Tracing Your Family Tree - How To Get Started

Finding Your Roots

Most people, especially African- and Native-Americans, will not be able to find an extensive family tree to rival that of the late Alex Haley. The sad thing is personal family history is not as well documented as the history of a nation or the world. People are more apt to keep track of big events that have no real personal relation, yet when it comes to their own histories they are clueless.

Why is it important? Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. This is also true as far as family history. You are the way you are today in part because of who your parents were and decisions they made. Your parents are that way because of their parents. This goes back pretty far. Your life is due in part of the actions and life of many dozens of people.

Then you have your decisions in life which make who you are now and shape your future. Whatever you are can shape the way your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on will turn out.

There are mistakes made in the past from which you can learn. The way your parents raised you is in part due to how they were raised. If they had abusive parents, they are more likely to pass on the abuse to you. Unless you had counseling, you are also likely to pass it on to your children. Or you may overcompensate for the abuse and indulge your children where they become out of control. They will then learn to be irresponsible parents with wild children.

By learning from the mistakes of those who lived before you, you can understand why you are the way you are and better understand your parents which will help you not only become a better parent and a better person.

You can also learn a lot about important medical information. Do a trace of your family and you may see a pattern of genetic illnesses or tendencies. If you do, then you can prepare yourself for what will probably happen to you or your children. Perhaps with enough information you can help medical science speed along with more cures.

Then there is the mere satisfaction of learning what it was like living in other times and places by putting yourself in their shoes. It's one thing to try to relate to historical figures and how they lived, but when it becomes personal, you can gain more appreciation for that era. Imagine the difference between learning about the accomplishments of George Washington versus learning about the day to day life of a great-great-great ancestor during that same time. With enough digging you might get a really interesting story.

Starting Your Search

Begin with the living. Interview the oldest living members of your family before they die. Ask them to try to remember as far back as they can. Write or record your conversation. Here are some questions you can ask to help:

If they remember back further, pump for more information. Ask this of every member of your family so you can have a reference to compare. Some may remember events differently. Be vigilient about dates of births and deaths. Any relatives who may have passed on recently may have a social security number card around (US people living after 1951 should all have one) that someone may be able to dig up.

With names, dates and birth locations written down, start your search for the document trail. You will have to pay to get copies of essential documents if your family doesn't have them laying around somewhere. Here are the documents you should get for each person and where you can find them (go as far back as you can and don't forget to collect your own info and that of your children):

Although most people will eventually come to a dead end in the paper trail, you can maintain these documents for generations to come.

Why Do Trails End?

It may be hard to imagine in this era of information at your fingertips, but throughout history most people were not great at keeping records. The method of passing down oral history may help, but it is not reliable. Tales have been woven out from otherwise ordinary lives to make the family more interesting than it was.

While oral history is important, it is not concrete proof. Some legends create people who never existed or had nothing to do with your family. Chasing after these "ghosts" will only leave you frustrated in trying to prove it happened. Short of a DNA test with surviving and suspected long lost family members, sometimes you may never know the truth.

In the Americas, slavery created a class of people who would be doomed from any good chance of connecting to their history. Native Americans had oral history only before the Europeans came. At best, the oral tradition was sketchy and at worst was mythology. When the Europeans came and dissolved their way of life, most of these "histories" as well as the language became extinct (not to mention whole tribes!)

The African slaves also had an obvious problem, they were property and not people in the legal sense. While the white settlers were more apt of having a government certificate to prove they lived, the slaves often were only a number count on a tax form - not even a name! And even the names given were not theirs, but that of the slave master. If they were sold, the name was changed. Unless there was much in the way of the tradional African method of oral history, there usually a dead end by the mid 1800s. Some might be in luck if their ancestors aquired freedom before the end of slavery (roughly 11 out of 1000 former Africans were free.)

The poor white people also had a dilemma. Many were too busy just trying to survive and some were slaves themselves. Keeping accurate records were not a high priority. Many women gave birth at home and you may see an occasional family Bible with birth records or in church documents for baptismals or membership.

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