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Document Searches To Fill Your Family Tree

Finding the bits and pieces of your family history can seem like a daunting task when you first begin to assemble a family tree. A lot of people fill in the parts they know and then sit there looking at the list in front of them unsure of where to go from there for more family research.

Well, if you know anything about those who are the furthest back in your family tree, and even some of the more recent entries, you may be able to glean a lot of information from a few document searches. Let's take a look at some of the easier ones to do that you may not have thought of:

Newspaper Articles – There are all sorts of newspaper articles out there that can help you get quite a lot of family history information. From articles on a person in your family to birth notices and obituaries, these nuggets in print may be able to offer you a lot of family research information. Many newspapers today have online search capabilities so if you know where that person in your family lives or lived you can just search their name and see what pops up.

Church Records – Do you know the church that your family members belonged to? Quite often churches keep impeccable records of all sorts of things relating to their members. From family information (siblings, children and parents) to service records (military, associations, etc.) you may be able to not only get more names to add to your family tree, but you also may get ideas for more places to look for more of your family history.

Military Records – Was someone in the military? Well if they were you may want to look into military records to see what family research information you can pull from their enlistment, discharge and promotion records.

Census Records – You have probably done your fair share of government census forms when they were mailed to you. Well, chances are other members of your family tree that came before you did as well. There could be a lot of information involved in these census records from addresses to names of additional family members and other pieces of family history that could help you in your continued search.

Deeds – Another good place to do a little family research is in deeds. There are deeds for a number of reasons. You may find home ownership deeds, home sale deeds, rental agreements and other items relating to the place a person lives and pays for. These can be a source of a lot of information. First you will obviously get an idea for where the person in your family lived or owned property. This is family research information that can help you find even more documents that relate to them in that area. Additionally, items like estate settlement deeds will also have the names of other relatives that will be a part of your family tree and may help you begin a few new branches.

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Find Branches of Your Family Tree With Immigration Records

As most people begin their research into their family tree, they find that their family has moved, sometimes over large distances, over the generations. This can make it a little more difficult to find the next branch of family history that they are searching for.

The good news is that there are now a number of locations online where you can search immigration records.

Immigration records can hold a lot of family research information. Among some of the things that immigration records may have are:

Name
Nationality
Location of Birth
Age
Height
Eye and Hair Color
Occupation
Relatives They Had in the U.S.
Previous Address
Address Where They Are Going
Date They Arrived in The U.S.
The Ship They Arrived On

These can be a huge help in your family research as you are able to piece together where a branch of your family tree moved to in the 'New World' and where they set up residence. Often, once a family found an area to settle down, the next few generations would stay in this area, which may help you in your next levels of research into your family history.

So, where should you look to find family history immigration paperwork?

EllisIsland.org

For the most part, immigrants who traveled to the new world came through Ellis Island in New York. There were usually rather detailed records being kept of their arrival as well. Now many of these records are available online at www.Ellisisland.org . This is a database of over 22.5 million names of those immigrants who came to the U.S. through New York's Ellis Island. The database covers those who came off of the ships from 1892 – 1924.

Castle Garden

If you know your family members came over before 1892, you may need to take your family research to Castle Garden, www.castlegarden.org instead. This has the names of over 10 million immigrants who came into the United States before Ellis Island Opened in 1892. Before that time, Castle Garden was the immigration center and these records have those who came through from 1830-1892.

National Archives

Another family research source for those who know they have family that came to America during the Irish Famine is the National Archives http://aad.archives.gov/aad/ . This database has the names of over 600,000 people who came into New York between 1846-1851 during the famine. If you know some of your family tree was in Ireland, this may not be a bad place to take a look.

Internet

In between revealing my family history I will review and promote products on the internet that can help record your family history research progress offer help and information.

The first family history resource under the spotlight will be Ancestry, I use this site to record all my family history and have given access to other family members so they can see our family history in action. I took my first step on the internet root with 14 days free trail to Ancestry, this gave me

This site offers links to historical records. Birth, marriage, death records linking your family history, and giving you the all important proof that you need and you can apply for copies of the records.

All the UK census records from 1841 to 1901 showing you’re the location of your family history, their occupations, ages, and place of birth. They also have links to other people researching their family history that you can contact and link your history to that long lost cousin or aunt.

Another function is the use of their family history recording area, you can build a family tree, upload photos, videos and add links to other web sites with supporting evidence of your family history.

So have fun discovering your family history at ancestry.

Starting on the Internet

Skipping a quite years and coming to the accessible of the internet and searchable records online. I discovered that the national census was the easiest form of information available to me on family history. So Istarted to trace the people I had discovered in Thame and Twyford, of course there were a lot of years missing in between and I could only start to trace the surname of Wenman not knowing if they were related.

This uncovered more people but not a direct link to any people in my family history, so I decided to start from my grand partners and work backwards from them. I started with my grand mother’s family history, she was born in Drayton Praslow in Buckinghamshire in 1915, so her parents would have been on the 1901 census. The first place I looked was logically Drayton Parslow but found nothing so I started looking at the surrounding villages and found my great grandfather as a child living in nearby Stewkley.

So now I am back to the person who the family history myth centred on. According to the myth his father died after returning from the Boar War of an injury and my great grandfather was offered the opportunity of returning to the family seat to be raised as the next heir. Problem one how do I discover his father and what he died from, I chased various avenues on the Boar War memorials finding nothing

However I did discover he died at 43 years of age in Drayton Praslow so I sent for a copy of his birth certificate, he died of tuberculoses, his name was Joseph Wenman and he was married to Julia Turney. He had several brothers and sisters and his father was a carpenter by the name of John. So here I am with more information that before but no closer to the family history myth but bitten by the family history bug.