How To Find Your Ancestors In Your Family Tree

Presenter: FamilySearch

In most modern cultures, records are created for important life events such as birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial. Information from many of these records has been indexed and put online. This lesson shows how to find ancestors using these records. Also in this lesson is how to use Descendancy Research to find ancestors.

How do I add someone to Family Tree? 
Find a place on your line where someone might be missing, as in these examples:
• A person with no parents
• A person with no spouse
• A couple with no children 

Usually you’ll want to find the person’s full name, birth year, and birthplace before adding the person to Family Tree. This information helps you tell if the person might already be in Family Tree.

CENSUS RECORDS:
Many countries also take regular censuses. In a census, government workers count the residents of the country and record information about them, such as their names, ages, birthplaces, and occupations.
In our example, notice that the census gives the names of Samuel’s parents and siblings. As you can see, historical records often provide clues to find even more ancestors.

SEARCH:
When you click Search, you’ll see a list of possible matches. The closest matches will generally appear near the top. To see more detail on any of the matches, click the person’s name.
Tip: When a camera icon appears, click it to view a digital image of the record.

If this record is for your ancestor, click Attach to Family Tree.

When you attach a record:
You’ll then see the information from the record on the left, and information from Family Tree on the right.

What's in a name: helpful hints for finding someone

A mother's maiden name is useful for pulling up birth/death records of her children plus her own marriage record and census records before her marriage.

A wife's married name is useful when trying to locate her death and burial information.

Mother’s Day lesson

follow-up:  how did the story writing go?  (On the way home, I found a writing prompt in the children’s friend - best birthday)

Today we are going to focus outside of our own life stories and move to, most appropriately, mothers!

Life doesn’t come with a manual

It comes with a Mother

This Mother’s Day

Preserve and share the memories

Of the women who have loved you

Of the women who have mothered you

All of us have qualities we admire about our mothers.  Think of the things they’ve taught you.   A parent doesn't have to be perfect to make a perfectly great story.

In our family we have a story that has become legendary.  It’s called the gambling lesson:

My mom and dad were taking my 4 youngest brothers to California to visit her parents when they stopped at Circus, Circus to get a bite to eat.  In those days you could get an all-you-can-eat buffet for a couple of dollars.  On their way to the restaurant they had to pass by some slot machines.  My mom thought this would be a great opportunity to teach her boys about the evils of gambling. So she said, “Kids, come with me.  I’m going to teach you a quick lesson on gambling and how you’ll lose your money and never get it back.”  She stopped by the slot machine in the hallway and pulled out a quarter. 

“This is why we don’t gamble,” she said as she dropped the coin into the machine and pulled the lever down.  The pictures spun round and round.  And then something happened that she hadn’t planned on.  She won! She must have hit a royal flush or something because a whole bunch of quarters come tumbling out of the machine, the siren blares and lights start flashing. (As my brother Alex recalls, her jackpot amounted to $10 or $12.…it could have been $20.  No one remembers how much she won.  Only that she won.) 

My brother Joel was quick to respond, “Show me again, mom!” 

As soon as security heard the clinking of coins, they rushed right over.  The staff reprimanded her for gambling in the presence of kids.  (Some people just don’t appreciate a good teaching moment!)  Sue took her winnings, bought breakfast buffets for everyone and still had money left over.

On the way out of the restaurant, she tried once again to demonstrate the evils of gambling.  This time she went to a nickel slot machine.  She looked around to make sure no guards were watching.  In goes the nickel.  And she hits the jackpot again!  (This time she only wins a couple dollars because they are nickels, after all) but she calls out, “Jay, come get the kids!” as she collects her winnings a second time. (She won enough money to buy drinks for everyone at the gas station.)

By now the lesson was firmly cemented in Joel’s mind, “Always go gambling with mom!”

It took my mom a third attempt to finally find a slot machine where she actually lost her money.  (And by then the kids were far down the hallway straining their eyes to see as security had re-emphasized that those who are underage couldn’t be anywhere near the gambling area.)  But it was too late.  The lesson had already backfired.  

When my family gets together, we love to reminisce about moments like this and just laugh and laugh and laugh.  But if it is to be preserved for future generations, it must be written down and shared.   That’s why I’ve uploaded it to family search.

Today we are going to practice attaching memories to our family tree.  

We are not always sitting at a computer, but we usually have our cell phone with us, so today I’m going to show you how to get the Memories app on your phone and how to use it.

1. go to the apps store
2. type in “lds memories”
3. “get” the FamilySearch-Memories app (green square with white tree) for free

write a story in memories

you can add a photo to your story (selected from gallery, your camera roll or take one now)

give your story a title

start typing

upload an audio recording

choose a topic - suggestions are given.  Just answer the question

or begin recording anything now (keep it under 5 minutes, 15 max)

You can record, and pause the recording.  It will keep track of how much time you’ve used.

give it a title.

save.

