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Position:Home>Genealogy> How does one go about finding out where his or her ancestors came from?Question:First of all get as much information from living family as possible, particularly senior members. Tape them if they will let you. It might be they are confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant ramblings and story telling might turn out to be very important. Now, this is the All English Speaking Board. People asking and answering questions are from the U.S.,U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. You did not identify where you are from so I am going to answer like you are in the U.S. Some might answer like you are in the U.K. Go to your public library and find out what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can utilize. Ancestry.Com has lots of records. They have all the censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet. Now, be extremely careful about taking as fact everything you see in famiy trees on any website, free or paid. The information is submitted by folks like you and me, not necessarily by experts. Most of it is not documented. You might see different information on the same person by different submitters. Then you will see the same information repeatedly on the same person by different submitters without documentation. Just because many people have the same information doesn't necessarily mean it is correct. A lot of people are copying without verifying. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation. The surnames in your family is not important in genealogy. The same surname can come from more than one nationality. Also not everyone with the same surname is related or share ancestors. Your father might have what is considered an English name but that name might have come from your 10xgreat grandfather and he married someone Irish and all the marriages have been Irish since then. Even if some of the other marriages were with someone with English names, there was an Anglo Norman invasion of Ireland and these people intermaried with the Irish and adapted Irish customs. Also another thing you have to take into consideration are boundary changes between countries. This is particularly true for Germany and the Slavic countries. Italy has had boundary changes with Austria. Call your nearest Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church and find out if they have a Family History Center. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City,they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view for a nominal fee. They don't try to convert you and the won't send their missionaries by to ring your doorbell. Courthouse records, deeds, wills, etc are very important. Now until early in the 20th century most states did not keep vital records, births, deaths, etc. Churches will have a lot of information, baptisms, marriages etc. There are websites that can be used as a supplement. Cyndi'sList has a multitude of them. However, you start with yourself and work back. Don't try to work from down people many generations back just because maybe they have the same name as you. Good Luck! Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: First of all get as much information from living family as possible, particularly senior members. Tape them if they will let you. It might be they are confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant ramblings and story telling might turn out to be very important. Now, this is the All English Speaking Board. People asking and answering questions are from the U.S.,U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. You did not identify where you are from so I am going to answer like you are in the U.S. Some might answer like you are in the U.K. Go to your public library and find out what all they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can utilize. Ancestry.Com has lots of records. They have all the censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet. Now, be extremely careful about taking as fact everything you see in famiy trees on any website, free or paid. The information is submitted by folks like you and me, not necessarily by experts. Most of it is not documented. You might see different information on the same person by different submitters. Then you will see the same information repeatedly on the same person by different submitters without documentation. Just because many people have the same information doesn't necessarily mean it is correct. A lot of people are copying without verifying. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation. The surnames in your family is not important in genealogy. The same surname can come from more than one nationality. Also not everyone with the same surname is related or share ancestors. Your father might have what is considered an English name but that name might have come from your 10xgreat grandfather and he married someone Irish and all the marriages have been Irish since then. Even if some of the other marriages were with someone with English names, there was an Anglo Norman invasion of Ireland and these people intermaried with the Irish and adapted Irish customs. Also another thing you have to take into consideration are boundary changes between countries. This is particularly true for Germany and the Slavic countries. Italy has had boundary changes with Austria. Call your nearest Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church and find out if they have a Family History Center. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City,they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view for a nominal fee. They don't try to convert you and the won't send their missionaries by to ring your doorbell. Courthouse records, deeds, wills, etc are very important. Now until early in the 20th century most states did not keep vital records, births, deaths, etc. Churches will have a lot of information, baptisms, marriages etc. There are websites that can be used as a supplement. Cyndi'sList has a multitude of them. However, you start with yourself and work back. Don't try to work from down people many generations back just because maybe they have the same name as you. Good Luck! genesreunited.co.uk is a brilliant website :@) nothing works better than asking your grand parents try http://www.genesreunited.com/ i used it u have 2 pay to get most of ur info but but u get sum stuff for free. its good tho ive used it. depends lol i dont what to say but you can know from the family tree its a file where you can get to know whoa re ur ancestors or who ur realated to ....yours rocky.... 1. Research your mother and fathers last names. 2. Talk to your oldest relatives about what nations your family is from. 3. Look in the mirror, and you should be able to get a general idea if you are say north western european, or asian or african. 4. You can get a DNA test now to find out. I don't know where, and I don't know the price though. Hope these help little. It costs money to do this, go on google and type this in, finding your ancestors...or use the more formal name...."genealogy"..there are thousands of sites out there that do this for a business....just make sure that it's a reputable company !!!!!!!! Good luck....I would like to do this myself....someday I will !!!!!!!! ancestry.com if you're willing to pay for it... go to cindislist.com or org one of those there are 100'2 of links......i actually located the ship manifest my grandfather came to this country on...try the ellis island site too we use family .com u yahoo search an there more ancestors com look up old hospital record land deed go grave yard Cyndi's List (the mother-load of genealogy links) has a Beginners section with How-To articles. When starting your family tree you need to follow the following steps 1) Talk to family members Parents, Grandparents, Aunts & Uncles, Cousins etc. 2) Gather any paper work you may Cirtificates of Birth, Death's and Marriage even Baptism/Christening, Family Bibles are wonderful. Diarys and letters as well. 3) Draw a rough Tree just so you know who's who. Then work back slowly generation at a time, use the web sites below as to help, they are free to use but you may wish to subscribe to www.ancestry.com Good luck and good hunting first of all you should ask your parents, your grandparents end (if they are not died) also your grat-grandparents....then on the basis of what they say, you should begin to sketch out a sort of diagram. after having done it, you should go to the townhall and document yourself ( trying to go back in time) about your family origins. of corse this could be a good idea only if your family has always lived there..... good luck try ancestry.com. i know there is a pretty hefty fee involved,but it would be worth if you really wanted to do a lot of research. where i live (pittsburgh, pa) one can go to the library and use the computers and get ancestry.com for free, and use it there at the library. i have used it extensively, and traced my family back to slavery. so it must be pretty good. |