Family History
Family History
I am looking for any information about my surnames
If you've been researching your family for several years and find you're more interested in knowing about the details of recent generations rather than digging further down the ancestral timeline, then this is the place for you. If you're new to genealogy, please visit our Getting Started section.
Many family researchers often overlook the fact that they are not alone in the quest for information about their ancestors. Genealogy Today has a variety of resources for locating genealogists that researching the same surnames, as well as, an index of thousands of surname web sites. You'll probably hear the term "query" used when speaking with other family researchers. A query is nothing more than a post to a message board stating a specific ancestor or surname someone is looking for � it's much like a classified ad in a newspaper, except that most are free. Using the Genealogy Meta-Search, you can search across the Family Tree Climbers, Lost and Found and Birthroots databases. After searching, feel free to post some queries for the names your are looking for.
As a family researcher, you're probably quite familiar with dozens of web sites and are searching for several surnames. To help keep your efforts organized, you can sign up for a free membership to Team Roots. As a member of Team Roots, you get access to several tools that make using this site more effective. You can store a list of the primary surnames you're working on, bookmark favorite sites or features, keep track of the queries you post, and a whole lot more. Click here to join Team Roots now and instantly take advantage of these free tools.
If you're interested in learning additional family history techniques and want to keep up with the latest trends, read "Everyday Genealogy" written by Bob Brooke. Each month Bob highlights an area of family research of interest to people who have been looking for their ancestors. To make sure you don't miss a single article, sign up for the free "Family Tree Digest" newsletter.
A great resource for finding out what life was like in the towns where your ancestors lived is the local historical or genealogical society. They are often the keepers of local directories, newspaper archives and sometimes even have lists of people buried in local inactive cemeteries. When contacting a local society, keep in mind that they are usually run by volunteers who are more than willing to help, but don't expect them to do your research for you. To find a local society, we recommend the Society Hill web site, which covers the United States, Canada and Australia. It's a free directory and lists the addresses of thousands of societies with links to their web sites. Click here to access the directory.
Another excellent source of local information is newspapers. While many newspapers have web site, few have made available access to any archives. Looking for articles about your relatives from 40 years ago remains a laborious chore of visiting a local library that has microfilm reels. Recently, Ancestry.com made available a searchable online newpaper archive, which is accessible for a small annual subscription. The power of this new service is that you can actually search for keywords (including surnames) and find information. For example, if you knew that an ancestor was involved in an event (like a parade or fire); you can search for their surname plus the keyword. It's very powerful and saves enormous amounts of time. New papers are being added regularly. Click here to learn more about the Historical Newspaper Collection.
Most people are familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose members are often referred to as Mormons, but most family researchers do not know that they are a fabulous resource for genealogy. As part of their religious beliefs, when two Mormons get married it is a union not only of them and their living families, but also of their ancestors. Therefore it is a requirement of Mormons to detail numerous generations of their ancestry prior to a marriage ceremony. This belief is such an integral part of their religion that the LDS organization has, for many years, recorded primary documents from around the world on microfilm. They also run the largest genealogy library in the world in Salt Lake City, Utah. Locally in cities around the world, the operate Family History Centers (FHC) within their churches where anyone can visit and access the wonderful LDS collection.
More recently, they expanded the capabilities of their web site, FamilySearch.org, and many of their indexes can be accessed online. From there you can then order a microfilm be sent to your local FHC to view the actual primary document you're looking for.
After you have built up your family tree to several generations, and collected details on the lives of your nearest ancestors, you might be interested if digging further back in time to research additional branches, which you can do in our Research Tools section. Or perhaps you would like to formally learn how to become genealogist and understand what it takes to become certified. If this is the case, visit our Advanced Topics section.
More things to look at:
