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Trace my family tree


 

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How to trace my family tree by lovemylife99

"eye-opening. race is an illusion. ethnicity and culture truly define us."

How I did it: ancestry.com (paid membership), lots of old family records, some road trips to my ancestor's town libraries and cemeteries, and lots and lots of patience. 

it was an odd experience for me personally.  i started off thinking i was African-American.  but in the end i discovered i was over 60% white as a result of lots of plantation rapes.

Really dismantled my personal image.  But I guess self-discovery is part of the goal???  I don't know. Some things are better left unknown.  Especially if they stir up lots of difficult emotions.

Lessons & tips:

  • rely the most on primary research (look at original census records, not just the summaries that many companies provide.  they are quite often VERY wrong)
  • librarians are your friend!! they are there to help. use them! 
  • be cautious on message boards. do not sacrifice your personal safety in the hopes of getting more info on your past.  identity burglars regularly patrol genealogy boards for overly eager victims.  dont give out too much info to strangers!!
  • be prepared to discover things about your family you may not have wanted to know (criminals, rapes, incest, abandonment and etc often pop up when people are researching. be prepared to deal with this)
  • your relatives are all liars. they may not even know it, but every family stretches the truth about their origins in a natural attempt to make themselves more interesting.   
  • there is truth in every lie... but the truth is most often the simplest version possible.  remember that! 
  • If you are an American, be prepared to be surprised about your racial origins.  If you think it would bother you to find out that you aren't the race you thought you were, then don't bother.  Slavery did some funny things to our ancestors and "passing" did even more.  It can be a wild ride.
  • you are the same person at the end of this road as you were at the beginning.  knowing your past won't complete you.  it will just satisfy your curiosity.  you are not your ancestors. you are you!!!  

Resources: ancestry.com

family cemeteries
family bibles
local libraries with genealogy departments


15 people found this helpful
 

Sep 26, 05:00AM PDT | 3 comments | 12 cheers



More "How I Did It" stories

philip_jones is writing an outline for a screenplay

It took me
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It made me
feel rewarded

How I did it: I created an account  on Geni.com and invited my family members.We all added what we knew. It's not complete, but it's a pretty good background of our family.Next steps we will start doing some more research and fill in the ancestors that no one knew. This is going to be even more rewarding. Read how I did it…

Apr 23, 08:33AM PDT | 0 comments


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How I did it: When my grandmother passed away, direct families as well as distant ones, attended the funeral. That's when my dad introduced me to our relatives and I took note of their names, etc. I started asking more, too. Meanwhile, my brother had already opened an account in a family tree website (which was very helpful!), so we let our relatives know about this and posted up everyone's details!From there, the branches grew and even though you can … Read how I did it…

Mar 28, 03:38PM PDT | 1 comment | 1 cheer


MartinCura

It took me
1 month
It made me
think; know more

How I did it: You could say... I am curious. I breeded the idea and wanted to know more about my family, not the closest, but the big family. You may say I haven't completed it FULLY, but I've done pretty much, that has set ways for all my family to communicate, which I think was my main aim.I started by asking my father, mother, uncle, grandfather and grandmothers, all who I could came close to in my vacations (where most of us go to the same place) a… Read how I did it…

Feb 16, 07:47PM PST | 6 comments | 3 cheers


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It took me
45 days
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How I did it: rtDHJDGFJHDXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXDGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGFDHGJHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Read how I did it…

Dec 18, 01:53PM PST | 1 comment


Brian Leach is bored

It took me
10 years
It made me
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How I did it: Help from relatives, Internet research.    I gathered together all the notes my relatives had.  I'm still gathering them.  Building the family tree is an ongoing process.  I'm constantly adding new resources.  Today I have over 6000 people in my family tree. Read how I did it…

Nov 11, 09:38PM PST | 0 comments | 2 cheers


→ See all 7 "How I did it" stories

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    So I've found something interesting.... 2 days ago

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    giving up 1 month ago

    It feels like I should give up on this one. Quite time consuming if I haven’t got any further by end of August I’m done and Ill chase this goal another day.

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