How to Track Your Ancestors

Genealogy's popularity has increased with the advent of the Internet and the numerous online resources now available to help family historians track their ancestors. Before you can track your ancestors online, you will need to begin with old fashioned genealogy techniques that were in practice long before the Internet.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil
• Genealogy software

Instructions

1. Collect data from family members. Talk to your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, great-aunts or uncles, and collect names of ancestors, dates of births, deaths, marriages and locations where these events occurred.

2. Organize the data you are collecting in pedigree charts and family group pages. As you track your ancestors you will continually add new information. One way to efficiently organize your data is to purchase genealogy software, and input the data and relationships as they are collected. This will help you easily trace and organize the information.

3. Search through family Bibles, scrapbooks, letters, photo albums and baby books, looking for data and clues for information. Record all the information you collect.

4. Look up United States Census reports. The census is taken every 10 years, and the data it collects is a gold mine for the genealogist. Websites like Ancestry.com have searchable census reports, from 1790 to 1930. Depending on the year of the census, you may be able to discover where a person's parents came from, the approximate year of her birth, marriage, occupation and number of children she had.

5. Search the Church of Latter Day Saints' genealogy website for information. The site is free to use, and a link is included in Resources section below. Use the online form to type in a known ancestor's name to possibly find ancestral files, census reports, Social Security Death Index and international data.

6. Visit Cindi's List, which is a free online genealogy website that lists hundreds of online resources to track your ancestors. A link is included in the Resources section below.

7. Search for an ancestor who may have come through Ellis Island when immigrating to the United States. Visit the Ellis Island website and type in the ancestor's name, and it will search through 25 million records (link included in Resources). The information will show the year the person arrived and his age at the time, along with a copy of the passenger record and ship manifest. The website is free to use, but you will need to register with an email address.

8. Search online for ancestors who may have been in the Civil War. You can go to the Soldier and Sailor System sponsored by the National Park Service. The site is free to use. Type in your surname, a family name or a soldier's name in the online form to see what you can uncover.

9. Visit your local genealogical l library. If your community has a genealogical society and library, it may be open to the public. There you will find data to research, and volunteers who are often willing to assist in your search.

Resources

• Family Search
• Cyndi's List
• Ellis Island
• Civil War