Tips on Tracing Your Family Tree

Taking the time to do the detective work and trace your family tree has the chance to give you a brand-new perspective on life, an ideal pursuit for the curious, the introspective, and those of you who are interested in the origins of your heritage.

It can be an immensely rewarding endeavor to look back at your very own slice of history, perhaps allowing yourself the opportunity to reach out to distant relatives all over the world, making new connections in the process.

Here are a few handy tips you may wish to consider in order to start searching in the right direction:

Modern Advancements in DNA Analysis

As modern scientific discovery continues to reveal the unknown world, the technology available for application by the public greatly increases in quality. The same can be said for DNA sampling and analysis, as methods for investigation become substantially more accurate as time moves forward.

Home DNA tests such as 23andme are a popular product that can offer you results and compile them in a straightforward, easy-to-understand format through an app on your phone. This can be a fantastic place to start your journey of discovery, as the results often stretch far and wide.

Birth Certificates

To further extrapolate information from your results, looking for birth certificates can help you fill out some extra information should you want to piece together a clearer view of your relative’s journey through life.

Death records and marriage certificates are also a good place to search; bearing in mind which state they may have been recorded in can be a crucial first step. If you do not know which state to look for, you could always search the national consensus for a specific year, search for tax listings or military records.

Medical Records

Getting hold of your own medical records may help you to determine subjects such as dates and your demographic. This is now made much easier with the fantastic team at Records Retrieval Solutions, who can offer you support and guidance through the entire process.

Reach Out

If you happen to know of any distant cousins that might be able to offer you some more information, it might be worth your time to consider reaching out in any way you can, because no matter how seemingly insignificant the information might appear to be, it all counts significantly in your investigation.

This might also include reaching out to your own elders, as they may have a valuable story or two that can shed some light on the situation. Perhaps they will be able to supply you with some useful information about events based on location, such as churches and hospitals you can later turn to in your research.

Use the Valuable Online Resources

There is a multitude of various online ancestor databases available to help you, which many people have contributed to over the years. This can make finding avenues that relate to you easier than ever before. With all of your newly gathered information, you can start to form a clear picture of your family tree.