Free Geneology Sites
Nothing frustrates me more than going to a research website that advertises "free" searches, then won't let you access it without joining and wanting your credit card number. I don't want to use credit cards online. Does anyone have a TRULY free websearch site they can suggest, especially for naturalization/passenger lists? Really need help!
I have found various privately held sets of passenger lists, but none for the USA (I'm looking at New Zealand and Australia). You need to be very patient and Google all the possible things you can think of regarding passengers, fares, companies who ran passenger liners, the names of ports where people embarked, customs and landing records, immigration lists etc. Sometimes you can find a link by looking for ship names in Google images- the picture can link back to a useful site. As for free ancestry info- I find a lot of free material on the UK Free BDM: http://www.freebmd.org.uk/. You CAN look up all sorts of details free- you just have to copy and paste what you find- printing costs money. The districts/counties can be tricky, but you CAN try several different ones by repeating your searches in each one. I have been researching a very common surname (WALKER) and I have found heaps of relevant marriages, births, deaths and census records in the UK. Watch out for the commercial links at the TOP of the pages- don't use those, stay in BDM and associated free areas.
Cheers
Kay (in South Australia)
Thanks, Kay, I will try these ideas. I have already googled myself to death on alot of these, I think I have the ship name-"Sea of York", but I can find no info on it at all. I will keep plugging away! Thanks~Kathleen.