Finding Your Family Ancestry
Who is in your family tree? I've been wondering about who is in mine ever since I was a young girl.
In the Author's Note at the end of "The Road to Deer Run," I tell my readers, "When I first heard that one of my grandfathers had been a British soldier during the Revolutionary War, I was somewhat embarrassed. Growing up in Massachusetts had made me proud of our country's heritage. But instead of finding zealous patriots in my bloodline, my DNA was from an enemy solider!"
When you go looking for relatives, be ready for anything. You may get a saint or you may get a sinner. Probably both.
Starting Points
You have several significant allies in your search for information:
Family members. Interview aging family members. They have old documents, photos, and tales to tell.
The Internet. Ancestry.com is a good place to start. For a small fee, you gain access to a history-rich database that may include vital information on your family. There are many other sites with great information.
Old books. We shouted and danced for joy at my house the day a copy of "A History of Williamsburg in Massachusetts" arrived in the mail from a used-book store on the East Coast. I had only recently learned of the existence of this local history published in 1946 when I saw it referenced on a Web site. There, to my amazement, I had seen an answer that referenced the book and the Prince family on a chat board. There's more about this critical personal discovery on Ancestry Page 2.
Government records. It turns out that the English government keeps a lot of records. There are records noting every solider who has served in the British military since about 1650. Soon, I'll add a page detailing how Daniel Prince was found among the mass of records in the British National Military Archive. Your own ancestor may be noted in the records of the United States, England, Japan, or who knows?
Libraries. Local libraries are a vault of information on local history, people, buildings, and the life of the community.
Old maps. You may find these at libraries, universities, city Halls of Records, and such. They can help you locate old home properties, burial sites, and other information.
Museums. Turns out that my ancestor worked at the Springfield Armory in the early 1800s. The armory is now a national museum and on a trip there, we could see one of the very machines that he probably worked at. You may not have a link like that, but museums can teach much about clothes of a time period, development of commercial enterprise, historical events, and many, many helpful things.
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