Depending on where you live in the world, it is still possible in most cases to order copies of the certificates that you’d like to use to help you in your genealogy. Among those which could be helpful are the birth, marriage, death and divorce (although these were less common) certificates that may be on file. Various countries began in their r...

While in the pursuit of your family’s history,  if you are fortunate enough to have someone who has the packrat tendencies, chances are that you’re going to come into contact with some old documents, birth, marriage or death certificates, in some cases old family Bibles or some of those amazing old photographs. Keeping them viable par...

Whatever your reason for wanting to trace your Native American ancestry, whether its to become a part of the tribe, or simply to verify that old family story that says you were a direct descendant of a federally recognized Native American tribe, it’s going to start just like any other kind of genealogy. At the beginning. The beginning of any...

If you’re not familiar with the term Melungeon, then you’re not unlike many others, even some genealogists aren’t aware of the term and haven’t a clue what it means, or who it applies to. However if your family comes from the Cumberland Gap area, or Cumberland Plateau, and called Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, or West Virgi...

What is a Family Tree? How do I make one? Why do I need one? What does it include? Where do I start? My family aren’t from the UK, what do I do? I do not have correct dates? Why should I start from the paternal side of my family tree? I can only trace from the maternal side of my family, how do I do this? Will I have to combine both paternal...

What is the best way to get family members to take part? I’m not sure what questions I should ask? How long should interviews take? Should I interview everyone? What is the best time to interview a family member? What is the best way of recording the interview handwritten, electronically or digitally? Any tips on interviewing people? What if...

What are Parish Registers? Where might I find Parish Registers? What are indexes? Can I obtain copies of Parish Registers? How do I interpret Parish Registers? How can Parish Registers help me? What are non-conformist chapel registers? Where would I find non-conformist registers? Can I use both parish and non-conformist registers? Are there regist...

What are the most common problems when reading old documents? Where can I go for help if the documents are in Latin? Are the dates and words important? How can I correctly interpret my findings? How do I trace old documents? What are your tips for handling old documents? Where can I go for help? Is there a manual that can help me decipher these wo...

What is the Census? How do I use the Census? Where do I get a copy of the sentence from? Does the Census hold information across the whole of the UK? What dates does the Census cover? How will the Census help me? How do I search for my ancestors? How are search results displayed? Why do I see duplicate listings of the same ancestor? How do I narro...

How are the results delivered? What do I do now? Will the result be exactly the same for each member of my family? Will the test determine my geographic origin? What will a paternal deep ancestral ethnic origin reveal? Can you start with female members of my family? ...