How to Find Your Ancestors

If you have ever wondered who you got your blonde hair from, or what other family members before you had freckles or knock knees, you may want to research your ancestors and learn more about them.

Researching your family tree can be a wonderful activity for you and your family to get to know your family members before you. Some people find the challenge exhilarating; they delve deeper into their history and push themselves to go as far back as they can.

So, how do you find your ancestors? Start with your present family and work backwards. Talk to your oldest living relatives and ask them for information on their families and their history. Chances are, they have many wonderful stories to share and have boxes full of old photos to show you. They will remember who everyone is, and who their mom and dad is, birthdays, etc.

Once you have talked with other living family members, chances are you were able to go back two, maybe three generations. If you want to go back further, you will have to really delve into research mode. The internet is a good place to start.

There are dozens of websites out there that will help you search for your ancestors. Some are free to use, while others are not. For the most part, you will have to pay in order to get access to the best quality and up to date information. Once such site that is very popular is www.ancestor.com. Part of the reason genealogy has become so popular is the ease with which we can now do our research via the internet.

When you are searching for one of your ancestors on the web, you will have more success if you know their first and last name (at birth,) their day and year of birth, and the city and country they were born in. If you do not have all of that information, you will have to sift through the dozens of names that will likely come up. Again, your oldest living relatives should be able to help you with most of this information.

It could be that, without your knowledge, other family members are also researching your family tree, and have posted the information online. This will make your job much easier!

There are different ways to go about doing your family tree. You can try and find out a little bit about all of your ancestors, and challenge yourself to find out how far back you can go; or you can concentrate on one family member and research as much as you can about that person. Maybe you're interested in learning about your great-grandmother - where she came from, where she lived, what was her home like, etc.

Whichever method you choose, the internet can be a wonderful research tool. Do not forget though, that your living relatives can not only provide a wealth of information for you, but can bring you closer to your older family members. They will surely love the time of reminiscing and remembering 'the good old days.'