Getting Started with Family History - Ancestry.com

MGetting Startedwith Family History© The Generations Network 2007

MDo you share hidden talents with long-forgotten ancestors? Do you descend from proudimmigrants who left behind their homes to give you a better life? Do you know which side yourfamily sided with during the Civil War? What other secrets are waiting to be discovered about thepeople that made you who you are today?Meet your ancestors. Discover your story.

Get startedin three easy stepsk1Begin with what you already know.It’s easy with your free family treeon Ancestry.com. Simply enter names,places and dates of birth (and in thecase of older generations, death) foryourself, parents and grandparents.Don’t worry if you don’t have all thefacts. This is the beginning of thetreasure hunt.2Ask your family for more.Family history can be a wonderfulexcuse to pick up the phone or sharea meal with siblings, grandparentsand other loved ones. Ask yourrelatives for stories, photos and knowledgeabout your shared heritage.3Let us fill in the blanks for you.Ancestry.com will use every fact youenter into your tree to help you findhistorical records, photos and memberfamily trees for missing details aboutyour ancestors. The more you addto your tree, the more we can helpyou grow it.What next?Add context to your family story.Attach favorite photos, stories and documents to people in your tree. Create timelinesfor their lives. Use the Ancestry Storytelling Service to record interviews with relativesby phone. You can even record video if you have a webcam.Put on your detective cap.Ancestry Hints can get you off to a great start. Once you’ve followed those clues,you can look for more on your own by searching historical maps, postcards and recordcollections you believe may be relevant. You can also expand your search criteria to largerdate ranges, alternate spellings or other types of information.Create a family history book.Share the rich heritage you’ve discovered with your family by easily creating a hardboundfamily history book, calendar or poster from your tree.6 | Getting Started with Family History| 7

kTap into the researchdone by others andwatch your treeextend further backin time than youthought possible.Ancestry Storytelling Service (free)The free Ancestry Storytelling Service allows you to recordaudio stories quickly and easily from a regular phone line orcomputer microphone. These stories are saved immediatelyto your tree and are a great way to capture and preservefamily memories for generations to come. You can also usea webcam to record video stories.Toolsfor thefamilyhistorianAncestry Family Trees (free)Your Ancestry Family Trees are your foundation for organizing,preserving and sharing what you know about yourfamily’s history — from names and dates to photos andstories. It also gives you an easy way to invite your familyto help fill in the gaps.Ancestry Hints (free)Based on the information you put in your tree, AncestryHints will point you to records related to your family,making it easy to learn more.AncestryPress (free)A free service of Ancestry.com, AncestryPress allowsyou to publish all the information in your tree in familyhistory books, calendars, posters and more. For a smallfee, you may have your book professionally printed at theclick of a button.Ancestry Learning Center (free)This massive library contains original articles, videosand tips on almost every family history topic under the sun.You’ll discover helpful information about specific recordcollections. You can also learn fascinating facts simplyby entering your last name.Ancestry Community (free)Want to know more? The free Ancestry Community ishome to millions of members with whom you can shareinformation, ask for advice and compare notes. TheAncestry message boards include more than 18 millionmessages you can review.Historical Records and Family Trees ($)Find more than 24,000 record collections and 5 billionnames on Ancestry.com, the world’s largest onlinecollection of family history records. Learn about yourfamily in census records, draft cards, immigrationdocuments and more. Tap into the research done byothers in millions of member trees and watch your treeextend further back in time than you thought possible.Family Tree Maker® 2008 ($)This #1 best-selling family history software for 18 yearsrunning integrates with Ancestry.com records, AncestryHints and AncestryPress. And it provides additionalfeatures such as interactive maps, a web clipper andvideo tutorial.8 | Getting Started with Family History | 9

