Finding Your Family History

Last year I spent quite a bit of time doing research for my family tree. In my blog The Army and Culture, I talked a bit about my family heritage and background. Perhaps some of you are wondering how you can find out more about your own family background and history and aren’t quite sure where to start.

The best place to start a family history, or family tree, is to talk to your relatives—namely grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles. They can help you build your family tree. I learned a few things about a great uncle I didn’t even know I had once I started doing my family research and talked to my dad about it. However, I know this may not be an option in every situation, so finding records may be the best way to start your search.

There are many great resources both online and locally. If you are able to get back to your place of birth or a place you grew up, you may be able to use your local library’s genealogy department.

The greatest online resources that I used in my family history search were Ancestry.com, the Ellis Island website, Genealogy.com, and local government websites. When using local government websites, the best place to look is the county clerk’s office, as they tend to have records for marriage licenses, birth and death certificates, and citizenship papers. If you are looking for a family member’s grave, you may be able to find it on Findagrave.com. You can view the location of the grave, and many times, there will be a photo of the cemetery or even the headstone itself. 

The Ellis Island website has ship manifests for passengers, including the name of the ship and the date they arrived in New York, the age of the passenger, and sometimes where they were headed. If you want to view more detailed information about a specific passenger, you will need to create an account, but access is free.

You can also check out the government website for immigration. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services website can give you information on who to contact if you are looking for immigration records. You can request records but will not be able to search for them yourself because of privacy laws. There may also be fees associated with requesting information.

Another resource is familysearch.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a huge emphasis among its community for family history, and you can use their website to search for your own family information or to start building a family tree.

The possibilities online are practically endless, but know that if your family hails from across the big pond, it may be more difficult to search for documents from their country of origin. In that instance, you will need to travel to the country your family is from to find more records. To that end, I say why not? It sounds like a great excuse for a vacation to me!

Happy hunting!

What have you learned about your family history? Any more tips or advice for others looking to learn more about where they come from? Sound off in the comments below!