DO YOU WANT TO FIND YOUR ANCESTORS?  

SPEND SOME TIME HERE, YOU MAY BE GLAD YOU DID.  

 

WHERE DO I START? 

Start with yourself. Record your Birth Date and Place, Wedding Date and Place and any other vital information. Next, record your parents, grandparents etc., if they are deceased, record dates of death and places of interment.

 

 

TALK TO OLDER PEOPLE!

Talk to older people who knew your parents, grandparents etc., I’ve found older people are a wealth of information. They may not always recall what happened yesterday, but they can talk for hours about the past. 

 

WHAT ABOUT THE INTERNET? 

The internet has sparked the current interest in genealogy. It has made it easier and more affordable then ever before. 

 

 

LOOKUPS? 

These are people who volunteer their time, books, microfilm and CD’s etc. To help people like us, with our research.

 

WHAT ABOUT FOOTWORK? 

The Court House or Registry Office in the town or county where your search is based contains older birth, death, and marriage records etc. Public libraries often have books and old newspapers on microfilm that you can scan for obits etc. 

    

GOVERNMENTS:

UK GOVERNMENT

The UK Government holds census records from the year 1801 and from every 10 years onwards, currently you can view UK census records from 1801 – 1901 at most local libraries, LDS centres, the family records office and the internet, the next UK census to be published will be the 1911 census, and this should be available early 2011

 

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

The federal government has census records from 1790 when the census started.They have military service records. They also keep military pension records. Did you know that soldiers in the American revolutionary and civil wars received Military Pensions? 

 

STATE GOVERNMENT  

The state registers more recent birth, death and marriage records. Call up your state website for more information. 

 

CEMETERIES? 

The cemetery is one of the best places to record birth and death information

 

WHY YOU NEED TO EXPLORE YOUR PAST

It seems simple to understand why history is important.  There are countless times that history repeats itself.  We are face with the same choices that we were just a handful of years ago.  Did we learn from our mistakes or will we make the same ones over and over again? 

Whether you believe in a Higher Power or not, there is still the question of what could have happened to those that are in your past.  After all, don’t you want to know who was in your family tree?

Could you be the descendant of one of the Kings or Queens of England?  Perhaps you have an ancestor that was a war hero in the Revolutionary War.  Perhaps the past isn’t as pretty with ancestors that died in famines, illnesses or strife, only to save their children that you would eventually come from.

The “what if” type questions are out there and people in general are curious about what it means for them.  If you want to know what your chances of learning more about your past you have to give genealogy a chance.  You have to try to learn more.

The good news is that it’s quite possible for many people to learn more about those in their family trees.  The quest starts with understanding the process of genealogy and then learning how to get started on your own journey to learn as much as you can about those that have come before you in your family tree.

Genealogy is the study of family ancestry.  It is the study and tracing of the family’s pedigrees.  During the process of genealogy, you will collect the names of your relatives, including those that are deceased and will then establish their relationship to each other. 

This will include exploring various levels of your family tree as well including primary and secondary family members.  You will use both documentation and word of mouth to help you to develop your family tree.  The goal is to ultimately build a family tree that includes all of your relatives as far back as you would like to take it, or at least as far as you can take it.

Getting a family history of your family is a bit different.  In genealogy, you technically only will get the names of your family members, creating a tree.

But, with a family history, you will take this one step farther by including information about each of those people.  Learning more about the lives they lived is part of getting your family history. 

Sometimes, this can be done at the same time as creating a family tree, other times it is a bit more complex because of how difficult it can be to learn this information.  The goal is to gather as much information about your ancestors as you can to better understand your family’s history in both public and private life.