If you are new to family tree research it is possible that you are overwhelmed by the number of free genealogy sites that are available. Simply entering those words into your favorite search engine produces a list of millions of websites. Even using double quotes around the search terms yields over 26,000 possible websites to choose from. Many sites provide lots of different information like "How To's", death records, census records, passenger lists and more. Sites like the Mormon website - FamilySearch.org or mature sites like RootsWeb.com provide a wide variety of services including many searches with little or no subscription requests. Other sites may have introductory searches, but later try to get you to subscribe to their service. Initially, there are lots of sites to choose from. So get your feet wet with the features and free research tools that are available before you subscribe to any one site.
Many of the genealogy sites and search facilities that you find, like the Mormon site mentioned above, provide valuable information, like death and census records that are based on family tree information from thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people. These sites provide good leads for you to follow, but be careful to record the source and check the integrity of their sources. If you are careful and keep good records you will be able to tie the new information to other records that you collected and have a high level of confidence in your family tree. If you don't, you may find inconsistencies that you won't have any way to resolve.
Family tree research can be a fun and challenging hobby for almost anyone, anywhere. Using the free genealogy search tools and websites, like the Mormon site, death and census records, and passenger lists mentioned above, to uncover ancestors and history can be very rewarding. Being careful, with the search results and comparing records from many sources, will make you much more confident about your research and you and your family can confidently enjoy the stories about your ancestors and the heritage that they have passed down to you.
