Family Search

Because it is free site everyone can add a bit of genealogy. If it matches other ancestry they will alert you. Records can often go back into the 1400s and earlier. Its a great rabbit hole to go down.

I love the record hints.

For a free genealogy resource website it's quite amazing. It provides access to billions of records not just images but also searchable records that have been indexed. My most used feature is the Record Hints which uses the information I've inputted into my tree and cross checks it with FamilySearch's searchable records data base. This feature has found so many of my ancestors. With 2 records hints I found 8 new ancestors (being Portuguese, the Portuguese parish records do hold lots of information so that helped too). I also use MyHeritage which has a similar feature but I've found the Record Hints on FamilySearch to be more accurate, at least for my family. Plus it's free.

I love that not only does FamilySearch.org give quite accurate record hints, it only gives you access to search through so many records. I am able to help friends this way search for their family anywhere in the world as FamilySearch.org holds so many records worldwide.

FamilySearch.org is a great site. Always include as much information as it prevents mistakes from creeping in. The solutions gallery can make this interesting for the younger family members with games, ideas, and chart options.

Since joining in last August 2019 I've really enjoyed using Familysearch.org and found out so much about my family that they'd have never known. It even let's you print out different sections of your family tree in 3 modes. There's Landscape which prints out information on 4 family generations, Portrait which prints out photographs you've uploaded of 5 family generations and Fan Chart which prints out the names of up to 7 family generations.

I have entered lots of people. Probably a few hundred ancestors and their kin. I try very hard to get absolute proof of a relationship. If the proof is flimsy, then I say so in the notes. For example, an 8 great grandfather born in 1700 in Aublain, and a person with the same name gets married in 1727, There are no other candidate people with the same name born in the same town or towns nearby that could be the person getting married, so I take a calculated guess and make this the same person. It is far better if the marriage has the grooms parents names, than the proof is very good. The familyhistory tree allows all this stuff and I communicate with others who add to my tree, if I see some flaky connections. Or I will add a note that the connection could be flaky. So overall I am happy with this website and it is free.

This is an awesome site for finding your family history. It is associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints just like Ansestory but it's free. Just don't let them know that I told you so, we still need to kep this a secret between me and all of the internet.

Very helpful site for keeping up with your family genealogy. Provides helper statements. Always someone to reach out to with questions. Once you understand how it works it is very thorough.

I've been a member of this site for awhile and enjoy transcribing records. Since covid has us shelter-in-place, transcribing records is a unique way to serve those doing genealogy. I have a family tree and add to it as I can. I have never purchased anything through FamilySearch dot org, and my experiences are with their free to use and free to create family history trees.

This site is the best and most reliable genealogy programs on the web. The site keeps getting better and better:... And it's free!

The very best genealogy site, hands down. FamilySearch is the one that the others cite as a source. If you're serious about genealogy this is a must. Best of all - IT'S FREE.

Before you begin with FamilySearch.org please first understand that it is a COLLABORATIVE website. Aside from living relatives, EVERYTHING else is shared and subject to communal editing. When I read through the critical or negative reviews I came to the conclusion that they were written by people who do not really get what a collaborative website looks like. There is no "your" tree! There's only one single, communal tree. It is very similar to WikiTree and in many respects both websites have a similar mandate and a similar philosophy.

Now, for a review of the site itself.

The interface is simple yet remarkably powerful. It has a wealth of well-chosen data sources--in some cases missing from the commercial paywall sites. And, the search algorithms, once you figure them out, are also extraordinarily powerful. Depending on the part of the world you're researching FamilySearch may be the perfect research choice--for Dutch genealogy, for example, I can't see a better website.

I've been using it for four months now and I have not found any software or any website that is anywhere near as powerful as FamilySearch when it comes to building a family tree. If FamilySearch.org were to be spun off as a privately controlled family tree website it would bankrupt MyHeritage and maybe Ancestry--the interface is second to none and it's trivially easy to document your work. But, a lot of people don't like its collaborative nature.

Much of my work happens in the Netherlands and the coverage of records is stunning.

In the right parts of the Netherlands and with a bit of luck, it's possible to use FamilySearch.org to create a properly sourced, RELIABLE tree for an individual dating back five to six generations with only a few hours of work. YES, six generations in a few hours of work! Because I'm working on DNA matches with Dutch relatives I've now created full ancestral trees to prove a connection--and more than a few times I've managed to replicate an entire tree in an hour that almost always matches the family tree that the match had for their ancestors (sometimes mine are more complete, thanks to the search algorithms for FamilySearch.org).

As for conflicts with others--I've only run into two individuals who have conflicting views to mine. In one case it related to a differential interpretation of the facts, and I think our amicable solution (to document the different and equally valid interpretations of the documentary record) was satisfactory. In another it was someone who took "ownership" over an ancestral branch that lacked documentation. Since it was an undocumented branch I left their fantasy alone--genealogy without documentation is fantasy and should be ignored unless it interferes with the proper functioning of a site.

That said, in a few cases I've had auDNA hints that suggest that some ancient connections (early 1700's or even late 1600's) may indeed be correct. I'm not prepared to accept those connections as valid without a lot more research but it's indeed quite interesting.

The one thing I've always wondered about is the affiliation with a church. So far I've not seen indications that's a problem. What I'd be more worried about is that it's a website hosted in the US and the US has extraordinarily weak privacy laws.

PS It's too funny. This is only "second" review at this website. It seems that I reviewed FamilySearch in December as well. I can't see what I said the first time around but this one is now informed by many more months of experience.

I have a lot of genealogy records researched by my grandmother and mother. Thousands of names and families -- all entered into FamilySearch over time. I find FS to be very user-friendly, though not perfect. Perfect doesn't exist. It's definitely the best free service in my opinion, particularly for free access to indexed records of births, marriages, deaths, etc. Users need to know that others have access to the site, just as you do, and may make changes. I suggest the following: 1. Keep personal copies of everything you have on your ancestors as you may need to go back and correct things down the road. 2. Document the source of your information when you add to an ancestors record on FS. Others are less likely to make changes to well-documented data. 3. Make sure the data you enter is as accurate as it can be. Don't guess or make assumptions -- you might be wrong and mislead others. 4. Use the communication tools to interact with others on site when there are issues. I have used these tips to help me as I have entered, edited, and corrected data on my ancestors. It's a great place for me!

Thanks Rennie for participating in the Worldwide Indexing Event! Because of you, more records are searchable, helping people to discover and connect with their ancestors. Over 116,475 people indexed over 10 million records.

Awesome effort. My 150 records made a difference. I've now done about 340.

Family Search is the genealogy research window for the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS). This organization has been working extensively on genealogy research and digitizing and indexing such data stores. The site allows search with multiple edits without even requiring an account. If you do create an account this allows you to save records for easy retrieval. There is no fee. Many of the record retrievals link to digitized actual documents. In some cases the result will only give a summary because the actual record is housed at another site which requires an account. This is not often a big issue.

I keep my actual family tree records on MyHeritage but I use Familysearch for the majority of my record research. This is a tool every genealogist should have readily available.

I love Family Search and have found so many things on it. The staff are always incredibly sweet and really try to help. It's amazing that it is a free resource to us all and I will always be graretful that it exists.