How to Find My Heritage Country
Everyone would like to know where their family history roots lie. And, unless you have a family that has shared such information, many people have questions about which country or countries their family came from. Knowing your family history, and finding your heritage country, enables you to dig back even further and discover more about additional past generations. Like a tree with branches, as you fill in the blanks of the people who came before you, the family tree grows.
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Instructions
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Getting Facts About What Country Your Family is From
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Start at the beginning -- with yourself. Locate a copy of your birth certificate. Order a copy of your birth certificate (if you do not have one, contact the CDC, which will provide where to write for vital records in any state -- also on the internet.) Look at what the birth certificate says about where you were born. Read information on your birth certificate, which both parents had to provide when you were born, such as their names, age, occupation, residence, and their place of birth.
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Ask relatives to fill out a questionnaire Ask parents, grandparents, and other relatives to fill out a questionnaire. Print the questionnaire at no charge from any number of genealogy websites. Notice that questionnaires ask relatives direct questions about where they were born, who their parents were, where their parents lived, dates and places of births and deaths. Write down also their memories as youths, including where they grew up, and what they heard older family members talking about when referring to where they came from. Ask for copies of any records they may have, such as birth and death records, marriage certificates, military records and ships manifests (logs of who was on a ship traveling to or from a foreign port).
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Contact an online research service that has millions of ancestry records on file. Pay a small fee to run your family name through databases and you may learn new information about your family heritage. Sit down and take time to scroll through any leads that such information could provide. Take copious notes about what you learn because it could be helpful with your research later on.
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Order copies of birth and death certificates for each known, direct blood relative if you cannot get a copy from a relative. Pay the fee that is required for each certificate, but do not pay the extra fee for certified copies as you are not looking for certification, just information. Read the information on birth and death records to gain further knowledge of where to look next.
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Research your family heritage further by contacting the genealogical research branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Work online or at one of their research facilities where the Church, one of the leaders in genealogy information, provides their research tools at no charge (with the exception of costs for making copies).
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The Statue of Liberty is on Ellis Island Conduct an Internet search of the Ellis Island Port of New York passenger records at no cost. Millions of immigrants entered the United States through ports at Ellis Island, located outside New York City. Enter the name of a family member to see if he came through Ellis Island and read a ship's manifest, which will list the country of origin, age, occupation and destination for those traveling to the United States. Keep an eye out for spelling variations of last names that may be different, a common occurrence that can slow research. Work up the family tree as you complete time-consuming, dedicated research and hopefully you will reach back into history, finding records that will show the countries from which your ancestors came.
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