Begin Your Tree is an independent website with one job: helping absolute beginners research their family history without paying for it — or at least, not until paying genuinely makes sense.
We built this site because too many people decide, often later in life, that they want to know where their family came from — and then run straight into a paywall. They type a grandparent's name into a search engine, land on a subscription site, and within ten minutes they're staring at a credit card form, convinced that their own family's story costs $25 to $60 a month to read. It usually doesn't. The censuses belong to the public. The passenger lists are free to search. The world's largest free genealogy site charges nothing at all.
How we work
- Free comes first. Every guide starts with the no-cost route. When something genuinely requires payment, we say so plainly and suggest the cheapest sensible way to do it.
- We check the live sources. Before we recommend a database, we search it ourselves. When a well-known free site goes offline — as the old CastleGarden.org database did — we note it and point to the free replacement.
- Facts come from primary institutions. We verify details against the National Archives, FamilySearch, the Library of Congress, and official state archives, and we link you straight to them — with a list of sources at the end of every guide — rather than keeping you circling our own pages.
- Plain English, larger type, no rush. Many of our readers are starting their family history in retirement, so we write the way a patient friend explains things, and we design the site to be easy on real eyes.
What we are not
We're not professional genealogists for hire, we don't sell subscriptions, and we have no partnership with any of the services we recommend — free or paid. If that ever changes, you'll see it disclosed clearly on the page. We research and write plain-English guides; the real experts are the archivists and volunteers behind the free collections we point you to.
Start where everyone starts
If you're new, begin with our step-by-step first guide, print the free Starter Kit, and — this one matters most — talk to your oldest relatives soon. Questions, corrections, or a broken link to report? We genuinely welcome them: contact us.