Tips for Tracing Your Family Tree
1. Write Your Autobiography - You are the first link in your family tree. Record your life story and what you remember about your relatives and ancestors.
2. Interview All Living Relatives - Records on the Internet and in libraries, archives and courthouses will be around long after you are gone. You have plenty of time to research them. However, your living relatives have a limited time here on earth. Get to them and record their stories while they are still around and their minds are still sharp.
3. Explore the Family Archives - Search for documents, books photos and artifacts around your house and your relative's houses that mention relatives and ancestor's names or images. Have relatives identify photos and label them.
4. Visit the family cemetery - Photograph the grave markers and get records from the cemetery office. I tell young people that the ancestors live in the cemetery. Take your children to your family cemetery when you get records and tell your children stories about their ancestors.
Find more details about these tips and others in my book, "Black Roots: A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree." Click here to order a copy.
2. Interview All Living Relatives - Records on the Internet and in libraries, archives and courthouses will be around long after you are gone. You have plenty of time to research them. However, your living relatives have a limited time here on earth. Get to them and record their stories while they are still around and their minds are still sharp.
3. Explore the Family Archives - Search for documents, books photos and artifacts around your house and your relative's houses that mention relatives and ancestor's names or images. Have relatives identify photos and label them.
4. Visit the family cemetery - Photograph the grave markers and get records from the cemetery office. I tell young people that the ancestors live in the cemetery. Take your children to your family cemetery when you get records and tell your children stories about their ancestors.
Find more details about these tips and others in my book, "Black Roots: A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree." Click here to order a copy.