Does anyone know of any FREE but RELIABLE websites to research a family tree?
The real answer is that it depends on their ethnicity. If they were Catholic, the records you need are kept in their parish records. You’ll find everything in there from their parents’ names to the dates of birth, marriage and death. With that you can try pulling civil records wherever they exist. If they came to the US after 1901, the records you need are free, but you have to be patient. The National Archives and Records Administration will give you copies of their Declaration of Intent and their Naturalization petititions, which will include their hometowns, parents, the ship they used to come to the US, which port they arrived at, date of arrival, etc. With that you can go to your local LDS Family History Center and order the films of exit visa records, as well as both civil and church records. If they were from Switzerland, it’s probable that they had their passage paid by their “commune” (aka village) and those records are available via internet from the kanton archives (but be p
