Tracing Your Family's Roots

(A topic that is dear to Lorraine's heart, and I wanted to share this with you.)

Tracing Your Family's Roots, by Brad and Debra Shepp

What makes learning about family history so fascinating? In a world that seems ever more rootless, tracing your genealogy leads to a sense of connection with the past. Knowing more about "where we came from" brings a deeper understanding of who we are now. For children, who learn best by story-telling, exploring their family tree makes the sweep of history personal. The Internet has made researching our ancestors simpler than ever. Once you uncover places, people, and facts through your research, you’ll want to take a road trip or two to visit relatives, and also check records not yet available through the Internet.

Learn the 10 ways to trace your family tree.

Brad and Debra Shepp are the authors of "The Online Genealogy Handbook" (Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.). For more information, visit http://www.bradanddeb.com/.

Start with What You Know
Write down everything you can remember about your parents, their parents, and their siblings. Think back to all those family gatherings when you were small. Be sure to include details about the jobs they had and the neighborhoods where they lived.

Talk to Older Relatives
Track down members of your family who are older than you. Schedule a visit. Ask them about their childhood memories, particularly any memories they may have of older family members. Ask about marriages, military service, and even neighbors. Try to pin down dates and places. And don’t forget that tape recorder and camcorder.

Ask for Documents
Ask your family members for any family documents they may have, such as birth records, wedding certificates, cemetery records, naturalization records, and probate records. Tell them you would like to photocopy these. Do so at your earliest convenience--and return them promptly.

Select a Software Program
There are more than 40 genealogy software programs available. Your goal is to find a program that allows for easy data entry, easy navigation, easy report creation, and direct access to the Internet. For the PC, one very popular program is Family Tree Maker. Or for the Mac, consider Reunion, which is the best-selling program for that platform.

Visit Your Library
Your library probably provides free access to databases and other research tools that could help you with your research. Some databases you’ll need to use right there, such as Ancestry.com, which often sells licenses for in-house use only. Other databases will be available for patrons to use remotely. Your reference librarian will be only too glad to assist you.

Say Hello to the Historical Society
If you still live near your family’s ancestral home, visit the local historical society, the court house, and the public library's archive collection. There you may find old maps showing your family's homestead, their neighbors, and details of their social and professional lives.

Keep It All Organized
As you amass details of your family's history, you'll need to use certain forms to keep everything straight. These may include research logs, probate record checklists, and ancestral charts. Some websites that provide a variety of useful and free genealogy forms include:

Family Tree Magazine’s Downloadable Forms (www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms/)

Bailey's Free Genealogy Forms (www.cs.williams.edu/~bailey/genealogy)

Free Genealogy Forms (www.free-genealogy-forms.com)

Check Out Helpful Websites
If you do, we’re sure you will want to return to them again and again. They contain the most information that’s geared to beginning genealogists, and are thankfully very well organized. One warning: When you are checking them out be sure you’ve set aside enough time to explore them thoroughly.

Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet (www.cyndislist.com). This should be the first stop for any budding genealogist.

About Genealogy—A Genealogy Research Guide (http://www.genealogy.about.com/).

This site provides something for all genealogists: both hobbyists and professionals.

FamilySearch.org—Family History and Genealogy Records (http://www.familysearch.org/).

This is a nonprofit service with the largest collection of free genealogy, family history, and family tree records in the world.

Verify the Details
Don't assume that written records or family stories and legends represent the truth. A fact isn't a fact until you can confirm it from another source. Memories fade, handwriting may be hard to decipher. Confirm details with alternative sources, such as church records, newspapers (for obituaries or birth announcements), land records such as deeds, mortgages, applications for homesteads, and other property records. They can all provide the names of relatives or further clues about where you can learn more.

Connect with Other Searchers
It’s likely that there are others worldwide who are also working on your family tree. They may be just climbing a different branch. Places to connect are:

CousinConnect (http://www.cousinconnect.com/). Post your questions there and get ready for some answers!

OneGreatFamily (http://www.beliefnet.com/sitecore/Documents/www.onegreatfamily.com). There is a charge to use this site but it offers some great features you won’t find elsewhere. For one thing the site will merge two online family trees automatically when it finds a common ancestor listed in each one.

OneWorldTree (www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/trees/owt). From Ancestry.com their system can find probably matches in names and then shows the records in a consolidated way in a worldwide family tree.

Now it’s your turn to look ahead and decide what comes next! Ultimately this is your journey, and we’ll leave you with the hope that your genealogical travels will be endlessly rewarding.

Lorraine here: My "travels" were very rewarding!! I have an extremely interesting ancestry!! If you Google Lorraine Frantz Edwards you will find many of my family connec-tions. The bulk of my vast library was donated to the Brethren Heritage Center, Brookville, Ohio. My publication, Frantz Families--Kith & Kin, is in major genealogy libraries, and on microfilm from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.