Old York Road Genealogical Society

Tips for beginners: If you're new to genealogy, check out some of these sites, which offer great advice for beginners: How to Gather Family Information, History at Home Guide to Genealogy, Genealogy Research Associates Free On-Line Lessons, or Heritage Quest Genealogy 101, or RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees. Of course, if you're anxious to jump right in to search for your family names, start with some great free sites, including the Mormon Church's FamilySearch.org, USGenWeb, or RootsWeb. Directory sites such as Cyndi's List open up the world of genealogy. There, you'll find links to everything from census records to ships' passenger lists to sites where you can find blank forms to fill in, and so on. When you're ready to commit to a paid site so you can do more extensive research, try Ancestry. For immigration records, visit Ellis Island records (Ellis Island opened in 1892) and Castle Garden records (the site that preceded Ellis Island as America's first official immigration center, with records from 1820 to 1855. Just remember, don't trust everything you find on-line. Use the Web as a starting place only—and have fun!