How do i find out if i am related?

Question

i am really trying to find this out i was up till 4 in the morning yesterday trying to find someplace to tell em who my ansetors are

Answer 1

This is just an example from www.ancestry.com's Family tree section: I looked up the name JOHN JACKSON  SMITH and he was born in Alabama  in 1818, and died in the 1870's. On the person's opening page in the right column , under TOOLS,  there is a small yellow crown that says "Find famous relatives". When you click that link, if there are any famous people in his background (or yours, if you put in a family member's name to look up ).

    For this particular John Smith, he is related to:

1. Gerald Ford --38th President of the United States of America--as his  8th Cousin 2 times removed .

2. Howard  Robard Hughes--American Aviator, famous for his multiple air speed records--as 6th Cousin 7 times removed .

3. Andrew Johnson --17th President--as 3rd Cousin 7 times removed

4. Zachary Taylor --12th President--as 5th Cousin 3 times removed

5. Mark Twain --American Author--as 5th Cousin 5 times removed

6. Frank James (and I assume his brother Jesse)--American Outlaw during the American Civil War --as  7th Cousin 1 times removed  



7. Butch Cassidy -- train and bank robber--as 5th Cousin 3 times removed  



8. John F. Kennedy--35th President--as  6th Cousin 3 times removed (and his son, of course--John F. Kennedy, Jr. --as 6th Cousin 4 times removed )

9. Laura Welch Bush --current First Lady--as  8th Cousin 2 times removed  

10. Sam Walton --founder of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club--as 8th Cousin 3 times removed  



11. Mary Todd Lincoln --First Lady, wife of Abraham Lincoln--as  7th Cousin 4 times removed  (to see how related, just click the link under whichever name that says "Show relationships", and a new page comes up. In Mrs. Lincoln's case , it said "10th Great Grandmother of John Jackson Smith &  6th Great Grandmother of Mary Todd Lincoln was

Elin Verch Lloyd, Born:  abt 1480 in Glynlliffon, Llandwrog, Caernarvonshire, Wales)

Answer 2

Hi Tayler,

There isn't a "magical" database where you type in your name and you can find all that out with just a few clicks.  It'll take a lot more all-nighters to figure all that out, I'm afraid!  Rest up and start again, that's what many of us love to do...

The VERY best way to start putting together the pieces to the puzzle of your ancestry is to ask questions of every living relative who's older than you are, and write down their answers!  Ask about names and siblings and places and dates.  Start with yourself, work back to your parents, then further to your grandparents, then your great-grandparents, etc.

By then you will have gotten to people 3 generations before you, and you should be able to start looking them up using Google or one of the other free sites (usgenweb.org, findagrave.com, familysearch.org, etc.).

If you're in the USA, the most recent census available to the public is 1930 - - it'll be another 4 years before the 1940 Census comes out.

Once you start connecting actual records with what your relatives have told you, and verifying that there is sufficient proof that you are indeed related to those ancestors you're finding...  I'd strongly recommend at least a trial subscription to Ancestry.com.  Not only can you find "one-stop shopping" there (they have more databases in one place than anybody else), but you can also see the family trees that other Ancestry subscribers have researched and posted.  Warning!:  There is no guarantee those family trees are accurate - - but they can give you a good idea of what others are finding, which can be very helpful to use as a guideline for your own research.

Finally, once your research goes back far enough, Ancestry also has a fairly new feature which will tell you if they have enough information about your family tree to show your relationship to someone famous.  (Warning!:  again, this would be based on family trees posted by other subscribers, and may or may not be accurate.  We're all humans, after all...)

Best of luck with your research, I hope this helps, and that you enjoy genealogy for years to come!