Tracing my family tree is something that I initially did during my elementary years. Our teacher then asked us to collect pictures of our family members and arrange them in a chart to show the structure of our family. They explained that it is necessary to establish a strong identity for ourselves, knowing who our relatives were, where and how they lived can explain our present way of life and it can even give us clues about the future.
The activity was quite rewarding in a sense that we got to discover some of the distant relatives that we did not even know about. The thrill or knowing these “unknown” relatives somehow gave most of us the push to research further.
However, tracing my family tree beyond the third or fifth generation is not exactly easy. Since I was ready to go as far back as I can, my parents were not exactly the best resource persons to provide me all the names and information that I needed and wanted. So, I found it necessary to check out a few reliable sources to come up with the data that I required.
If you are planning to start a family tree of your own, here are a few information that can help you get started.
Know how far you want to go. Researching about your ancient heritage can eat up a lot of time and money. Why? Because there may be actual traveling and leg work required. This is especially true if you are not natives of the place that you live in currently. You may find the need to travel inter – state or abroad to check out where your forefathers lived and check on your family history from there. Be resourceful. Plotting your own family tree can start right within your home. If your grand parents are still alive, you can go ahead and visit them for an interview. If that is not enough, you may want to borrow documents that can provide more concrete data like dates, birthplace and country of origin. If on – hand documents are not sufficient, you can always go further by using public documents or local publications as a reference. This is where it gets time consuming. Sometimes, for you to be able to find the material that you are looking for, you may need to dig in and inspect hundreds if not thousands of documents. However, if you are one of those who are technologically inclined, you can always seek the help of several genealogy websites which will not only look for your relatives for you but will also set up your family tree as well with a small fee. If those will not work, then you can always go for a last ditch drive by hiring a professional genealogist who can do the work for you. Word of warning: they can charge a hefty fee. So as much as possible, it will be best to do the work yourself. Even if you are a rookie in this field, you do not have to worry because there can always be a self – help guide like The Kitchen Table Genealogist to start things up.
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