Request limits and response times
Please limit requests to one per day. Do not use multiple email accounts to send additional requests. This helps us serve as many people as possible.
My wife replies to the lookup requests in the order they are received. Results are sent to the email address you provide.
If you do not hear back within 7 days, please be patient and check your spam folder. There are times when we receive a large number of requests, and it may take us a little longer to get through them. Please do not resubmit the same request, as duplicate requests can further slow things down.
Free lookups are intended to help you locate a specific record or other information about your family. Due to time constraints, we cannot conduct in-depth research on entire family lines through the free lookup service.
Have a Genealogy Question?
If your question requires more than a simple index lookup, you can also submit a genealogy question. This is separate from the free lookup service and is also free.
You can give me the names, dates, places, records you have already checked, and the genealogy problem you are trying to solve. I will review the information you provide and help point you to records, repositories, research strategies, and possible next steps. I read and answer every question, and your response is private and shared only with you.
Submit your genealogy question here:
Newsletter subscription
When you submit a free genealogy lookup request, you will be subscribed to our newsletter so you can keep up with new genealogy articles, free lookups, resources, updates, and free book giveaways. If you decide it is not for you, you can unsubscribe using the link in the first email you receive.
My Journey into Genealogy
I began researching genealogy more than 30 years ago during a period when health problems, including Crohn’s disease, kept me home for a long stretch. I decided to use that time to learn more about my family name and the people who came before me. I expected to find a few names, dates, and places. Instead, every answer seemed to lead to another question.
In those days, much of my research involved libraries, books, microfilm, courthouse records, and handwritten notes. I quickly learned that genealogy was about much more than collecting names for a family tree. I needed to make sure I had the right person, connect each generation with reliable records, and pay attention to the small clues that could lead somewhere else.
Over time, I collected reference books and record guides and developed my own system for tracking sources, dates, locations, and unanswered questions. As more genealogy records became available online, computers and genealogy software made organizing the research easier, but the basic process never really changed. I still start with what is known, confirm it with records, and work backward one generation at a time.
Sometimes the smallest detail can make the difference. A neighbor listed in a census, a witness on a marriage record, the description of a piece of land, or a name buried in a probate file can point toward a family connection that was not obvious at first. Learning to notice those details has always been one of my favorite parts of genealogy.
When the Internet was still relatively new, I began putting some of my research online, so family members could follow what I was finding. Before long, I started hearing from relatives I had never met and from other people who were researching their own families. They had questions, brick walls, and records they were trying to understand.
That experience led me to create Ancestral Findings. I launched the site on December 15, 1995, as a place to share what I was learning and to help others with their own family history research. Free genealogy lookups were part of Ancestral Findings from the beginning. The response was much greater than I expected, with more than 1,000 lookup requests arriving within the first few months.
More than 30 years later, Ancestral Findings is still a family effort. I run the website, and my wife helps answer the free lookup requests. The tools available to genealogists have changed tremendously since 1995, but what I enjoy about the research has not changed very much.
There is always another record to find, another question to answer, or another clue that can help us learn a little more about the people who came before us. That is what Ancestral Findings has always been about, and it is why I am still doing it today.