How to Start Your Family Tree for Free
Seven simple steps from a blank page to three documented generations — no subscription, no experience needed.
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Family history for beginners
Trace Your Family Roots — Free, One Step at a Time
Begin Your Tree is a plain-English guide to finding your ancestors without expensive subscriptions. Start with what your family already knows, then follow the free records — we show you exactly where they are and how to search them.
Instant download • Printable charts you can fill in by hand • No payment, ever
Free comes first
Every guide starts with what you can do at no cost — FamilySearch, the National Archives, state records — before we ever mention anything paid.
Small, clear steps
No jargon, no assumptions. Each guide walks you through one task at a time, in the order that actually works for a brand-new family historian.
Checked, trusted sources
We verify facts against the National Archives, FamilySearch, the Library of Congress, and other primary sources — and we link you straight to them.
New here? Start with these three steps
You can finish all three this week — and you'll have the beginnings of a real, documented family tree.
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Print the Starter Kit
Download our free PDF kit and fill in the family tree chart with everything you already know. Pencil is fine — every expert started this way.
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Follow the first-steps guide
Our beginner's guide shows you how to build your first three generations for free, including finding your family in the 1950 census.
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Talk to your relatives
Use our 50 interview questions to record the stories only your older relatives can tell — while there's still time to ask.
Step-by-step guides
Written for absolute beginners, tested against the live databases they describe.
50 Family History Interview Questions
Gentle, open-ended questions for parents and grandparents — plus how to record the answers before the stories are lost.
Read the guide →Find Your Ancestor's Ship — for Free
Ellis Island, the Castle Garden era, and beyond: where immigrant passenger lists live online and how to actually find your family on them.
Read the guide →Genealogy Without Paying for Ancestry
An honest look at how far the free tools can take you — FamilySearch, the library trick, and when a subscription is genuinely worth it.
Read the guide →25+ free databases we actually use
Census records, passenger lists, draft cards, old newspapers, cemetery records — all free, all checked by hand. Bookmark it; we keep it current.
Browse the Free ResourcesWhy this site exists
Genealogy is one of the most rewarding hobbies there is — and one of the most needlessly expensive-looking. Big subscription sites make it feel like your own family's story is behind a paywall. It usually isn't. We built Begin Your Tree to show, step by step, how much you can discover with free records and a little patience. More about us and how we work →