Heritage Album

Genealogy-Confused on what to research?

I am sorry if this question is a little on the long side. I have recently started to research my family tree and I am confused on which side of my family I should be researching. I was born in Mexico but I was raised in the United States, my father was half White and half Hispanic, born and raised in California. My mother is fully Hispanic and was born and raised in Mexico. I have family on both side's, how would I go about researching my family tree? I would also like to know if there were any Coat of Arms or something similar to that originating from a Hispanic heritage. Thank you for all your help. Thank you for the quick response, but I am still confused as to what side of the family I should trace. do I loo both up? and which do I claim as my own?

Public Comments

1. The best way to do your genealogy is start talking to family members and make a family tree. you and your siblings your parents and their siblings their parents and siblings Etc See how far you can go back that way. Once you get some names (including maiden names), you should be able to find state records fairly easily by contacting the states/provinces where people were born/married/died. Also, the Church of Latter Day Saints has a fairly good compilation of these records. Try this: FamilySearch.org As for Coat of Arms, sorry, can't help. Bare in mind, not all cultures used coats of arms and unless you're descended from landed nobility, knights, or otherwise notable personages, you likely won't even have an "official" coat of arms (some companies will give you a faux coat of arms by finding an official coat of arms belonging to someone with the same last name - not everyone with the same last name has the same coat of arms, only if they are descended from the same person with that coat of arms, and sometimes they'll STILL have a different coat of arms).
2. You need to research both sides of your family to get your complete history.........most people start with one parent and work backwards and when they get stuck, they often start researching theother side of their family.............both sides are your family are YOUR FAMILY...........as for coats of arms, these do not belong to 'families' they belong to the person who was awarded the Arms, so if you find someone in your family who was awarded Arms it belongs to them, not the family and you may find several peope in your family with their own Arms....and it becomes part of your family history
3. That is like asking "I'm starting to fly fish. Should I try for rainbow trout or German browns?" It is entirely up to you. You will probably have much more luck on the American side of the family. The Mormons have some records from Mexico, but in general, records from Mexico are spotty. If you spring for a year's worth of Ancestry, $159.00, you could probably trace your USA-born ancestors back to 1850 in 100 - 300 hours, spread out over as many nights and weekends as you cared to devote to the task. I suspect you'll dead-end much sooner in your Mexican lines. That means you'll end up doing more American research, unless you are rich enough to go down to Mexico and pore through dusty church records by hand. > which do I claim as my own? All of them.