If you’ve been wanting to work on creating your family tree but were turned off by the monthly fee genealogy leader Ancestry.com charges and underwhelmed by the free options available I have good news. There is a free Web-based tool and site, Geni.com, that’s an impressive and powerful application and very easy for even non-technical types to use.

After just 10 minutes on this free Website I had created my immediate family tree including profile pics, date of birth and some other basics. Within an hour I had about 30 family members created with most of them setup with profile pics. The learning curve was non-existent… it was a breeze.

The most exciting thing about this site is the ease with which any family member can signup and be creating their own family tree within minutes. In fact, within the last 24 hours most of those family members who I had added to my family tree had registered and begun adding their family tree to create an even larger, more comprehensive tree. This ease of use and the fact that it’s free give me great hope that it will continue to grow and deepen in terms of photos and other conteent since it’s so easy to upload anything to your own tree and make it available to family OR family and friends OR to anyone.

Geni does offer a premium version for only $5 month, but there isn’t much there beyond what you get for free (yet) so there is no need to upgrade. I actually want this company to make a profit over time because I’m grateful for the resource they have built and made available for all of the families on tight budgets out there.

There all sorts of other great geneaology tools available online. For a few of the best ones for building a family tree check out Genealogy category of Big Guide.