Find Your Family Tree

To begin your family tree project, you should start with what you know for sure. Write out a rough draft with names, genders, birthdates, birthplaces, death dates, burial plots, medical history, occupation, years married, children, etc. Call your nearest relatives or set a date to meet with them to branch out even further. Ask grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and great-uncles to name as many people as they can. If you know where your grandparents were married, go to that church and find out where their marriage certificates are kept. From there, you can see the names of the bride and groom's parents, which will then lead you to where they got married and where their parents are from. You can find additional clues at gravestones and at local libraries.

The most popular family tree online site is www.ancestry.com. Here you can get a 14-day free trial and then you can sign up for unlimited access at $12-$30/month afterwards. You'll be able to search U.S. census records, immigration records, military records and historical newspapers at the site. Family stories, photos and records can be uploaded for you to view and share. You can also visit www.dna.ancestry.com/welcome.aspx to see how you can get a DNA test to discover members of your family tree you may have missed. With a simple cheek swab, you'll be able to trace your ancestry around the world!

You'll notice that many websites charge you to provide family tree information, which may not be conducive with your budget. There are actually a number of free resources you can use for your project. At www.interment.net, you can look up cemetery records. At www.glorecords.blm.gov, find records for land usage and patents. You can search for famous biographies at www.geneabios.com. You can find a number of records at the International Genealogical Index

Many different types of documents such as land records and census records can provide insight into locations and the places your ancestors lived. While you may not find specific data on households, you can certainly glean a look into the past by the census records of a town. Land records will determine property holdings of your ancestors and pinpoint key locations for researching other information. These documents may be available online.

Many other types of records may also help you in your search. Depending on your specific research situation, you may discover military records, probate records and other documents. Each of these records that you uncover will add a bit more data to your family history.

Researching your family history is an exciting and rewarding hobby. Creating a family history can help you to understand yourself a bit better by understanding where you came from. Your family history will never be truly completed, as there is always more to learn. You may find that genealogy becomes a lifelong pursuit.

Vital records can be an integral part of filling in the dates and locations of events in the life of an ancestor. Often used in the genealogical research for the purpose of a family tree, vital records include birth, marriage, and death records with accurate detail, allowing individuals to flesh out good portions of family history.

Therefore, it is important to understand how to access and use vital records. A major advantage of official vital records is that they are both complete and accurate. The information contained within has been verified instead of being based on estimates or guesswork.

Depending on the country, city and time period of the event, vital records are kept by a variety of sources. Some European countries began keeping vital records at the national level during the nineteenth century. In the United States and Canada, record keeping is left to the individual state and/or city. New Orleans has the oldest required vital records in the U.S., dating back to 1790, while South Carolina did not require vital records registration until 1915.

Prior to official registration requirements, vital records were generally kept by churches. Those early records may vary widely in the information that they contain, but can be a valuable resource when official records are unavailable.

It is important to understand prior to beginning your genealogical research that vital records will not be available for all locations and all periods. Prior to official registration requirements, the registration rate was only 55% or so at best. Even now, registration only occurs 90% to 95% of the time. Additionally, before the days of computerization, records were handwritten and kept in fairly secure locations. Nonetheless, one act of God such as a fire or flood could destroy the records of an entire town.

The exact information that is contained with vital records will vary by the location and time period in which the record was created. Minimally, you can expect a birth record to contain the name, race and gender of the baby as well as the date of birth, and the names of both parents (if known). A minimal death record will contain the name of the deceased and the date and place of death. A marriage record will contain at least the full names of the couple and the date and location of the marriage, while a divorce record will minimally name the couple and list the dates of both marriage and divorce.

Many vital records provide a wealth of knowledge beyond these basics. It may be possible to ascertain names of parents or descendants, previous addresses, information about previous marriages, siblings and many other details from vital records. Since vital records vary so widely, it is smart to request every record that you can for each ancestor you wish to research. There is some overlap between records as well, meaning that if you cannot get one particular type of record you may be able to fill in the blanks from a different record.

Vital records are integral documents to a genealogical search for information needed in a compilation of family history. Vital records may not always be available for every person you're researching, but you can request as many of these documents as possible.