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Where Family Trees Grow
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Genealogy Tips for Tracing Your Family Tree
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1. Write your autobiography. You are the first link in your family tree. Record your life story, and what you remember about your family and ancestors.
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2. Interview your relatives, talking with the oldest ones first. Get their life story, and what they remember about the ancestors. Once they go, they take all the stories with them. Use your tape recorder or camcorder.
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5. Visit the family cemetery. Take photos of the grave markers, and remember everyone did not have a marker. Check records in the cemetery office for additional family burials.
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6. Visit the family funeral home, and ask for copies of records for your ancestors. The funeral home that buried your relative, often buried other relatives over the years.
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3. Research the family archives. Look in attics and basements for old letters, diaries, obituaries, news clippings, the family Bible, and other documents with family members names on them.
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4. Look in family photo albums for photographs of ancestors, and names on the backs. If the photos are not labeled, ask relatives who they are, where and when the photo was taken, and then label each in pencil, or on an archival label.
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7. Get copies of death certificates, birth certificates, and marriage licenses. These often list ages, places of birth, occupations, and parents' names on them.
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8. Research census records. The census was taken every ten years, and contains valuable information. Census records can be obtained from the National Archives, genealogy and public libraries, and for a fee, on the internet, from Ancestry and Heritage Quest.
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These and other tips are detailed in "Black Roots: A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree"
Click to Order Black Roots.
Have fun tracing your family tree, and Happy Hunting.
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