answers1: Ah bad news, the sites like anectry.com will most likely
find nothing about you're family because you are from Europe which was
a fairly closed country during WW2 meaning not many documents got out
they can get their hands on. So you're chances are bad.
answers2: You have a lot of questions, I will attempt to answer them
in the order you asked. <br>
1. Yes you can hire professional genealogists as well as hobbyist,
The fees vary with professional based on the amount of time involved
and how much information you are able to provide that is accurate. I
have no idea how hobbyist set their prices. <br>
2. Ancestry.com, It is a subscription site, the historical documents
are available on other sites. <br>
3. If you are willing to leave you home, you can use public libraries
and Family History Centers to research online FREE. <br>
4. Is Ancestry any good? - that is an opinion and mine after using it
and other sites is that it is not worth the cost as there are other
sites available that are FREE. Ancestry is not the only viable site.
<br>
5. There are many sites and Cindi's List is full of information about
Genealogical resources and is an excellent site. <br>
6. If you do your own research and documentation it would be cheaper
that having someone do the research for you, but I would suggest some
classes in basic genealogical research (public libraries, Genealogical
societies, cultural societies, Family History Centers, the research
tab on the Familysearch.com site, there are many others, most offer
the classes free. <br>
7 You can go to your local libraries or a Family History Center (they
are all over the world) and research. At the FHC there are volunteers
who will NOT to the research for you, but will assist you. <br>
8. I have researcher and documented different lines of my family back
as far as the 1500's, in both the US and Europe. The hardest part is
documenting. I am sure some people hit a brick wall between WW-I and
WW-II, but usually even brick walls can be overcome with patience and
determination. <br>
9. Here is an answer to the question you didn't ask, yes you can and
need to research the female lineages in your family, Have fun with
the search, but document every thing you find and site where you found
it.
answers3: Ancestry.Com is a great site for original source records.
However do not view their subscriber submitted family trees as records
or family trees on any website as a matter of fact.Even when you see
the absolute same information on the same people from many different
subscribers that doesn't mean or one moment the information is
correct. Too many people copy without verifying. As a matter of fact
if you find wrong information on your family in any of their family
trees, those that run the websites will tell you that is between you
and the other subscriber. You can contact the subscriber and they may
or may not reply. Ancestry.Com has 4 family tree programs. They have
the old Ancestry World Tree which you can no longer update but can
view the trees. They have One World Tree which is absolute trash. They
have Public Member Trees and Private Member Trees. <br>
<br>
Whenever you see their ads and someone is pointing to a family tree it
is very very misleading. I will say that the regulars on the genealogy
board hate those ads. <br>
<br>
However, they have all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and
later are not available to the public yet. They have birth, marriage
and death records from many U.S. states. They have immigration
records. They have land, wills and other records. They have a lot of
old U. S. newspapers online. However, genealogy websites are not a
good place to find the living as that can be an invasion of privacy
and can lead to identity theft. <br>
<br>
If you find it too pricey, many public libraries have a subscription
to it you can use for free. It might not hurt to use it for awhile at
a public library and get use to it. When I go into their website after
I click on Search then on the next page I click on Old Search which I
find I can better get down to business and pick out specific records I
want to check. Their New Search is prettier but I don't feel it is as
functional. <br>
<br>
Another good website for record and eventually once they are through
transcribing and uploading what they have might make all the other
websites obsolete is <br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.familysearch.org/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>https://www.familysearch.org/</a> <br>
<br>
I use both as sometimes one might have records the other one doesn't.
answers4: <a href="http://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsinyourownhome.htm"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsin...</a>
you start at home and with you and get all the information you can for
the foundation you need ( as this is not going to be on any website.
