How to Find Ancient Ancestors
When people research their ancient ancestors, they learn about their families in a historical context. People may wish to learn about their ancestors to fill in missing gaps or fragments of family history and stories, or they may be interested in the ancient lands and countries from which they originated. Whatever the reason, studying family trees is rewarding and meaningful. In order to get the most out of the project, it is important to use as many historical resources and family members as possible.
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Things You'll Need
- Family records
- Electronic family tree generator
- Libraries
- Museums
- Historical societies
Instructions
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Talk with elderly family members, such as grandparents, great aunts and uncles and cousins, who can tell you stories from the past. Depending on the person and their sources, you can learn about older familial relationships, countries of origin, ethnicities and cultural differences between groups of related people.
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Collect and carefully study a group of family scrapbooks, photo albums, letters, journals and newspaper clippings of birth and death announcements. As you study the sources, write down your findings. Family photographs from the past not only reveal who family members were, but also give you an understanding of fashion and culture during the time period in which they lived. Letters, along with the dates they are written, allow you to create a timeline of events in general history as well as in familial history. Newspaper clippings that were kept can be indicative of personal events or significant family contributions to society.
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Type in the information gathered, such as relatives you've researched or found out about, into an online database to generate an electronic family tree. This step will allow you to go a step further with the relatives you've already uncovered. It also can help you reconnect or get in touch with other alive relatives you may not have known before starting the genealogy project.
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Record your findings from the online family tree generator in audio and written formats, so you always have a place to reference your research.
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Find out where your ancient ancestors immigrated from by contacting the DNA Ancestry Project. For a fee, the Genetic Genealogy group can take a DNA sample from you, which consists of a cheek swab sample, and match it to markers from different parts of the world to find where your ancestors originated and their path of migration.
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Use the history books and other references at your local library, museums in your area and historical societies to find out where early relatives lived, where they worked and where they were schooled. This information can be traced through town records and even places of worship in the area. Use history books to refresh your mind on world wars, settlers and industrialization to find out how your ancestors may have lived day to day.
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References
- Photo Credit funeraire image by Zeno from Fotolia.com
