Hi there, if you are new to genealogy research, this post is for you. It focuses on how to start researching for your personal genealogy tree for free.
Yes, for free! All you need to do is signup for a free account.
Let’s get started!
1: How to Find FamilySearch
If you do a Google search or use any search engine, simply type, “FamilySearch” in the engine.
A typical result will look like this:
I clicked on the first link shown in the photo and it took me directly to their website. Alternatively, you can go directly without searching by clicking this link: FamilySearch.
This is what the website looks like today. The image at the top can change, but will look similar to this.
2: Making Sure The Website is in Your Preferred Language
One thing you will notice with the web address is that, after ‘.org’, it has a backslash, then “en” followed by another backslash. This identifies the language of the website.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/
What if English is not your native tongue?
No problem! FamilySearch makes it easy for you to read the web page without using translator. This is easy to change. You simply:
- Scroll to the bottom of the page
- Click on “English”
- Now choose your preferred language
- FamilySearch has 30 languages listed
- I decided on “Deutsch” to show you what the website will look like.
- With a click of a button, the whole website was changed to German.
Being able to change the language to your native language is a very useful feature.
When I am researching my German roots on the web, I often find it hard to translate, but my browser lets me right click to select to translate or a popup will pop on my screen to translate.
So, I have given several ways so that you can read and understand the FamilySearch website in your native language.
By having the web page in your native language, it makes it easier to do the next task: creating your free account.
3. Making a Free Account
To make your free account:
- Click the button “Create Account”.
- Fill-in the form with your:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Birth Date: Month, Day, Year
- Sex
- Check the last box tick ONLY if you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Use my record information to help you get started.
- If you click the “i” symbol for information, it informs you about FamilySearch. (See my photo).
- Click continue to the next page.
- Next, create your username and password
- Then, select recovery option; either mobile or email
- Select your location
- Optional: tick the box to receive email from FamilySearch
- Last, tick the box to agree to “Terms of Use” and “Privacy Notice”
- Finally, click “Create Account”
- After you create your account, it will test your recovery method.
- I chose mobile so it sent me a code by text.
- Once I entered the verification code and clicked submit, I received my “Thank-you” page.
- Now you are ready to start your research and all you need to do is sign-in to get started.
Wrap-up
This blog series is designed specifically with the beginner researcher in mind. I walked you step-by-step through:
- Finding FamilySearch on the web
- Changing the website to your preferred language
- Creating your Free FamilySearch account
In the next blog, I will be showing you step-by-step how easy it is to research “Free Records” about your ancestors.
As always, if you have a comment, please use the form below, or if you want to privately contact me, please use the contact email form on my Contact page.
Nancy Dru loves cases!
Hi Nancy, thanks a lot for your advice on how to join Family Search for free, I followed your steps, and now I’m a Member of the site.
]Kind regards, Steve.
Hi Steve,
I am glad my post helped!
You might want to check the next post in the Free Research series:
https://nancydrugenealogy.com/how-to-research-your-personal-genealogy-tree-for-free-2/
If you have any questions or need a little help, please send me a private email on my contact page.
https://nancydrugenealogy.com/contact-2/
Thank you for your wonderful comment!
Another genealogy mystery solved,
Nancy Dru