<br>
<br>
Is ancestry.com any good...yes for people who know how to research and
know what is good and bad information and how to tell the
difference...it is only one tool in a huge tool box so it certainly is
not the only viable website and websites are not the best place
anyway...they are just convenient. <br>
Yes it would be cheaper than a pro genealogist and many who offer this
service are internet only genealogists anyway...so don't check what
they find back to records as any real pro would. <br>
<br>
Records offices, libraries, family records centres all free, all have
records and after your living family and the records you already have
at home these are your next best resource <br>
<br>
Some records were destroyed in WW2 but certainly not everything...so
not sure where that idea came from and it is still feasible to find
your FH in Germany or anywhere else in Europe back to when records in
enough detail for FH began....that could be parish records back to the
1500s
answers5: > How to find a legitimate genealogy? <br>
<br>
Here is one: <br>
<a href="http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tedpack&id=I7747"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/...</a>
<br>
<br>
WELL documented, and where there was a question, I gave arguments for
both (or all 8) sides. <br>
<br>
<br>
> The sites i have browsed have been absolutely no help at all. <br>
You are either looking at the wrong sites or doing something wrong on
the right sites. Almost all of the free genealogy data on the Internet
is about white people in the USA or UK who were born before 1900. <br>
<br>
<br>
> Can you hire people to search your family history? <br>
Yes, but they get $50 per hour and up, with a minimum of 8-20 hours. <br>
<br>
<br>
> Is the site ancestry.com any good.. <br>
It is if you are a white person whose ancestors were in the USA for a
long time. You can usually get some lines if you are black, but it is
harder and you almost always dead end with people alive in 1870. <br>
<br>
> Are there local places i can go? <br>
Yes. The Mormons have small rooms called Family History Centers in
many of their churches. (They range in size; some are huge.) They have
volunteers who will get you started. They don't try to convert you and
they don't charge for their time. Your county genealogical society may
give lessons to beginners too. <br>
<br>
There is lots of genealogy data about Germany, but it is on paper, in
German, in Germany. It isn't on-line for free in English. One of the
first things people in Europe did when war was declared was put their
archives in salt mines, along with their stained glass windows.
answers6: Genealogy in only legitimate if you have the records to
connect one ancestor to another going back through the generations in
order. There is no single website that will provide all the records in
the world, and some people left behind more records than others. This
means some websites will be more useful for some than others.
Genealogy on the internet should be done the same way as genealogy
before the internet was invented...the researcher needs to have some
ideas of what exists and where it is, or the skills to find out. And,
since not everything is on the internet, the internet can be a great
tool for locating those records that are in brick and mortar
repositories. Keep in mind that German records will be in German. Old
German records will be in script and in a dialect of German, usually
classed as high German or low German. Often times a person that speaks
low German will have a harder time translating a high German document
for you. Be wary of translated and transcribed (typed) information on
the internet without verifying. <br>
<br>
Some good places to start (after your initial interviewing and organizing): <br>
Ancestry.com is good because they have the largest collections of
records from a variety of places on a single website. There is a fee.
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.familysearch.org/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>https://www.familysearch.org/</a> is similar
to ancestry.com but is free. They have different and sometimes
overlapping collections than ancestry.com. <br>
For sites like this, steer towards the records and away from the
trees. These are user-submitted and not verified. They may be helpful
for hints, but they are not your tree until you do the work. <br>
<br>
Often, German BMD records can be ordered from the city by writing them
a letter. It's ok to write in English, they have it translated.
Request responses in German and English to avoid/confirm translation
errors. There is sometimes a fee for research, copies and translation
but there is no fee for asking. This works better with larger cities
like Munich. This is for civil records and registries. Once you get
back past civil records you'll need to find a resource for church
records. <br>
<br>
In addition to the multitude of passenger list websites out there,
check out NARA <a href="http://www.archives.gov/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.archives.gov/</a> for how to
locate your ancestors' passenger lists and immigration/naturalization
records. <a href="http://www.archives.gov/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.archives.gov/</a> <br>
<br>
Also, for your ancestor in the U.S. check for a local genealogical
society or GenWeb near where they lived. They will often have the most
helpful links to dig deeper, like links to local newspaper archives
and obituaries. <br>
<br>
Link list sites that have great links for German Americans <br>
http://www.cyndislist.com/germany/ <br>
http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/index.shtml See Palatines,
Mennonites (not Germans, but sometimes connected) <br>
<br>
And while I gave you a bunch of German resources, try not to assume
there's German in your ancestry until you can prove it. It's very easy
to get off track looking for a German person when they were actually
Dutch, for example.
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