The short answer: Use FamilySearch — a nonprofit site with billions of free records — as your home base, then add the free census links from the National Archives, Find a Grave's cemetery memorials, and Chronicling America's old newspapers. For Ancestry's own collections, ask your public library: many offer Ancestry Library Edition free on their computers.

If you've spent any time researching your family online, you've met the wall: a promising record, a click, and a page asking for a subscription that costs more per month than a good book. It's discouraging — especially when you're on a fixed income and just want to know your own grandmother's story.

So let's say the quiet part plainly: most of what a beginning family historian needs is free. Ancestry is a genuinely good product — this isn't an anti-Ancestry page — but it has a well-funded way of looking like the only door into your past. It isn't. Here is the free-first toolkit we'd hand any beginner, what you actually give up by not paying, and two honest ways to get Ancestry's goodies without a subscription of your own.

The free toolkit, in the order you'll need it

1. FamilySearch — your free home base

FamilySearch is the largest free genealogy site in the world, run as a nonprofit. A free account gives you a place in its single shared Family Tree (other users can edit deceased ancestors; living people stay private) and billions of searchable records: censuses, births, marriages, deaths, immigration, military. For the records a beginner touches in the first year, the overlap with the paid sites is enormous. Its research wiki — a free encyclopedia of "where the records are" for every state and country — may be the single most useful genealogy page online.

2. The National Archives — the censuses, straight from the source

The released U.S. censuses, 1790 through 1950, are public records, and the National Archives points you to free ways to search them — including its own free 1950 census site. The census trail is the backbone of every American family tree, and it costs nothing to follow. Our beginner's guide shows you how to start with 1950 and walk backward.

3. Find a Grave — the cemetery in your pocket

Volunteers have created more than 265 million memorials at Find a Grave, many with headstone photos. Birth and death dates, maiden names, family plots side by side, sometimes a full obituary — free to search. (It's owned by Ancestry, and still free.) New to it? Our beginner's guide to Find a Grave covers the search tricks and free headstone photo requests.

4. Chronicling America — old newspapers, free

The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, working with partners in every state, have made nearly 24 million historic newspaper pages (through 1963) searchable free at Chronicling America — obituaries, wedding announcements, local columns that mention your family by name. Many states run free newspaper archives on top of this; your state library's website will say.

5. WikiTree — one shared tree, free forever

WikiTree is a single worldwide family tree built by a friendly community of volunteers. It's a lovely free place to publish your tree, collaborate with distant cousins, and get help from experienced researchers who genuinely enjoy assisting newcomers.

6. Your state's archives and vital records indexes

Every state maintains archives, and many publish free indexes of births, marriages, and deaths — some with scanned images. Search "your state state archives genealogy" or find your state's page in the FamilySearch wiki. County historical and genealogical societies quietly hold treasures too.

7. The library card trick — Ancestry without paying Ancestry

Here's the tip that surprises most beginners: many public libraries offer Ancestry Library Edition free on their computers — most of the record collections you'd otherwise subscribe to (not every one, and you can't build your own tree there), usable inside the building with your library card. Many libraries also give cardholders free at-home access to HeritageQuest, a genealogy database with censuses, books, and more. One phone call to your local branch tells you what you already have. That call is worth real money.

The free-first workflow

Home papers and family interviews → tree on FamilySearch → censuses back from 1950 → passenger lists for the immigrant generation → Find a Grave and newspapers to fill in the stories. All free; our resources page has every link.

What you give up without a subscription — honestly

  • Convenience. Ancestry's record "hints" arrive automatically; on the free route, you do the searching. (Hints also propagate other people's mistakes, so this is only half a loss.)
  • Some exclusive collections. Certain digitized sets — many city directories, yearbooks, and some newspaper archives — live only behind paywalls. You may eventually want one of them for a specific question.
  • All-in-one tidiness. Free research means using three or four sites instead of one. Our resources page keeps that manageable.

What you don't give up: the actual government records — censuses, passenger lists, draft cards, land records — which exist in free copies far more often than the subscription screens suggest.

Is there a free version of Ancestry?

Not a full one. You can sign up for a free Ancestry account and build a family tree there at no cost, but viewing most of its records requires a paid subscription — in the U.S., plans run about $25 to $60 a month, depending on how many collections you want. There are still a few honest ways to reach Ancestry's records without paying for them yourself:

  • Your library or a FamilySearch center. Ancestry Library Edition is free on the computers at many public libraries and FamilySearch centers — call ahead to check.
  • Free-access weekends. Now and then Ancestry opens selected record collections free for a few days. There's no fixed schedule, so treat one as a pleasant surprise rather than something to plan around.
  • The 14-day free trial. It needs a credit card and turns into the plan you picked at signup, so choose the monthly option and cancel at least two days before the trial ends.

If you ever do pay, pay like a genealogist

  • Sprint, don't subscribe. Save a list of the specific records you need that are truly paywalled. When the list is long enough, buy one month (pick the monthly plan, not a six-month one), work through the list, download everything you need, and cancel the same week. One focused month a year beats twelve drifting ones.
  • Mind the trial. Ancestry's 14-day free trial requires a card and turns automatically into the plan you chose at signup — make sure it's the monthly option, since six-month plans can carry an early-cancellation fee. Cancel at least two days before the trial ends; a phone reminder for day 12 does it.
  • Check the library first. If your branch has Ancestry Library Edition, your "paywalled list" may cost you a bus ride.

Start on paper, free

Our printable Starter Kit — tree chart, family group sheet, interview questions, and a first-steps checklist — costs nothing and asks for no card, because that's rather the point of this site.

Download the Free Kit (PDF)

Frequently asked questions

Is FamilySearch really completely free?

Yes. FamilySearch is operated as a nonprofit service and everything on it — the record collections, the shared family tree, the research wiki — is free; you just need a free account to search records. There is no premium tier. A small share of record images can be viewed only at a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library because of agreements with the archives that hold them.

Why is FamilySearch free — what's the catch?

It's funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which regards preserving family history as part of its mission. You'll need a free account, but you won't be asked to join anything, and researchers of every background use it daily. The practical trade-off is simply that some record collections exist only on paid sites.

Can I move my tree from Ancestry to a free site?

Yes. Ancestry lets a tree's owner download it as a GEDCOM file — the standard family tree format. Free programs like RootsMagic Essentials open it on your own computer, and WikiTree's GEDCOMpare tool helps you add your people to its shared tree one profile at a time, after checking for duplicates. Note that a GEDCOM carries your tree's names and facts, not the photos or record images.

Is Find a Grave free?

Yes — searching Find a Grave's memorials, viewing headstone photos, and even adding your own contributions are all free. It's owned by Ancestry, but it has remained free to use.

Will I ever have to pay for anything?

Occasionally, and usually to a government office rather than a website: certified copies of birth, marriage, or death certificates from a state vital records office cost a fee, and ordering document copies from the National Archives does too. Plenty of family historians research for years before spending a dollar.

Is there a free version of Ancestry?

Not a full one. You can build a family tree on Ancestry for free, but viewing most of its records requires a subscription, which runs about $25 to $60 a month in the U.S. The free ways to reach those records are Ancestry Library Edition on the computers at many public libraries and FamilySearch centers, plus occasional free-access weekends.

Sources

Facts checked against these sources on October 9, 2026.

Keep going: The full list of free databases we trust • Start your tree for free today • Find your ancestor's ship