SEARCH YOUR FAMILY HISTORY

Tracing your family history is not just about compiling lists of old names and dates and rummaging through dusty documents but a fascinating journey through your own lineage. Discover the truth about your genealogy. Unearth a living, breathing, chronicle complete with the joys and pathos of human experience. Learn about fortunes made and lost, love and lust, wars, famines, heroes and rogues.

In the process you can meet and correspond with long-lost relatives, find inspiration for trips, amass a scrapbook of letters, photos, and documents and chart a family tree. The fruits of your efforts will produce an heirloom to be cherished for generations to come.

Like solving a detective mystery, tracing your roots requires painstaking research and presents many challenges. You may discover a source that takes you back many generations, then suddenly hit a dead end requiring creativity and ingenuity to overcome.

Fortunately many avenues of research are available. It doesn’t matter if your ancestors came over on the Mayflower, a slave vessel or commercial steamer. Even if you have no idea how they got here or where they came from, there are organizations and societies to aid in your search as well as books, maps, libraries,archives and vast numbers of online sources.

Start with what you know. Write down everything you can find about your family. What was your grandfather’s name, date and place of birth? What was your grandmother’s maiden name? Did she have brothers and sisters? Contact family members and ask what names, dates and stories they recall.

Collect all the records you can; birth, marriage and death certificates, deeds, wills, diplomas, naturalization papers, obituaries and family photos (be sure to check if something is written on the back). The family bible may prove an invaluable source. Visit graves and note the inscriptions on the gravestones. Contact the religious organizations your family attended and take advantage of the municipal archives in your relative’s home towns.

Figuring out what records are available, what they can tell you and where to find them can be difficult but the The National Archives and Records Administration genealogical website can guide your search. They will help you find access to census, military, immigration, naturalization, land and many other records. Some are available online; others may require a visit to a national or state archive. Limited access to Ancestor.com and Heritage.com are available free of charge from any NARA location.

Because Mormons believe in the eternal nature of family ties that obligates them to search out their ancestors, The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and its over 4,000 family history centers, staffed by helpful volunteers, maintains the largest collection of genealogical records in the world. The New Your Public Library maintains an enormous collection of printed materials relating to genealogy, including books, pamphlets, maps, letters, diaries, portraits, state and local histories and military records.