Is the other ways of tracing your family other than census, Birth, Marriage, death and parish records?

Question

if there is can you explain how i research them or how i would get them

Answer 1

have you tried looking at he Ellis Island site?  if any of your ancestors "came over on the boat," this is a great place to look.  ask your parents or grandparents for their ancestors' names, then put them in the search engine on the Ellis Island site.  good luck!

Answer 2

The ways you mentioned are easiest, you can also search the census records.

If you don't have "Family Tree software, try going on the LDS site, at the top of the page click on search (next to home) and put in your info.

http://www.familysearch.org/

Answer 3

Wills are good because the person will mention their family members by name.  Land records are good for tracking where they lived and their migration.  Also since families often lived near other members of their family, it will help connect other branches of your family.  Military records are good.

Eventually you will HAVE to look at other sources because for most states, they have only been keeping birth/marriage/death records for about 100 years or less.  Before that, it was not mandatory in many states.  Also, in census records before 1850, they did not list the whole family.....only the head of the household.  So, if you do not know who John Smith's father was, it makes it difficult to find him if you cannot also see which Smith family John is living with in 1840 when he was only 10 years old and by 1850 he was old enough to have moved out of his dad's home so he appears on the census record in his own home.  The other thing about census records before 1850 is if there may be 15 people in the state with the same name and if you cannot tell who the other family members were, it makes it difficult to know which one is the one you are looking for.

Another good source is books people wrote and published of particular families or family lines.  They often have done much of the work already.

So, again, you will have to eventually use other sources anyway.

Answer 4

you can try myspace...thats how i found my uncle!

Answer 5

Not really unless you have an extremely elderly relative that can remember them when they were alive I'm afraid they are the best ways. Try asking if any relatives have old marriage or birth certificates to help you get started. Just one thing i would suggest is joining Genes Reunited, £10 a year. Put all you know as far back as you have got with as many dates, places of birth etc on there and you will be surprised at how quick you will find new people.Good luck.

Answer 6

A part of my family tree is published in the book, "A Martin Genealogy".  Other parts are published in the "Mayflower Descendant". (and so on and so forth.

So, yes; if you can make the connection, you will find a part of it already published.  Part of your ancestry has got to be the same as mine (its a numbers thing: way back then there were only so many people and there are now so many.  I am not talking prehistoric times, or "Out of Africa", I am talking about a few centuries ago.)

One line of my family history is just that: kept by each generation of my mom's mom's family back to the 1400s.

Then there is DNA: try www.familytreedna.com.

Answer 7

Historial directories can sometimes be useful. Here are some you can access online for free.

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/

Answer 8

There are many other ways: the library, county clerk's office, probate records, cemetery records, rootsweb and other sites, LDS Family Centers....the list goes on and on. The census is only the tip of the iceberg.

Answer 9

if you don't mind spending a bit of money - Genesreunited is a reasonably good site i have found rather alot of information from messaging other people.

Another is Ancestry (just type in Google) although that IS considerably more expensive, but it gives you access to all the censuses etc - and don't forget the war records which are increasingly available.

Answer 10

Have you tried simply Googling your surname and area?  You could strike lucky and find that a cousin has already done and published details of the family.

Try the Family History Society of the area from which your ancestors originated and check out the search Interests of other members; again, you may be able to link up with another researcher.

Answer 11

talk to the older members of your family.

Answer 12

Wills and military rcords can also be useful. You can find a lot of military records on ancestry.com, and this site has both wills, military records and other types of records too:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

If you gat lucky, you may also find your ancestors in the old bailey online transcripts:

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk/