are there any free genealogy message boards?

answers1: Yes. The two biggest are <br>
<br>
<a href="http://boards.ancestry.com/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://boards.ancestry.com/</a> <br>
<a href="http://genforum.genealogy.com/"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://genforum.genealogy.com/</a> <br>
<br>
There are also thousands of free genealogy data sites, but you asked
about message boards. <br>
<br>
Some tips: <br>
<br>
1) County boards are usually better than state boards. If you start at
"USA" on either one, you can click down to "Counties", but sometimes
the link isn't obvious. Use CTRL+F or "Edit > Find". For instance, you
should be able to get to the board for my county by <br>
USA > California > County Selection list > Stanislaus <br>
<br>
2) Both sites are free (Even the Ancestry one), both require you to
register, neither spams you. <br>
<br>
3) I spend an hour or two on message boards 4 - 5 nights a week, and
have done so for 10 years; I do them like normal people do crossword
puzzles. As a result, I know what is a good query and what is a bad
one. Good queries get fast, accurate results more often than bad ones
do. If you'd like some tips on posting a good query, read <br>
<a href="http://www.tedpack.org/goodpost.html"
rel="nofollow"class=Clr-b>http://www.tedpack.org/goodpost.html</a>
<br>
<br>
4) Back to counties - none of your mother's relatives have your
surname, and only half of your father's nieces and nephews, on
average, have his surname, because his sisters married men with
different surnames. By extension, 3/4ths of your grandparents'
relatives, 7/8ths of your great grandparents' relatives, etc etc DO
NOT have your surname, on average. So, if all of your relatives lived
in Madison County for 150 years, a post on the Madison County board
would be far better than a post on the Smith / Jones / Williams
surname boards.
answers2: There are many free genealogy message boards. The two main
ones I use are <br>
<br>
www.rootsweb.com & www.genealogy.com <br>
<br>
For genealogy.com, go under Community, the drop-down menu has Message
Boards. <br>
<br>
Both of these boards are either by last name, you can also search by
state and county. <br>
<br>
Then each county of a state has its own message board. I usually use
Google and type in genealogy, then county and state. You might have
to look a bit to find their message board. <br>
<br>
Where I get most of my info. is by going to Google, using " " quotes
around the names, possibly a city or county after the quotes if it's a
common name. Try variations of the name. After the quotes you can
use spouse's name. You'd be surprised what you will find online for
that individual. Sometimes you'll be taken to a message board, and you
can contact others looking for the same person. <br>
<br>
Also free - You can try rootsweb.com, if you do a search and find your
ancestor, you can contact the person, their e-mail addresses are on
the upper right-hand corner of the individual record. It's a hit and
miss with getting a response back. The more info. you give them, the
better chances of getting a response. Keep in mind that just because
they have your ancestor listed, doesn't mean they are directly
related. <br>
<br>
Hope that helped!