Heritage Album

Finding genealogy?

My father's 50th birthday is coming up. This is a man who makes a good living, has everything he needs, and doesn't want anything else. The most important thing to him is his family. Really, the best father in the world. He has 3 adult children (I'm the youngest, and I'm 20), and one adopted baby boy with my step mother (he is now 3). We are a pretty large Italian family, his father (my grandfather) passed away 2 years ago, but was 1 or 9 children. Needless to say, there are people in our family that I have never heard of. For his birthday gift from my siblings and I , I thought of doing some research and getting a complete family tree made and framed to give to him on his birthday. However, I do not even know where to start. I know some of the heritage websites only give information on who has registered, etc. So who do I need to speak to or pay to get my research of my family started??

Public Comments

1. Google archives. There is usually one in your location where you can view microfilms and get free help from the people there. A lot of it has to be on your own though, they just direct you and get the proper ones. I'm in Chicago and found one by the Daley college at 75th and Pulaski. Good luck.
2. Go to familysearch.org. Click on their "How Do I Get Started?" link at the top right.
3. There is no predicting... some facts take literally years to find. On the other hand, I have been working with someone off here for the last 3 days, and made tremendous progress. The question is how long do you have, and what explicitly you want to find? There is tracing his ancestry (meaning, working from him BACK, which really is never complete), or identifying an arbitrary person like his grandfather, and finding all the desc. You can post grandpa's name here, and we can see what we can dig up (pun fully intended). I can give you some solid leads on learning how... or, drop me a note through my profile, and I'll see what I can do (random generosity, not for payment.. )
4. If you can get your hands on DAD'S birth certif. there's a beginning. It will list if there were any other "live births" before him, so you'll know approx. how many to look for. In addition where his parents lived when he was born, as well as their info. Also if you can find/get a copy of yr grandma's (and grandpa's) death certificate it will tell you when and where they were born, his spouse, her name before marriage, possibly his marriage date. Go to the Hall of Records where you live and you will find possible other information and documents. That includes Census Records up to 1930. Check the family bible (if you have one) or maybe yr grandma's bible, if its still around. Families often wrote family records on inside pages/covers. If you have one of those really unusually Italian names, you shouldn't have too much trouble with research, but if its more common you'll have to do more work and you may not have it ready in time for his b'day. Get moving....and feel free to send a question.
5. The time element might make it very hard. Catholic records, Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Death are all valuable sources. Parents' names including mother's maiden name will be found on all of those certificates. Also parishes keep registers on all of those sacraments. Actually when you are confirmed, you probably held a little card in your hand. On one side of that card was your confirmation name and on the other side was your baptismal information. A priest took that card from you and told the bishop your confirmation name so he would confirm you with that name. That little card was used to put all the baptismal information in the confirmation record book and then that little card was used to post in the baptismal book that you were confirmed on such and such date in that parish. If you were baptised in another parish that little card was mailed to that other parish so they could note on your baptismal record that you were confirmed in such and such parish on such and such date. So, the first thing you do is get as much information from your living family as possible, particularly your senior members. Tape them if they will let you. What might seem to be insignificant story telling might turn out to be very significant. Also ask to see their certificates and copy the information they have. Your public library is a good source. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com you can use. Ancestry.Com has lots of records. They have all the U. S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet. Actually, one night I was able to locate for a young lady her great grandmother's immigration record. They had a copy of the original manifest with all the relatives her great grandmother had with her and a photo of the ship that brought them here. Now, don't take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. The information is subscriber submitted and mostly not documented or poorly documented. Even when you see the same info repeatedly by many different subscribers that is no guarantee it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying. Use the information as clues as to where to get the documentation. A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church has records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. They are free to use but you must find out when they are open for the general public. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee. I have never had them to try and convert me or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell because I used their resources. I haven't heard of them doing that to anyone else either. I don't know where you live but another good source once you get back to your immigrant ancestors is the National Archives in Washington. I have a friend whose mother came from Calabria and her father from Sicily. She said when you first go there you go through a lot of rigamarole being registered and getting a name tag. Once you get your name tag any time you go back, you just show your name tag. She found more at the National Archives than a cousin did going to Italy. Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org are 2 good free sites as they have instructions on the "how to" of genealogy.