Digital technology's ever onward march has helped to drive an upsurge in interest in genealogy among the general public. Avenues of research are now open to the amateur researcher, largely thanks to the internet. Even if you only have a relatively ordinary sounding name like Pat Lawrence as an example of one of your ancestors, you can still use technology to discover a surprising amount.
The name of a specific ancestor is always the best place to begin a search through your heritage. The further back through the generations that you can star with, the better. Once you have established a name like Pat Lawrence as a starting point, then the next thing to do is to find some dating evidence, such as birth or death date.
These two dates make beginning a search back through the documentary evidence, which can often be scant, a much more straightforward process. A definite date is also a great boost to your confidence and morale, which can become important when searching for elusive ancestors. Not many individuals in history have shared an exact match in terms of birth date and name.
The location of of birth or death is another important step on the road to tracing your ancestry. This can often span oceans and countries, even continents, if ancestors emigrated. Sometimes you might well be unsure as to which country your ancestor was born in, so try and delve into the memories of elderly relatives or dust off your own memories of family anecdotes; the clue you need might well be hiding in plain sight.
Surnames and some first names can also give a good indication of which country an ancestor may have been born in. Taking the surname Lawrence as an example, we might well reasonably surmise an English origin. Names can have changed though, especially when emigration has occurred, while English is also spoken in a great many other countries. The best thing is to use this as sign post along the way and keep an open mind.
Knowing an ancestor's specific religion can also be very useful in determining your heritage. Church records are a treasure trove of basic biographical detail fro any genealogist. If you genuinely do not know or cannot discover their religion, remember that certain ethnic groups are often strongly associated with certain religions.
From marriage records and death records it is often possible to take step further back in time. As you go further, digging out more specific detail becomes more important, yet much harder. Knowing the kind of job that your ancestor did is useful, and military service can provide even more useful details.
So even with a relatively mundane sounding name like Pat Lawrence as a point of reference, it is possible to dig out more detail than you might suspect when searching out your ancestry. Always keep in mind that significant events like births and deaths are when otherwise obscure people suddenly appear in the historical record. Knowing those dates will always help you to dig out more details along the way.
The name of a specific ancestor is always the best place to begin a search through your heritage. The further back through the generations that you can star with, the better. Once you have established a name like Pat Lawrence as a starting point, then the next thing to do is to find some dating evidence, such as birth or death date.
These two dates make beginning a search back through the documentary evidence, which can often be scant, a much more straightforward process. A definite date is also a great boost to your confidence and morale, which can become important when searching for elusive ancestors. Not many individuals in history have shared an exact match in terms of birth date and name.
The location of of birth or death is another important step on the road to tracing your ancestry. This can often span oceans and countries, even continents, if ancestors emigrated. Sometimes you might well be unsure as to which country your ancestor was born in, so try and delve into the memories of elderly relatives or dust off your own memories of family anecdotes; the clue you need might well be hiding in plain sight.
Surnames and some first names can also give a good indication of which country an ancestor may have been born in. Taking the surname Lawrence as an example, we might well reasonably surmise an English origin. Names can have changed though, especially when emigration has occurred, while English is also spoken in a great many other countries. The best thing is to use this as sign post along the way and keep an open mind.
Knowing an ancestor's specific religion can also be very useful in determining your heritage. Church records are a treasure trove of basic biographical detail fro any genealogist. If you genuinely do not know or cannot discover their religion, remember that certain ethnic groups are often strongly associated with certain religions.
From marriage records and death records it is often possible to take step further back in time. As you go further, digging out more specific detail becomes more important, yet much harder. Knowing the kind of job that your ancestor did is useful, and military service can provide even more useful details.
So even with a relatively mundane sounding name like Pat Lawrence as a point of reference, it is possible to dig out more detail than you might suspect when searching out your ancestry. Always keep in mind that significant events like births and deaths are when otherwise obscure people suddenly appear in the historical record. Knowing those dates will always help you to dig out more details along the way.
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