Discover Your Heritage by Tracing Your Family History

When a genealogist thinks about tracing their family history, it is more than just dates and places. It is about finding every bit of family information that can be added to your family tree about your ancestors and present relatives. Understanding your family history involves migration, immigration, maps, land deeds, understanding history and much more.

Migration
To trace your family history, you need to understand about the area your ancestors came from. Migration can be classified by several factors: ethnicity, gender, religion, and work type. Studying your families background will help give insight to what you should research. Census records can give great insight to these questions.

Immigration
Immigration records can help with discovering your family history. The records often reveal who was traveling with your ancestor, where they came from, what their occupation was, as well as their destination. You can trace your family history through immigration ports to help find useful genealogy information. For east coast immigration, Ellis Island opened in 1892. Before that, people were processed in Castle Garden. Other U.S. Ports are Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. You might trace your family history by way of Canada, Mexico, or South America.

Deeds
Deeds help you understand where your family lived, and their economic stature. It might even give insight to their profession as well as their neighbors. Many families and friends traveled from one state to another when they heard about new opportunities to own land. Don’t forget to look for known family friends. They might own land, and the survey might reveal information about your relative. Learn more about deed and land research.

This Day in History
When you are trying to trace your family history, you should understand what was going on during that time period and area of the world. What was happening in a particular place and time might give you some clues to trace your family history.

Maps
Maps are an excellent source when re-creating your family history. Counties and States evolved over time and were different many years ago, compared to today. Understanding this information may help you uncover that document you have been looking for, when you find that your ancestor was living in a different county than what you thought.

Family History
Documents, letters, journals, stories, newspapers, family books, medical records, photos, etc. are all sources that may help you to trace your family history. Photos show more than faces. They often reveal places, dates and missing family information. Letters, post cards, and Emails are wonderful heirlooms. Scan and add them to your family tree.

Another way to trace your ancestry is by interviewing your relatives. Asking questions like, what is your favorite TV show, movie, color, time of year, best vacation, best school year, favorite sport or hobby, where they grew up, how they met their spouse, what they did for work, family stories, etc. Interviews can help fill in missing family history. It might even give you the opportunity to get copies of some old photos or family documents.