How easy is it to track your genealogy?

How easy is it? To do a sloppy inaccurate job? Pretty easy. THere are thousands of unsourced, inaccurate trees on sites such as Ancestry.com, One World Tree, or Geni. You can copy one of those, pretend it is your family tree and there you have it.

As Ted told you, to do an accurate job take some time and dedication. The nice thing about genealogy is that it doesn't require a deadline. You can work on it when you have a few minutes or are in the mood, and it will be there when you come back to it.

If you don't talk to your relatives, you might try sending them a written questionnaire. You might be surprised and get back a few answers.

If you are not "that dedicated of a person", your only choice is to hire a professional.

Things are different for different folks; my grandparents were born in the 1860s and their grandparents from 1760s to 1790s.

Perhaps you should try your relatives; all my aunts/uncles and most cousins have been dead for quite sometime. My youngest 1st cousin, the last I heard of her, was 79, so if still alive, well into her 80s.

Depending upon where in the world you live, where in the world your most recent parents lived and when, you may be able to trace back 3 - 4 generations without too much effort. I would think that for most people it would be fairly easy to go back 5 generations, as some on here claim 5 generations...within my lifetime! So, how hard depends upon your situation: when/where your ancestors came from. Most of Africa, Asia, and anywhere south of the border usually do not have much in the way of records, just as if people don't exist.

But, try:

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc. Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

www dot usgenweb dot com/

www dot census dot gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

www dot ukgenweb dot com/

www dot archives dot gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

www dot geni dot com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

www dot associatedcontent dot com/article...

Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.

I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.

Not all that easy. Now if you go into Ancestry.Com, Rootsweb, Genealogy.Com etc you might find your family in a family tree and you can copy it and it very likely will be full of errors. Even when you see the same information on the same people from many different subscribers you can't trust it without verifying it with records. Too many people copy without verifying.

Oh otherwise Ancestry.Com is a great site for original source records and many public libraries have a subscription to it you can use for free. Also this site is free and has a lot of original source records

https://www.familysearch.org/

But you first need to do your ground work and get as much information from family as possible. Don't expect to find the living on genealogy websites as that can be an invasion of privacy and can lead to identity theft.

I'm not a dedicated person either but when you get into genealogy it's more like a game than a chore. It's a bit like a video game where with every level you pass (generation you find) it gets a little more difficult - but it's so exciting when you crack the code and solve the mystery!

to get info on a lot of things in life you have to ask questions. if you don't open up your mouth you're most likely not going to learn much. you may not have to be a genealogy geek or "dedicated" per say, but you still have to talk. talk to someone!(after all, if you don't have the facts about your family, some of your relatives do). makes sense?

I usually estimate 100 - 300 hours to get 75% of your lines back to 1850 or the immigrant ancestor, whichever comes first, if you are white and in the USA. (Only to 1870 if you are black, sadly.)

That's if you spring for a year's worth of Ancestry.com or Heritage Quest, or your library subscribes.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist, but you can't be a complete fool. If you can get (or got) a B in a high school history term paper, you can do genealogy. It requires some common sense. One person here asked how to prove he was related to Joan of Arc, for instance.

Find out where your grandpa died (or his dad), buy his death certificate, on it it will have his home town, his mother fathers name where they lived, then go to where it says his dad was from and so forth. You can use the mormons, next to the national archives they have the most info, many willing to help. I to wanted to know where every family name came from on my Mothers and Fathers sides. I wanted to know what was on there family crests. Some crests have mottos, it was interesting to learn because they shared the same name as me. Some people will do th ework for you but you have to pay them, they go by the hour, I did it thru a county seat. Also, the work may already be done for you, try and find, google your family name, so your name association, some names, have family associations, and have tons of info on your family name. Or Clans.

it won't be easy if you don't talk to your family. try to talk to the person in your family you feel most comfortable with that you think will know. how can you be interested and not dedicated? cmon man! get motivated! you'll be surprised at what you find out

Well, I would have to say I have been working on my family tree for maybe 6-7 months. I have dedicated a lot of time to it. I source every single document I find, this is on Ancestry.com. If you're going to use Ancestry.com, don't copy and paste another family tree with a common ancestor to yours. Because you can do that. But sometimes, as many of us on here have seen, it is wrong. Actually, a decent amount of the stuff is wrong if not all at times. The farthest, so far, I have been able to trace my ancestors, it was just an example of ample records and pure goodness, is back to about 1660. It's not hard getting your family out of the 1950's at all. Because you know that information. Getting them out of the 1900's, that's not really that hard at all because you can ask family. And believe me, you want to ask family if you make a family tree. If you don't you could miss some of the greatest aspects of your family. I had to force, my sister lol, to call an older woman in our family to ask her about possible Native American in us. She said something astounding that recently I had reached a point where I had no information on both of her parents ancestors. She said,"I don't know anything about Native American, but I do know that my father's grandfather came over from England!". And then just countless stories came out of the woman. She told me about how once he got here he changed his name from Kinton/Kenton to Kington. Now we have changed it to Kingston, but that's another story. I would have never found that out with records because I was looking for Kingston's, but really at that time they were Kington's! And then 50 or so years before that they were Kinton/Kenton's! So I would have never known what to look for or how to obtain it. You should ask your family. They know more than you could ever think, and they know more than they think they know.

It's not that hard, but if you an complete idiot does it, it will be a mess. And believe me, I have seen my fair share of idiots all over Ancestry.com and all over my life. And you say you're not too dedicated of a person? Well, with genealogy you don't necessarily need to be one. Because you can always put it down, and come back to it when you feel like it. I actually check on whatever I can sometimes every day. It's good you want to know where your ancestors came from. Now if you want to just see where your ancestors came from, maybe you should consider a DNA test. It can tell you about the ethnicity of your ancestors, how much such and such you have in you. Where they came from. It will not give you their names. It will not allow you to know their jobs, and other things, but that might be an easy way out. Also, I know of a few that have traced themselves, through genealogy, back to royalty. You know William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, Llewellyn the Great? Yeah, those exact people. Now these people have done a lot of research and I haven't even gotten back that far. Now then again, tracing yourself to such people is not impossible. It's actually very possible. I just want you to know what you can know. And who you can be related to. Now if you are mostly Western European descent have great probability to be one of their many descendants. You might want to check that out. But anyways, it's a very rewarding thing, and I love every minute of it. I have just found I have some Irish in me, that's interesting. But what might you find in you?

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