Looking Up Family History

You really should begin tracing your family history by talking with other family members, especially the older ones in the family. Find out if they have any old family Bibles, and if so, ask to see them and make copies, if they will allow you to do so, of birth, marriage, and death certificates. If you know where their church is, you may be able to get some information from there. Once you have all the info you can get from them, go to your public libraries. Online, you can find both Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest.com. These are free to you to use while you are at the library, or if you have a library card, you can us HeritageQuest.com at home. You can find U.S. census records through 1930 at Ancestry.com. After 1940 is not available to the public as yet.

It is important to be aware that you will find endless websites across the Internet that will say they can obtain public records on anyone. Some of these sites may charge you a ridiculous amount for the information and it may or may not even be correct. It is advisable to use a safe and reliable service coming from a well known and
respected company. Some Internet services are free and some have prices attached to the info. If you take your time and are willing to search, you will be able to piece together a family tree.