Locating your family ancestry can be a very difficult and never-ending task. With patience and due diligence, this can be accomplished. You can start by writing down information on your immediate family, including notes of family members' birth dates, marriage dates, military service, and death records, just to name a few. It is also helpful to collect old family photographs, newspaper clippings, and perhaps even old letters. Speaking with family members (grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, or cousins) can be a world of information. Gathering this information should be done as if you were conducting an interview. It will be much more productive if you ask specific questions such as:

Were you named for someone specifically?
Where did you go to school?
Where was your first home?
Were you in the military?
Did your grandparents tell you any interesting stories about their lives?

You can also begin searching online with death records, using cemetery transcripts as a source of information. Obituaries can also provide additional information on more relatives, and could include birth date, birthplace, and place of burial. With the information you have learned about your family and relatives, you can now utilize online services for more detailed genealogy information, which may include military service, colleges or universities attended, and local churches. Be cautious, as many online databases may or may not be correct.

Remember, when searching by surname, spelling and using full names is very important. When working online, all search engines are different. Use as many identifiers as possible: first name, middle names, or titles such as Jr., II., III., and so on. These identifiers will help restrict your search and drastically reduce the number of results which may be unrelated to your name.

You may feel like you are doing detective work, which indeed you are, and that is half the fun of it. Gathering this information, and searching all avenues of your ancestors' past and paths, will be fascinating. Genealogy can provide your children and grandchildren with a valuable history of your ancestors, which can be passed down for generations and be a memorable legacy for your family.

What’s in a name? For those wanting to trace their genealogy, knowing the answer to this question would be helpful.

The use of surnames started around 1000 A.D. by the Romans and even then were used only by nobility. The gentry in Europe and other parts of the world started using them around the 12th or 13th century. Before then, it wasn’t necessary. But when population grew to the point where it was hard to distinguish one John from another, the use of surnames became popular. However, it wasn’t until the 14th century that surnames were inherited.

Surnames are generally derived from four different categories: patronymic, or names from the father; places of origin; occupation; or nicknames. Probably the most common of these is the patronymic source. For instance, John son of Donald would be called John Donaldson in places like Sweden or England, but in Ireland, he would be called John MacDonald. “Mac” means “son of” in Ireland.

Places of origin could also influence the choosing of a surname. Oftentimes the origin of the place of the ancestors could be traced with the clue of the surname, but other times, as in Churchill, one could wonder which church on what hill?

Last names were also derived from the occupation of the ancestor. Cooper, Miller, Baker, or Wright are examples of names derived from such vocations.

The last category and probably the least influential in choosing a surname is the nickname category. Names were chosen based on physical attributes or personality traits. If someone liked birds, his surname could be Birdman. If someone was happy all the time, his name might be Jolly.

When researching your genealogy, researching your surname and its origin may be a great place to start.

There may be a host of reasons why you want to trace your family history or there may be no reason at all. One thing is for sure: once you begin, you will find that you have a definite connection with the past. Knowing where and how your ancestors lived helps you make that connection. You begin to see yourself as part of a unique history and story, and that in itself can be exciting.

Knowing your family history can be extremely helpful, especially in the area of health. What kind of diseases run in your family? What are the causes of death of your ancestors? What are the positive aspects of health that are present? Being able to answer these questions can give you a degree of knowledge that you would otherwise not have. With this knowledge, you may be able to change some of the negative traits and strengthen the positive ones. Likewise, knowing the difficult issues your ancestors had do deal with and how they solved their problems can lend insight into how and why you deal with conflicts the way you do.

Researching your family history can also lead to some fun activities for your family, like a family scrapbook or a family cookbook. A family scrapbook can document activities with pictures, news stories, and important family events in the present so that future generations will have a treasure of information about themselves without having to do extensive research. A family cookbook can provide much "good eating" as well as pictures of family members at gatherings enjoying the food. The book then becomes more about family and less about meals.

Finally, researching your family history can be a very satisfying endeavor. It can give you a the thrill of accomplishing something important and you may even find some surprises along the way.

Only in this century has genealogy become an important part of society. In the past it was common for families to stay close together in small communities. Families now tend to expand over much larger areas, making genealogy more difficult to track. Genealogy is the study of family bloodlines. These bloodlines are most often traced by surnames, or last name. Surnames were originally used to differentiate two individuals with the same name who occupied the same area, using a trade, nickname, or possibly a father or grandfather to make the distinction.

