The following Web sites can help you get started researching your family history.
FAMILY SEARCH
www.familysearch.org
This Web site, maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a huge index of free records and can be a handy resource for getting much of your searching done in one place. The site also includes Personal Ancestral File software, a free program that can be downloaded to organize and record information. The site additionally offers strategies for research, as well as a search function for finding a Family History Center near you.
ROOTSWEB
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
Supported by Ancestry.com, Roots-Web is the oldest and one of the most user-friendly free sites. This site includes a guide to tracing family trees, links to various databases containing records such as the social security death index, and various charts and forms that can be downloaded and printed. It also links to a glossary of terms, many of them obscure or no longer used, that can appear on death certificates. To get there directly, go to http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hornbeck/disease.htm.
COMPORTONE
www.comportone.com/cpo/genealogy/articles/26tips.htm
Part of a Web site devoted to historical information from Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, this Web page contains 26 tips for getting started researching genealogy.
CYNDI’S LIST OF GENEALOGY SITES ON THE INTERNET
www.cyndislist.com
This list catalogs over 260,000 links to potentially useful family research sites.
THE USGENWEB PROJECThttp://usgenweb.org
The USGenWeb Project is a volunteer effort to make free online genealogy information available to everyone. You can search for links to various records by state and county.
ABOUT.COM: GENEALOGY
Tracing Your Family Medical History
http://genealogy.about.com/od/health_history/a/medical.htm
This article gives a good background on family medical histories and the benefits of putting one together.
ONLINE GENOGRAMS
Blank family history sheets can be downloaded from the following Web sites:
Mid-Continent Public Library
www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/genlh/forms
Family Tree Magazine
www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms
About.com
http://genealogy.about.com/od/free_charts/ig/genealogy_charts