Heritage Album

how do i find my grandfather's family tree? i believe it traces to scotland and ireland?

my grandfather will not get on a plane to visit scotland and ireland, but i'd like to get him a gift so he can find out about his ancestors who are supposedly from there

Public Comments

1. You'll very likely need to do research - family history, names, records and such, in order to form a tree. Have a look at Ancestry dot com as a starting point. But to get involved further will likely cost.
2. If in the uk go to www.ancestry.co.uk There you can look up and view the census for free. If you know your grandfathers name and date of birth, look it up to get the name of his mother and father, then you look them up and so it carries on. This way you add these people to his tree. Sometimes you can be lucky and others are researching the same family. Try to find out which part of Ireland and Scotland his family are from, it will make your search a lot easier. Good luck
3. I don't blame him; it is way too much hassle to fly, especially for any one who is old or has health problems. Not being allowed to have a drink or very little to drink on a long flight certainly does not help. But, hey, there is the internet; you can search for ancestors, then google (or otherwise search) for those cities/towns where the ancestors came from, even make a video of sorts and present that to him. So, try these for tracing ancestors: You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc. Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required). Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you). A third option is one of the following websites: http://www.searchforancestors.com/... http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739... www dot usgenweb dot com/ www dot census dot gov/ http://www.rootsweb.com/ www dot ukgenweb dot com/ www dot archives dot gov/ http://www.familysearch.org/ http://www.accessgenealogy.com/... http://www.cyndislist.com/ www dot geni dot com/ Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever. Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example. Good luck and have fun! Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites: www dot associatedcontent dot com/article... Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA. I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.