Heritage Album

What is the best way to trace your family roots?

I really want to know about my ancestors and where they came from. All I know is that my older relatives on both sides of my family came from Mississippi and most of them are dying off. But where do I start? I really want to go down there and ask them questions about their parents and stuff. But is that enough? What type of questions do I ask? And when I get the information from them should I go to a family tree website? Please help me I am so confused!

Public Comments

1. Questions you'll want to ask - and record this if you can - will be the full names, dates and places of births, marriages and deaths of their parents and grandparents, as far back as they recall. Visit & record family cemeteries while you're there, too. Yes they will natter on about siblings aunts uncles and cousins and who they married. Those may be exacly the cues you need to follow up on to learn what became of so&so you can't find - look for his/her brother or sister to see who's nearby. Begin entering what you know and learn onto genealogy software so you can see at a glance what you know and don't know, judge where you may want to begin researching next. By the time you have ancestors into the 19th century you well may have odd bits of luck matching with online family trees. Try familysearch.org, ancestry.com, rootsweb.com and genforum.com. I think some of my best "luck" has been learning a wife's maiden name -- but some of those were wrong so always research independently!
2. Ask the elders in the family i did it i was able to trace it to my grand grand grand father he was a colonel!
3. I will tell you how I got started 15 yrs ago and it has paid off for me. I got a book called Unpuzzling your past by Emily Croom. I sat down and read the first couple of chapters then sat down with what info I already knew. My name and my parents. From there I gathered birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates and obits along with cemetery info. Then I talked with relatives that were still alive. I only use the web for clues I don't trust info that someone else has researched without documentation. There is a lot of bad research out there so you really need to be careful. You can end up chasing the wrong family for years and end up heart broken. This is not a cheap hobby or an easy one. It takes a lot of really hard work at times. But it is the most rewarding. I have found stories that no one had uncovered over the years. Some good some not so good but its all part of the family history. I wish you luck in your search. You will be really surprised at what you find. Use the local LDS center in your town, they will help you a great deal. They have a lot of resources.
4. On top of the birth, marriage, and death records, you will learn a lot if you get cemetery and military records too. Go for the actual documents. They are the most reliable. I also ask for the names of parents of spouses. The census can be a huge help, but I only use that as a help, not as pure fact. It is great to help you pinpoint a place where the family lived, which you will need when you go for the documents. When you talk to the family, try to get them to tell stories about when they were young. Sometimes that triggers some names or places that will help. Don't always take their "stories" as fact either. Sometimes the tales get longer with each passing generation. Most of all, enjoy yourself! As for websites, I use: findagrave.com, familysearch.org, genforum.com, rootsweb.com... I don't pay for the subscription sites. You can access most of it for free at a library. I get the census through Heritage Quest, and most of my Ohio documents from the Stark County Library.