Genealogy?

Question:Im trying to find the best way to study my family history. How we came to America, Texas, where we came from, our history, just everything I possibly can. Whats the best way to do this, without just paying someone. It would be like a puzzle for me, and Im into that, especially with this kind of thing.

Any good resources, books, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Im trying to find the best way to study my family history. How we came to America, Texas, where we came from, our history, just everything I possibly can. Whats the best way to do this, without just paying someone. It would be like a puzzle for me, and Im into that, especially with this kind of thing.

Any good resources, books, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Start out by asking your living relatives questions about their parents, names, dates, etc.
Then try:
Free sites: there are several to choose from. Start with:
http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

Assuming they emigrated from Europe, start with Ellis Island and the Battery Conservancy sites:
http://www.ellisisland.org
http://www.castlegarden.org
For those with native American ancestry, try:
http://www.tribalpages.com/

For a fee, try a DNA test:
When you really want to know where your ancestors came from, try such sites as: www.familytreedna.com, dnatribes.com, dnaancestryproject.com, and, of course, the National Geographics Genotype program, https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/geno...
For Jewish ancestry, try:
www.israelgenealogy.com
Have a look at these sites these are South African ones,
http://genealogy.about.com/od/south_afri...
http://www.rupert.net/~lkool/page2.html....
http://www.jewishgen.org/safrica/website...
http://southafricanfamilyhistory.wordpre...

Meaning of names:
http://www.winslowtree.com/surname-meani...

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/f...

Finding live people:
Two good places I use are www.zabasearch.com and www.peoplefinder.com

Don't forget, use your local library. Ours (a small one, yet) has www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com, as well as periodicals, books and guidance from an experienced genealogist.

Keep good notes on where you find what: sources are very important.

Good luck!

Ancestory .com is worth a try...It helped me.

David, NothingUsefullearned gave you some sage advice in getting as much information from living family members as possible. Particularly talk with your seniors and tape them if they will let you. It might turn out they are confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant ramblings and story telling might be very significant. People who do this say after doing research for a few years, they go back and listen to the tape again and hear things they didn't hear the first time around.

Go to your public library and if you live close to a much larger town go to their library and find out what resources they have. For instance if you ive in Comfort go to San Antonio. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can take advantage of. Ancestry.Com has lots of records and is obtainiing more all the time. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet.

Now, be careful not to take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. Chances are you will find some of your family lines. The information is submitted by folks like you and me and generally it is not documented. You might see different information from different submitters on the same person and then you will see repeatedly the same information from many different submitters without documentation. A lot of people are copying without verifying. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation.

A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church has lots of records, not just on Mormons. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee.

I have never had them to try and convert me or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell. I have never heard that it has happened to anyone else that has availed themselves of their resources.

You will need court records, wills, deeds etc.

Vital records, births, marriages, deaths. They give names of parents and mother's maiden names. The death certificate will give places of birth of both parents. Also the applicaiton for a Social Security number will give the the names of both parents including mother's maiden name and place of birth of both.

Now before the first quarter of the 20th century, most vital records were not being recorded by any governing body. For instance, Texas started recording information in 1903. However, a lot of people who were born at home or died at home you will not find. I understand it was after WWII, that a law was passed requiring the recording of births and deaths.

If no record can be found, church records can be very important,baptisms, first communion, confirmation, marriage, deaths.

Don't get overly involved in the origin of surnames as the same surname can come from more than one national origin and not everyone with the same surname are necessarily related, even those of the same national origin.

Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org(LDS) site are 2 good free sites to use as a supplment to research.

Ancestry.Com, Rootsweb and Genealogy.Com have message boards. You can put a message or inquiry under a surname or location. If you put one on Ancestry.Com's it will also be on Rootweb and vice versa.

Good Luck!