How can i find out about my background? like my race and ancestors?

Question

my mom doesnt know exactly what my race is my farther told me before but i can't remember exactly

Answer 1

Well, try these:

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history.  Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department.  Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc.  Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers.  They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.

I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.

Answer 2

Find a Mormon, and ask. I swear, they have the BEST Family History centers I have EVER seen. They do this indexing thing, where they take the census from any given year, and write it out legibly. It's called indexing, and it's bomb.

They make it so incredibly easy. My mom found her great, great, great aunt Chloe through them.

Answer 3

I found mine by just searching my family name on google, which lead me to a geneology forum on Yahoo Groups full of people with the same last name! My family name is uncommon, so it was easier to do. However, trying to search my husbands family (Gray) ancestry has been next to impossible.

Answer 4

Try going to ancestry.com

Answer 5

Check ellisisland.com.  If your ancestors came through Ellis Island, then it is very likely that the documents will be available.  You might also want to talk to all your relatives, check family bibles for clues, baptismal records, etc

Answer 6

Try familysearch.org, starting with his name.  It's a free service with the LDS church.  Ancestry.com is good, but it is a subscription service.

You can usually get a good idea of ethnicity from last name, but that's no guarantee...for example, my last name is Scottish, but almost all of my dad's ancestors are German and English.  If you want as definitive an answer as possible, you'll need to do some good old fashioned genealogical research, starting with him, then his parents, his grandparents, etc.