Even the great Alexander of Macedonia traced his roots to the gods of Greece. It was not uncommon for a royal to claim a god as his grandfather. Even early Roman society was not exempt. These claims, outrageous as they may be for modern people, helped clans and tribes to build stronger ties within families and groups. The free databases are the following: AccessGenealogy, Digital Archives (Norway), Genealogy service provided by Family Search, and Free Family Surname Search. For other tools, these are downloadable: Timelines (personalized for your own use), dictionary for genealogy, Letter Generator (Italian Form), Relationship calculator and Converter from surname to soundex. Those who are not that lucky can even sign up in one or two genealogy sites and see what happens later on being a member. This may sound morbid but the person can even do some research by looking at the obituaries. This is because the date of birth and death is like a paper trail and this can used to get in contact with long lost relatives. The site has an assistant that could help the researcher on things like getting started, downloading forms that are useful to the search (pedigree charts or family group records), showing records that are relevant to the family name search (census and vital records, marriage and even death records) and the most important to you: the category on family organizations and surnames. All you need is a little patience, attention to detail and maybe some luck. It also wouldn t hurt if you used online resources that are available through sites that specialize in genealogy. With the resurgence of interest in family history, genealogy sites have been experiencing an increase in the number of members who have built their family trees with the help of online resources. Nowadays, if one is interested in knowing his roots, then all he has to do is sit in front of a computer and type a few keys. There are several sites that offer free genealogy. Here is a short list that you could look through and consider in starting your own family tree : Perhaps the group of people that is most interested in searching for their kindred dead is the Latter-day Saints.