Several factors contribute to the importance of genealogy, not the least of which is genetic diseases. Knowing family medical history can make prevention and early detection of these diseases possible. Another good reason to explore family genealogy is the connection it creates, past to present. Understanding the path of those who came before can create a sort of pride and satisfaction, also improving self-esteem.

There are several different methods for genealogical research: close relatives, the internet, libraries, and local archives. Try asking family members to tell stories about themselves, or any other family members they can recall, to create an outline. Once that is complete, try using one of the several genealogical search engines on the internet. Be sure to use variations in surname spelling. Use quotation marks around the name, "first last" and "last, first". Also use family region or state to narrow searches. Be sure not to completely discount general search engines. Use the same techniques as above. Several more sites will be indexed, so don't give up.

Every day the importance of genealogy is proven, when cancer is detected and treated early, or when a fifth grader connects to his past through a school project. Genealogy is a science, and it can be difficult to track, especially as families scatter farther across the globe. A great deal of time and effort are required to create the record of how a family’s yesterday shaped their today.

America is a country built on the concept of expansion. In order to expand you must spread out and stake claims to new territories and areas that were previously uninhabited. Expanding the country, the population and your own family were the trends of the early American settlers.

This can make it very difficult to trace your family’s roots much further back than a few hundred years. Expanding the country westward towards opportunity and riches was a way of life. Here are some resources you can check into in order to make tracing these migratory early Americans a little easier.

1. You may want to make your first research stop the U.S. Census. The census began in 1850 and included the names of all family members (not just heads of household) and the original state of birth. In 1880 the census began to incorporate names and places of birth for the parents, which gives further clues for research.

2. Birth Certificates are not easy to track down, especially if a family member was born before the implement of these forms. A few good substitutes could be cemeteries, churches, hospitals, court houses and military records. Don't lose faith just because you can find birth records.

3. Land records could prove one of your most valuable research tools. Land records were kept to identify property owners and acreage amounts held by these owners as the country expanded. The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office of patents is a great starting point.

Also, you may want to check out your local historical society and see what roads existed and were commonly used when your family moved to your hometown. This could lead you on a backwards trail to where they moved from, which will supply you with plenty more information.

Take time to talk to all your family members; grandparents and great aunts and uncles are a wonderful source of information. Ask for the names of grandparents as far back as they can remember. Make sure you write it all down. If you are left with some gaps, try to find out what church your grandparents and great-grandparents were married. Call and find out if they have kept records back that far. Marriage certificates will often have the name of the bride and groom's parents. Note any other names, witnesses, usually close friends of the couple, who could be another source of information.

Looking at the gravestones of your ancestors at the cemetery can also be useful in finding clues to your families background. Local groups in your area or the area your family is originally from that does genealogy can be helpful if you have trouble getting started or get stumped. They may even have records of your family. If travel is not possible or practical or you don't have any local genealogical societies you can also use the internet as a resource.

One good internet site to help you in your search are www.familysearch.org Using the search option input all the information you have. Another one is www.ancestry.com, it is a free service but if you sign up you can look up much more information including marriage/death/birth certificates, as well as military and census records. Some states such as Iowa and Main have their own genealogy search engines.

Before Alex Haley's "Roots" made genealogy popular, searching for your roots was a concern only with the ancestry of rulers and their subsequent claims to property and wealth. In modern times, searching our roots gives us a glimpse into the lifestyles, biographies and motivations of past generations. For many, genealogy research has become a fun pastime.

Genealogy research can be very time-consuming. For example, in 1996 Cyndi Howell set up a personal family homepage which included a list of relevant genealogical web-sites. Before long, her efforts quadrupled to create a vast categorized and cross-referenced index for the Internet. On her website, there are many options for gathering data on a "surname", a family's last name. Biographies, cemetery lists, worldwide census, family bibles, social security numbers, and passenger lists of immigration ships are a few of the primary source examples. Another option is to research a surname under topics such as: ethnic groups and people, localities, marketplace, memorabilia, occupations, and the military.

Read a book on genealogy! As you research your family surname and tree, begin with yourself working backward in time and adding branches for each generation. To focus your search, ask questions of your living relatives first. Questions about parents' and grandparents' names, birthplaces, residences and death certificates are appropriate. Staying organized is possible by keeping a research log with notes and dates of those relatives who were interviewed. Additional ways to do research are to use a local library, any available biographies of ancestors, or surname databases. If you wish to find a family member via the Internet, most likely, you will pay a fee for these people search services. For experts and amateurs, the web is only one source in the exciting search for family roots.