HOW TO FIND YOUR FAMILY ROOTS

Try to interview and take notes from all the older generations in your family, such as your grandparents, aunts, uncles. Anyone old enough to have the names passed down to them of their ancestors. I found my mother's relatives just by browsing around on the Internet. I recognized the names of her aunts and uncles on there and her grandparents because I had heard her speak of them a lot. I never did meet but a few of her aunts and uncles. This website showed 2 generations back from that which my mother didn't know about.

When interviewing them, take notes of where they were born, their birth dates and who they were married to and date of marriage. This is important when you start looking because the same names were often used over and over. It's easy to assume one person is the spouse to the other but you have to check all the facts or you'll get off on the wrong tract. It does make your work much easier if you find a website like I did, where someone else has already did most of the work.

UNWRAP THE MYSTERY OF YOUR PAST

• Look in old family Bibles, other records, and gather old photos
• Libraries: newspapers, obituaries, public histories, and published genealogy books
• Court House: Voter lists, Land grants, deeds, marriages, naturalization records
• Public School records, voter records,
• National Records: Census, military, pension, passenger lists, immigration, land records
• State Records: Vital records, Land grants,
• Surf the net looking for genealogy links that match yours.
• Most people are happy to email you back if you're looking for info.
• Get a good program such as Family Tree Maker
• After you've done as much as possible with online research, you will need to do some leg work to some of the places mentioned above. Your online research or family research should be able to point you toward which cemetery you need to visit or which courthouse, etc.
• When you do an online search for a certain name, you will find chat groups of other people looking for someone with the same last name.
• I found 2 generations back on mom's side that she didn't know about just by browsing the web. I also found two more lines on my dad's side that we didn't have.
• I find more all the time... I was recently contacted by a cousin that I had never heard of who found my website and she sent me another website with a whole other line that I didn't have.
• This is really interesting and you will be amazed to find out who you are related to. I have some very well know people in my family.. so many that I'm afraid people will think it's not true if I tell all of it. If you keep diging, you will find something.
• The family tree maker program has the option to buy disks of other family trees that have already been compiled and makes it easier to find a starting place. This program also has space to put your pictures and keeps them in order of which tree they belong in. It will show charts that can be printed of your family tree or just a list detailing just how you are related to each one.
• If you are unable to purchase more software, there are sites that offer free downloads of simple family tree programs.
• Another thing to be careful of is putting the wrong name with wrong info. When I was working on my tree, I was frustrated with because everyone seemed to be named Elizabeth and John back then. Be sure the parents of the people who are married match.., marriage date and date of birth.