How to Locate Ancestors
- 1). Ask your living relatives about their parents, grandparents and other family members. Inquire about birthdays and where they lived. Start making a family tree with the information they give you. The best place to start searching about your ancestry is through your current family members. Write the names on a spreadsheet or family tree website and be sure to note the relationship between two people. If you have names and locations, it will make your job easier when you start searching online to fill in the gaps.
- 2). Compose emails or letters to all of your relatives asking them to fill in gaps. Mention that you are building a huge family tree for everyone to enjoy. You can post your family tree online with several different websites like ancestry.com and genealogy.com. That way, people can add to the tree and help you fill in names and birthdays. There usually is at least one person in every family who knows a great deal about her ancestry.
- 3). Search online to obtain records such as birth, marriage and death certificates. You can look at individual county websites to see if you can order records. Some counties charge a fee to give you this information. Go to familysearch.org to input your information and fill in the missing pieces. This website is great for finding relatives who have been deceased for even more than 50 years.
- 4). Obtain the family Bible if you have one, since many Christians record all important family dates inside their Bible. If your family members were involved in a religious organization, ask the place of worship for some information, since many religious organizations have detailed records of their congregants.
- 5). Visit the Ellis Island website if your ancestors came to America through this location. It is free to use and a great help in discovering the origins of your ancestors. You also can search death records through the website findagrave.com.
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