kWhat canyou learnin historicalrecords?Birth, Marriage and Death RecordsClarify information on your ancestors, such as birth dates and death dates, to helpyou grow your family tree. Ancestry.com features the most complete collection of birth,marriage and death indexes online. You can also order originals directly throughAncestry.com.Newspapers and PeriodicalsRead history as it was happening and see your ancestors in an entirely new light. Exploremore than seven million pages in the web’s largest collection of historical newspapersdating back to the 1700s. You could find your family in wedding and birth announcements,obituaries, legal notices, classifieds and more.African American RecordsDiscover the inspiring stories of people who helped build America under the mostchallenging conditions. Search the world’s largest online collection of African Americanfamily history records, which includes Slave Narratives, Freedman’s Bureau and Freedman’sBank Records, U.S. Colored Troops Records and many others.U.S. Census RecordsThe backbone of American family history research, the U.S. Federal Census has beenconducted every 10 years since 1790. Every available original document through 1930 isnow available on Ancestry.com. There’s no better to way to get an informational snapshotof your family at a given place and time in history. Learn if your ancestors owned homesor were born in other countries. Gather details about their ages, years and places of birth,ethnic backgrounds, marriages, children and occupations — even the value of theirpersonal estates.U.S. Immigration RecordsDiscover your ancestral homeland and recreate your family’s journeys across oceans.Ancestry.com has the world’s largest online collection of immigration records, includingthe most comprehensive compilation of available passenger lists from 1820 to 1960. Learnyour immigrant ancestors’ birthplaces, their ports and dates of departure and arrival, andthe names and types of ships on which they traveled. You may even find photos of theactual ships.U.S. Military RecordsFind your family’s military heroes in records from the Revolutionary War through theVietnam War. Search the world’s largest online collection of U.S. Military Records, featuringmore than 90 million names, to find enlistment dates, learn about famous battlesand locate gravesites of war veterans. You can also discover personal details including anancestor’s address, date and place of birth, race, marital status, occupation, a physicaldescription and even an actual signature.Family and Local HistoriesMany ancestors created their own published books of family and local history. Today,more than 20,000 of these books can be found on Ancestry.com, providingextraordinary details about a family or the places where an ancestor may have lived.Court, Land and Probate RecordsThe collection of court, land and probate records on Ancestry.com captures a fascinatingslice of early America in court cases, personal wills and more.DirectoriesBefore there were phone books, there were directories — books created by cities andorganizations to list people’s names, addresses and affiliations. Today you can searchmillions of names in directories instantly on Ancestry.com to find out where yourancestors lived and what they did with their time.International RecordsThe Ancestry family is constantly expanding. Our websites in Canada, the United Kingdom,Australia, Germany and most recently France, Italy and Sweden can help youreach out to people and records relevant to your family’s story on a global scale.Other Useful RecordsAncestry.com is home to historical maps of America, photographs dating from themid-1800s, more than 250,000 U.S. Library of Congress images and millions of membercontributedphotos and audio stories.10 | Getting Started with Family History | 11

How much doesfamily history cost?For all the joy family history gives you, it doesn’t haveto cost a penny. Creating a family tree on Ancestry.comis completely free — no matter how big it gets, howmany people you invite or how many photos youupload. In addition, you help protect your preciousinformation from vulnerability to a basement floodor computer crash at home. The Ancestry StorytellingService is also free, as are hundreds of historicalcollections.You may have beenwondering…We do charge members to access our premium recordcollections. This helps us fund the ongoing acquisitionof valuable new content on Ancestry.com. In fact,we add millions of irreplaceable historical recordsto the site each week. And memberships start as lowas $12.95 per month.If you want to work on your family history on yourhome computer too, Family Tree Maker 2008 softwareis available in several editions with a suggestedretail price of only $29.99 for the Essentials edition.You also have the option to write directly to localcourthouses and other repositories. County recordsdivisions typically charge a fee of $15 to $25 to sendyou an original document and often take between4 and 8 weeks to process your request. In most casesyou’ll also need all of the exact info (dates, names,places) to receive the correct record. Other optionsinclude using basic search engines, hiring professionalgenealogists and combing through niche websites thatmight reference your ancestors.12 | Getting Started with Family History | 13

How long does it take?Your answer, of course, depends on what you already know, what you wantto know and other particulars about your family. That said, here are somehelpful guidelines:5-10 minute activitiesBegin your family tree.Invite family to contribute.Upload a few photos.Follow an Ancestry Hint to a record.Ask a relative a question using the Ancestry Storytelling Service.1-2 hour activities• Complete a three-generation family tree.• Create an Ancestry Press book using your online family tree.• Find additional historical records through advanced search.• Print and frame a set of family photos and records.• Create a meaningful gift for a holiday, reunion, birthday or event.Weekend activities• Complete a four-generation family tree.• Scan and upload an entire photo album.• Thoroughly interview and record relatives’ stories.• Create a full memorial for a loved one.1-3 month activities• Create a family history scrapbook.• Scan and upload all your family photos, documents, letters, passports,military medals and other heirlooms to preserve them. Have yourrelatives do the same.• Delve deeply into historic maps and newspaper articles, biographies,histories and novels about a particular time, person, event or placeimportant to your family’s history.Longer-term activities• Work towards the elusive 10-generation family tree.• Break through dead ends by searching for obscure records, huntingfor clues and watching as millions of new records are added eachweek on Ancestry.com.• Make family history an ongoing part of your life, discovering thepast and preserving the present for the future.14 | Getting Started with Family History| 15