You will now find it under memories in the gallery.

You can attach it to a person’s record.

The Family History Guide

Check out all the new teaching and learning materials from Bob Taylor, the CEO of The Family History Guide.

Bob Taylor, CEO of The Family History Guide, L3C, has been actively doing family history for over 25 years. He has combined his passion for genealogy with his background in instructional design to produce a new learning resource for family history—The Family History Guide.
"I'm excited to be part of a breakthrough in how people learn and get involved with family history. Our vision is to raise the number of people involved in family history, worldwide, and help them be more successful."

Find Stories You can Upload to Memories

As you begin to make a family tree, remember that a family history is more than just a collection of names and dates. By adding the stories that you remember about your ancestors, you can bring your family history to life.  

Locate stories of interest in your personal collections, including letters, family books, and personal memories.

Suggestions for some stories ... think about how you can preserve similar stories from your own family:

The Love Story
The touching story of how her father won over her mother makes us want to record how our parents and grandparents fell in love.

The Holiday TraditionFamily traditions are often passed down for generations, even after the reason for those traditions have been forgotten. Decades from now, think how much your grandchildren will love hearing the little ways your family made holidays special.

The Family Adventure Story:
Most children don’t remember the most exciting moments of their young lives. Think about the time your parents or grandparents took you on a big adventure. Wouldn’t it be nice to save those stories in our family tree maker software so that your own children can learn about the adventures you had in your youth?

The Story Behind Treasured PossessionsAs we travel through life, we collect mementos rich with memories. Yet when someone passes away, the story behind those treasured possessions are often forgotten.
It inspired us to learn more about the everyday objects that matter to the people who matter to us.

5 Strategies to Inspire Relatives to Share Family Stories

To help you and your relatives start the discussion about meaningful family stories, we’ve asked five leading family history experts how they evoke stories of the past. Follow the five steps below to learn how to spark family history conversations with your loved ones.

1. Begin with Baby Steps

“Grandma, can we look at that old photo album together again? I’d just love to get one or two of your quick stories recorded.”

2. Create a Starting Point

Write down facts that you already know about their life. That way you can begin a family history conversation by asking about specific events such as births, marriages, deaths, house moves, or job changes.

3. Sharpen Your Focus

“A question like ‘Tell me about your childhood’ will often be answered with ‘There isn’t much to tell’ or ‘You don’t want to hear about that.’”

To help your relatives find interesting stories to share from their past, Amy recommends asking about specific events or activities. Use questions such as:

• “What was your favorite (or least favorite) chore when you were a child?”

4. Seek Different Perspectives

Next time you’re at a family event, start off a story with “Remember when…” and keep talking until someone chimes in. Make sure you take notes or record the stories.  Reminiscing about when you and your siblings secretly raced boxes down the stairs can inspire an older relative to reveal their own youthful shenanigans.

5. Recruit a Family History Team

Share stories and photos with relatives. Not only does this bring your family closer together, it also inspires others to contribute.   For example, publish old family photos on a blog and ask relatives to comment with their own memories.

Easy Steps to Use Photos to Research Your Family History

Old photos are an easy way to start researching your family history. They spark memories for your relatives, help you get to know the people behind the names in your family tree, and are an engaging way to learn more about your family history.

Perhaps you've wondered, “Who are they? What’s the story behind those photos that make them special to my family?”

Find old family photos that pique your curiosity

Select one compelling photo to share 

Although it’s tempting to share an entire album, Rachel recommends starting small. She’s found people share more in-depth stories when asked about a single photo. If you ask about too many photos at once, you risk overwhelming relatives or making it unclear where to start.To find a good photo to start researching your family history, look for one that piques your curiosity, or that you have heard talked about in the past. 

Ask relatives to contribute. 
Rachel finds that people are more likely to share their memories when directly asked. A simple “Hey, I just found this photo of grandma when she was newly married. Do you have any memories about her?” can inspire your family to share their stories. 

Other helpful APPS
StoryWorth (free 30 day trial)
“StoryWorth brings memories to life and facilitates the preservation of memories and personal histories through simple question prompts emailed directly to users each week. . . . In time, with minimal effort and using only technology that’s already familiar, users create their personal histories, one story at a time.
All storytellers are sent one question each week, and they can answer that question or choose a different question to answer. With 600 interesting and unexpected questions to choose from, ranging from light and frivolous (“Did you ever pull any pranks?”) to deep and introspective (“What has strengthened your faith?”), the storytellers found it simple to find questions that appealed to them. Storytellers can also add photos and audio clips to illustrate the story.

Twile
Twile turns your FamilySearch tree into a free and private visual timeline of everything that has ever happened in your family.  It is designed to make family history more engaging and accessible to the whole family, especially the younger generations.