The name Galadriel literally means ‘maiden crowned with gleaming hair.’ Ine her youth she had gold hair with specks of silver. Lady Galadriel was born in the First Age, one of the Noldor. She was actually born in Valinor, the land of the Valar, the angelic beings. Her parents were Finarfin and Earwen. When Morgoth sowed great lies into the midst of the Noldor, they, led by Fëanor, chose to rebel against the Valar and return to Middle Earth. The Valar exposed Morgoth as the perpetrator and he fled to Middle Earth. He soon returned though with Ungoliant, the spider demon and mother of Shelob [ROTK]. Together, they destroyed the Trees of light and soon afterward stole the Silmarils, the gems that Fëanor had made that held the light of the Trees within them. Fëanor was enraged and accused the Valar of letting this happen. He organized the majority of the Noldor and marched toward the shore with the intention of returning to Middle Earth. Now Galadriel was a leader of this movement. They requested of their close kin, the Teleri, the use of the ships they had built. However, when the Teleri denied the Noldor the use of the ships, a great part of the Noldor fell upon the Teleri and murdered many of them. They then took the ships and departed. Fëanor, however, betrayed Galadriel and many of the other Noldor and used the ships only for he and his sons. When they reached Middle Earth, they burned the ships and Galadriel and the rest of the Noldor that had been left behind were destined to cross by means of the freezing ice in the north, the very dangerous pass. They were forbidden by the Valar to ever return to Valinor.
When Galadriel and the rest of the betrayed Noldor arrived in Beleriand, they immediately befriended Thingol, King of the Sindar. Fëanor had died in an assault upon Morgoth’s fortress of Angband and his sons had taken over his leadership, which they relinquished to Fingolfin, the leader of the betrayed Noldor. When Galadriel’s brother Finrod Felagund departed to Nargothrond, she remained and stayed in the forst of Doriath with Thingol and Melian, his wife who was one of the Maiar. From her she learned many things and soon became wise.
She eventually married Celeborn, one of the noblest of the Sindar. Together, they bore a daughter, Celebrian who wed Elrond the Half-Elven, Lord of Rivendell. Celebrian and Elrond bore a daughter, Arwen Undomiel, making Galadriel her grandmother.
In the second age, she first lived in Lindon and Eregion. When Sauron forged the rings of power, Galadriel received Nenya, the elven Ring of Water [see image], also called the Ring of Adamant. In the first War of the Ring, they settled the Woods of Lothlorien and dedicated its use to resting the weary and healing the sick of the allied armies. They remained there long after the war had ended.
In the Third Age, they remained in Lothlorien. After the Fellowship [FOTR] fled from Moria, they went there. At one memorable moment, when Frodo offered her the One Ring, she became as a dark queen. However, she resisted the temptation and spoke the words, “I pass the test. I will diminish and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.” And after Sauron was defeated and the One Ring was destroyed she did. Because of her incredible resistance to the temptation of the ring [FOTR] and because of her long years of emnity with the dark lords, she was pardoned and permitted to return to her homeland. In the year 3021, she, with Elrond, Gandalf, Frodo, and Bilbo, departed into the West to return to her birthplace in Valinor.

++ References
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien