Family History

[Stan-Hardy]

Does anybody know any free and secure websites for tracing family history. Also does anybody know a good site or application for creating family trees? Thanks.

[dot.haukes]

yes, you can use the public computers in your local library to access for free all the records on ancestry.co.uk, it is great for beginners because you can get to know how the records work and how the site works without wasting 100s of quid on the first few months working all that out.
You can also access the 1881 census and the IGI (parish register entries from 1537-1920 for christenings and marriages) on the mormon site familysearch.org. that is a free search too.
For recording you can use Family Tree Maker but it is expensive, on ancestry you can u[pload your own info.
as long as the program supports GEDCOM you should be fine.

[Wak]

For a FREE program to record all your family history details go to the Mormon "FamilySearch" web site and download the "Personal Ancestral File".
It will take all your records, photos, sounds, special notes, etc. Used it for years and never needed anything else.

[sigma]

A good web site for your tree is www.tribalpages.com

[poetrylover]

Agree with Sigma ... tribal pages ... my tree is on there - and it's very easy to use etc

[Dodger666]

There are quite a few free websites you can use. Unfortunatley they are not 100% complete but well worth a visit.

familysearch.org - Mormon's website for genealogy
freebmd.org.uk - this is a good one for births deaths & marriages. Good coverage from 1837 to early 20th century.
freecen.org.uk - free census records by county, not complete
freereg.org.uk - free parish registers, not many records listed

You can also visit the website of Family History Society for the counties you are interested in, the majority of counties have their own. You may not find much data listed in them but many have forums in which you can ask questions.

If you type "free family tree sofware" into a search engine you will get many hits for free software downloads.