Tracing family history is interesting and useful for personal, medical, financial, and legal reasons. Start with known facts, like parents and grandparents, and use oral testimony and documents to corroborate information. Use search engines and genealogical directories, and join local family history societies for help.
Tracing family history can provide an interesting and enlightening look at your genealogy. Family history research may be undertaken for reasons of personal interest, as well as for medical, financial and legal reasons. The best way to research family history is to start with yourself and work your way up the family tree from there. After all, it’s easier to start with known facts.
For example, you could start with your parents, grandparents, and other known elderly relatives and query them for information about their last name and known family history. Genealogy can be explored along the paternal line, along the maternal line, or along both lines, taking into account the various relatives on both sides. Overall, however, it may be easier to research family history through the paternal line rather than the maternal line, since in most cultures it has been a common practice for a woman to take her husband’s surname.
It is important to note the oral testimony of family members and look through all available pedigree records to see if it can be corroborated. Historically, in many Christian families, it was common to record the family tree in the family Bible. Documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, religious records, diaries, wills, letters, and photo albums can also be of great help in tracing family history. Additionally, documents such as journal entries, tax records, electoral records, census records, military service records, land records, immigration records, ship passenger lists, naturalization records, and other archival evidence. Keeping a careful record of searches made, references used, and results obtained can facilitate further searches.
It can also help to search for the last name using a search engine, sifting through the results. It may be possible to bump into distant branches of the family this way. Joining local family history societies and connecting with people interested in family history can be helpful as they can offer research tips, advice, and assistance.
Another way to research family history is to use various online genealogical directories, some of which may require a subscription to access the website’s database. Online genealogical sites such as the International Genealogical Index (IGI), found on the website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, contain fairly comprehensive archival information gleaned from church records, city offices, and other sources, as well as family histories and family trees submitted by users from all over the world. It’s a good idea to examine the genealogical records of people with the same last name; there may be the possibility of having a common ancestor, and this will avoid the need to go to ground already covered.
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