These links will help you get started
My Heritage
Sign up for the free 14 day trial. But before you do, have all of your family information ready to go. By having a lot of information before signing up, you’ll be able to complete a workable family tree and determine if you want to get a paid subscription.
A full subscription provides access to millions and millions of records.
· Birth, marriage, and death certificates.
· Census records
· Family trees
· Newspapers
· Immigration records
· You can hire a professional researcher
A subscription to a database like My Heritage is a must. There is no better way to catalog and save your family records. You can even allow other family members to have access and help you as you research.
Your family might have a page. Mine does and over the years, many people have contributed information. We have documentation from 1600 years ago. Incredible, I know. So, make sure you check FaceBook.
Look for variations of the spelling of your name. My last name is Trenor, but over the years it has been modified many times. Here are some variations: Treanor, Traynor, Trainor, Trainer, Trenor, Trayner, Trener, Triner and more.
Wikipedia
Don’t be surprised when you type your last name into the search bar at Wikipedia. The same for Google and other search engines. I’ve found wills, family records and 160 year old photographs.
Other Links
Many ancestry websites exist. Does it matter which one? I’m not sure. I started with My Heritage and I’m going to stick with it. Why? Because with the complete package, it appears that data from the other sites is incorporated.
Here are some other links:
· https://www.usa.gov/genealogy
Civil War Links
· http://collections.library.cornell.edu/moa_new/waro.html
· http://www.americancivilwarstory.com/
· https://www.americancivilwarforum.com/
https://archive.org/details/factsfalsehoodsc00edmo
Confederate Vets http://confederatevets.com/
Sons of Confederate Veterans https://scv.org/
United Daughters of the Confederacy http://hqudc.org/