would I send them? Start Here: A Beginner's Genealogy Toolkit Rather than overwhelm a new researcher with dozens of websites, I would begin with a handful of sites that can either provide records or point toward other resources. FamilySearch FamilySearch would be my first stop. FamilySearch is much more than a website where you type an ancestor's name into a search box. ...

Do you use Ancestry's Message Boards ? What about the mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb? Or, do you remember the forums on Genealogy.com? These tools used to be a regular part of my genealogy arsenal. Unfortunately, my usage has been rare since returning to my genealogy research. However, I'm finding that even though these tools don't provide much interaction, they do contain a wealth of information. And I'm just 'stumbling' across it. I recently did a simple Google search for 'Whitley genealogy Miller' in hopes of locating a family history. Granted this wasn't a well defined search and I didn't find exactly what I was looking for. However, I did find a major hint about Elizabeth Whitley Miller in an old message posted on Genealogy.com .