The caveat is that the Mormons own and operate it and from what Iāve heard they will use your data to retroactively āconvertā your dead ancestors to Mormonism? LMFAO umm Iām not sure how it works I havenāt looked into it much because itās not a huge concern for me but yeah if thatās something that you care aboutā¦ it is a great site with tons of records and sources and if anyone else in your family line has done research on your ancestors on there you can pull that into your own tree (check and verify that itās correct of course). WikiTree is also free but I havenāt used it much. A lot of library systems will actually give you free access to the version of Ancestry designed specifically for libraries so you could try that or honestly even visit your local branch and ask them what they suggest. Findagrave is a cool website too and you can find a lot of information that way. You could also possibly contact historical societies in areas where your family members are from? I know for my ancestors there are also a lot of weird Geocities style sites where people would publish all of their research findings so even just googling names and locations in quotation marks could help (with dates if you have them). Iām not sure how relevant any of this information is for research outside of the United States but hopefully it's helpful š£
I found a secret half brother for my mother on this website. you can make a family tree without ever talking to any of your family members. i pay for the subscription cuz I love looking at the census recordsā¦ deciphering that old script, perfect experience for an Ellis Island descendent who likes to use a laptop interface
I just found out I have family still living in Poland (Iām Jewish and I thought that most of my family had left) and Iām so happy to just find out about that and all the interesting things Iāve come across when working with family members to compile this tree
tracing that family tree back as far as possible is exciting and insightful af.
Iāve spent a couple of hours looking over photos, reading stories, and crying over people that I will never meet but played a part in inventing me lol
My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebodyābe it a relative or one of my best friendsāwas to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too š
