Genealogy is a fun and rewarding activity. Finding out where you come from is very interesting, but it can cost a lot of money. Ancestry.com is a great tool for research and family tree building but it can cost as much as $338 per year for all access. The basic membership is $119 per year. You can find trials and discounts. Many genealogy enthusiast also buy MS Excel Family Tree Maker (discontinued) and other tools. The cost can really add up.

Here are some tools that are free or don’t cost as much.

Google is a place to start. after all they index all of the web including burial, birth, marriage registries and the Genealogy websites.

Louisville Free Public Library has Links to many resources for researching your family tree, most of it for free.

Family Search We help make that possible with the FamilySearch Family Tree, the world’s largest online family tree—home to information about more than 1.2 billion ancestors.

The Family Tree offers users a free family tree template featuring multiple tree and fan chart views, timeline and mapping tools, record hints and research helps, and access to billions of online records.

I only found it recently. I’ve been using Geni.com. Family is easier and faster I think.

Geni.com – Geni is solving the problem of genealogy by inviting the world to build the definitive online family tree. Using the basic free service at Geni.com, users add and invite their close relatives to join their family tree. All Geni users can share photos, videos, and documents with their families. Geni’s Pro subscription service allows users to find matching trees and merge those into the single world family tree, which currently contains over 100 million living users and their ancestors. Additional pay services include enhanced research tools and premium support. Geni welcomes casual genealogists and experts who wish to discover new relatives and stay in touch with family. Geni is privately held and based in Los Angeles, California.

In November 2012, Geni was acquired by MyHeritage Ltd. and is now a MyHeritage company.

PERSI is the premier subject index for genealogy and local history periodicals, and is produced by the staff of The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library. This valuable resource provides more than 3.1 million citations to readily-available periodical sources.

Other free Genealogy resources.