What is the best and cheapest way to explore your genealogy on the computer?

I've always been interested in genealogy of my family, but did not know where to begin. My maiden name is very rare and my father did not really not much about his family, so I'd like to know where they originate.

Choose one or the other, my dear. The best food in town is not Denny's and the best way to explore your family history is not cheap. Not teach you anything in school youth more? Standards have certainly gone downhill since I had my lunch in a tin box with Roy Rogers at the top. I had to walk, too. It was six miles up, in both directions. Here's my standard answer. It means that research on your part. All but one of the links are free. 99% of people who ask your question lose interest when they say it is a job, but we (us Top to keep trying. This is a text file I paste to questions like yours. People ask questions like 3 to 14 times a day here. You get a long and detailed reply, I do not get finger cramps. It is long because there are over 400,000 free genealogy sites. It is also long because researching your family tree is as difficult as writing a paper in a history class. You do not have to be a genius, but not done with five clicks. I realized everything I know in 30 minutes but not 3. The fact that research has to stop nine out of ten teens and many adults. If you did not mention a country, we can not tell if you are in the U.S., UK, Canada or Australia. I'm in the U.S. and my links are for him. If not, please edit your question to add a country. Or better still, eliminate it and ask again, this time putting inthe country. Genealogists of the posts in the response UK also here. They are more experienced and smarter than me. I'm better future and my jokes are better. The really good is about her parents and memories grandparents. No site is going to say how great grandparents decorated Christmas tree with ornaments cut aluminum foil during the depression, such as Uncle Elmer wooed his wife with a banjo, or Uncle John paid his way through college in the 1960s by smuggling herbs. Talk with your family living before it is too late. You will not find people living on genealogy sites. Do not look for you or your parents. So much for the warnings. Here are some of the links. These are large and free. Many of them have subtle ads for Ancestry.com in them – ads that ask for a name, then offer a subscription test. Beware of ads. If he tries to links and not find anyone, go to http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html It repeats each link, but you have a paragraph full of tips and instructions for each of the list. http://www.cyndislist.com Cyndi has over 250,000 sites. http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search. asp The Mormon mega-site. Http: / / worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com / cgi-bin / igm.cgi RootsWeb World Connect. The links at the top are advertisements. That might mislead beginners. Ignore them and scroll down. http://www.rootsweb.com/ RootsWeb Home. This is the biggest free (genealogy) site in the world. Ancestry http://www.ancestry.com has some free data and some have to pay. U.S. http://www.usgenweb.net Gen Web. Click on a state. For a link that says "County". Http: / / www.ancestry.com / learn / facts / default.aspx? Surname meanings and origins, one of the Ancestry free pages. http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi "Social Security Death Index. Click" Advanced Options. "Women are under their married surnames. They are under their maiden names in most other places. Http: / / find.person.superpages.com / U.S. Agenda, to search for distant cousins. Http: / / vitals.rootsweb.com / ca / death / search.cgi California Death Index, 1940 to 1997. Http: / / www.genforum.com GenForum has surname, state and district councils. Http: / / boards.ancestry.com / Ancestry has surname, state and regional councils as well. They are free. Http: / / www.tedpack.org / goodpost.html Read Before publish in one or another. Read the paragraphs about query boards http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html before looking at them. http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl Roots Web Mailing List Archives. Read http://www.tedpack.org/maillist.html if genealogy mailing lists are new to you. Outside the Internet, some public libraries subscriptions have census image. Many Family History Centers as well. FHC Small rooms are in the Mormon church. They welcome all interested in genealogy, not just fellow Mormons. They have resources on CD's and volunteers are friendly. Do not try to convert them, in fact, not mention their religion unless you ask a question about it. PS – There is little difference between "knowing" and "no" and a huge difference between "equipment" and "Internet". pedantically yours, T

Tracing Ancestors: Genealogy work is a great way to start.