Investigating Tips
- Familysearch.org (a Latter Day Saints Website) has an excellent pedigree program that is a free download. Go to order/download product, then find Personal Ancestrial Files. This website also has a searchable data base with many German birth records as well as other files. This is found under the Tab "Search".
- Family Search also provides a Place Search to see if there are records available at a specific place.
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Family members are very helpful for oral history and any family bibles that may have records recorded. Others who have researched part of your family tree can be found and contacted through World Connect on Rootsweb.com or you can search for family pages through Family Tree Magazine.
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Tracking families through census records is time consuming, but exciting when records are found.
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Many counties have printed history books that may provide leads on family members. The internet also has state and county web links that can be helpful. These are easy to get to through Rootsweb.com .
Just click on websites and follow it through.
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Cemetery headstones, many times, will give you birth and death dates. Another helpful guide is http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/.
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The internet has message boards at Rootsweb.com .
- If you are willing to spend money, you can order records through USA Vital Records.
An accurate pedigree chart should be backed up with more than one source. I found that when I relied on a single source, I soon disproved the information. Gathering lots of sources and piecing it together is a time-consuming but rewarding experience.
Types of records that will be useful:
- Family copies of marriage licenses and baptismal certificates.
- Family bibles and photographs.
- Public documents like deeds, tax rolls, and wills.
- Census information.
- Business directories.
- Local histories.
- Newspaper articles.
- Obituaries and death certificates.
