How Do I Trace My Family Roots?
Tracing your family roots is a fascinating journey, and many people make it a full-time hobby. It's not too difficult to go back a few generations--you probably know your parents and grandparents--but things get more challenging the further back in history you go. Researching your family's ancestry is easier than ever these days thanks to online resources. However, you may have to dig a bit deeper to get those hard to find secrets.
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Instructions
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Diagram your tree. By creating a diagram, it will be more clear which pieces of the puzzle you need to fill in. You'll have to link backwards, starting from your own family--list all of the relatives that you know and how they are connected. Some people prefer to use a family tree software program to do this.
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Ask your family to tell stories. Tell your family members that you're trying to find out about your roots and ask them to fill in the blanks. For example, you may have known your great-grandfather, but his wife died before you were born. Your parents may be able to tell you her name--including her maiden name--and maybe even who her parents or siblings were.
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Search through online records for your family members. You can often find birth and death records, immigration records or land holdings online. You can do this by yourself by visiting the corresponding websites from the National Archives, or you can easily search through all of them by using a genealogy website, which aggregates all of the sources. There is usually a fee to use these services.
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Visit the county records and archives center. Your ancestors' records may not yet be online. If your online searches aren't turning up much, try visiting the county archives for a town where your relatives once lived. Call ahead, as the historian may need to dig deep to find old boxes that store the records.
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Tips & Warnings
Joining a website that focuses on genealogy research may connect you with others researching the same family tree. You could have a distant cousin you didn't know about who has already done some of the research. You can combine your efforts.
Watch for name changes. When immigrants entered early America, their last names were sometimes changed. Your relatives from "the old country" may have a different last name than you.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit family tree image by Judy Ben Joud from Fotolia.com