Suggested interview questions:• ChildhoodWhat did you love most about your mother? What did you and yoursiblings do in your spare time? Were you obedient or mischievous?What styles of clothing did you wear? Tell me a story that helps meunderstand what kind of person your uncle was. When did you leavehome? How did your life change? Did you feel grow up? Scared?• FamilyWhat did your parents do for a living? Was your family financiallycomfortable? What was your first job? How old were you at the time?Did your family have special traditions for holidays or birthdays? Werethere any heirlooms handed down? Did you go to any sort of church?What physical characteristics do people in your family share?More Tips andToolsInterviewing Relatives• Growing upWhere did you grow up? Was it a big city or a small town? Were thereany specific activities or festivals? Which places do you remembermost fondly? Tell me about elementary school, middle school and highschool. What was your wedding day like?• HistoryWhich significant historical events happened in your lifetime? Wars?Natural disasters? Political changes? How did these affect you?• Previous generationsDid you know your grandparents or great-grandparents? What weretheir names? Where did they live? What stories can you tell abouttheir lives? Who were the earliest immigrants in your family to arrivein this country? Where did they come from? When did they arrive?How long did the trip take?What was life like for your relatives when they were younger? You will get fascinating answersif you ask open-ended questions about who, where and when.The Ancestry Storytelling Service allows you to record stories andinterviews with your regular phone line — for free. It’s as easy astyping in your phone number and a relative’s phone number, andwaiting for the phone to ring. When you hang up, the conversationis saved immediately to your tree. It’s a great way to capture andpreserve family memories for generations to come.16 | Getting Started with Family History | 17

Ancestry.com/learnVisit the Ancestry.com LearningCenter to read how-to articles,watch video tips, learn tricks andsign up for newsletters aboutfamily history.Rootsweb.comThe oldest and largest freegenealogy community on theweb, RootsWeb.com offers anDNA.Ancestry.comexpansive environment forlearning, collaborating andsharing with others.Find out what you could learnabout your genealogy froma simple cotton swab test withAncestry DNA.AncestryMagazine.comRead the online articles or signup for the print editionof Ancestry Magazine,published six times a year.TheAncestryStore.comBrowse thousands of familyhistoryrelated products, fromgetting-started books andvideos to prize-winninghistory books, historical mapsand photos.More HelpfulOnline ResourcesWikipedia.orgMake the most of this free,web-based encyclopediawith user-created articles onmillions of subjects.FamilyTreeMaker.comLearn about the #1 sellingdesktop software forfamily history. View screenshots,watch training videos, placeorders and more.International Ancestry sitesView country-specific sitesfor Canada (Ancestry.ca),the UK (Ancestry.co.uk),Australia (Ancestry.com.au),Germany (Ancestry.de),Genealogy.comItaly (Ancestry.it),This trusted resource isFrance (Ancestry.fr)home to millions of historicaland Sweden (Ancestry.se). records, family trees and morethat can help people learn abouttheir family history.MyFamily.comNo matter where your loved onesmay be, MyFamily.com makesit easy to stay in touch. Easilycreate a family web site and useit to share photos, news andmuch more.EllisIslandExperience.comLearn about the brave men andwomen in your family’s historywho made the journey of alifetime to America.In most cases you won’t find actualhistoric family history recordsthrough a search engine likeGoogle or Yahoo!, but you may findmiscellaneous references. A distantrelative may have created a familyhistory website. Or a more notoriousancestor may be mentioned inlaw briefs, transcribed obituaries oroccupational articles.Search tip: Use quotes arounda name (i.e. “William Smith”)to narrow down results. You can alsoinclude a birth date or death date(i.e. “William Smith” 1930). Searchengines aren’t built to automaticallysearch alternate names likeAncestry.com is, so make sureto manually try “W. Smith,”“Will Smith,” “Wm Smith” and“Bill Smith” as well.18 | Getting Started with Family History | 19

What will you uncoverin the chaptersof your family story?apolice captain. A world champion prizefighter. A Massachusetts unionorganizer. A soldier who gave his life for his country on the beaches of Normandy.A scientist who worked side-by-side with Thomas Edison in his lab in New Jersey.These are just a few of the people in my family history who’ve taken on mythicalproportions to me.I now know that my mother’s ancestors came to the New World from Germany, theNetherlands and other parts of Northern Europe. They settled in upstate New York,where I was born and raised. My father’s grandparents emigrated from Ireland andsettled in Lowell, Massachusetts in the house where my father was born. Each ofthese people were fascinating in their own right. Their stories have become an importantpart of my life — and I’m already enjoying sharing what I’ve learned aboutthem with my own children.Ancestry.com has helped me find Ellis Island immigration records, military draftcards, gravesite photos, census records, historical newspaper articles and evenliving relatives I didn’t know I had. It’s also given me a chance to hear hundredsof awe-inspiring stories of discovery and connection from other members. I hopeyours will be next.Sincerely,Tim SullivanCEO, The Generations Network22 | Getting Started with Family History| 23