Where Do I Start My Family Tree?

If you are new to genealogy, you need to figure out what it that you want to do. You may want to trace your grandmother's family because you don't know much about that side of the family but had heard that they came from an estate in England or you want to find out if someone on your father's side had fought in the Civil War. There are always stories like these that spark our interest. The main thing to remember is not to immediately jump to that ancestor and try to track them down to you, but what you need to do is move back in time, from the known to the unknown.

What Do You Know About Your Family?

The first thing you need to do is to write done what you know about your family. You need to start with yourself. What I did when I started, was to right my name with my own information and beside it my siblings and there dates of birth, etc. Over that information, I would put my parents along with when they were born and married. Then I would try to include my parents' brothers and sisters. The problem was I was running out of paper, so I would start again, beginning with my father's parents by putting my grandparents information on a page with their dates of birth, marriage and death if they had passed on, then my father (his wife) and his kids, and I would do the same on a separate page for my mother's parents. This was my first use of family group sheets and you can check my post Where Can I Download Genealogy Forms And Charts for free family group sheets.

After I had my pages organized into some order, I would look to see what needed to be confirmed and what information was missing. If I didn't know when or where my grandfather had been born for example I would ask my father or mother. Slowly I would get a more complete picture of my grandparents and their families. Unfortunately, by the time I wanted to ask about the parents of my grandparents most of my elderly relatives had passed on. I decided that what I would do is to try to trace my grandfather and his family and when I asked my parents about my grandfather, the information was kind of sparse. He had come from "out west" and had died in World War II after marrying my grandmother, but we had little to go on about where "out west" he came from, who his parents were, or if he had any brothers or sisters.

Where Do I Go From Here?

I decided to request his army records to see if they could shed any light on where he was from. If you are in a similar situation and want the military records of your father or grandfather or another relative who served with the military you should request them from:

The National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC at the following addresses: E-mail inquire@nara.gov or

General Reference Branch (NNRG-P)
National Archives and Records Administration
7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20408

Or you may call: (202) 501-5652. Give your name and mailing address, the form number and the number of forms you need (limit five per order). To order military service records, request NATF Form 86. To order military pension records, request NATF Form 85. These are the forms used by The National Archives for obtaining military and pensions records for men who have served before World War I.

In Canada:

Go to the Canadian Archives page at:
Canadian Forces after 1918 (including Second World War).

After I received the service record of my grandfather, it showed his date of birth and place of birth which enabled me to request his actual birth certificate. When that arrived, it showed both of his parents names and that he was the ninth child born to his parents! I eventually got in touch with the brothers and sisters of my grandfather who had died in France in the 2nd World War and discovered that I had hundreds of cousins all over North America and have had the chance to meet many of them (not all, but hopefully some day).

From there, I've traced my great-grandfather back to the city in Scotland my family originated and found many ancestors (and their descendants!) in Scotland and England. I am still working my way back further and further on my grandfather's line and that is just one of several that I have traced.

Where Can I Find US Passenger Lists?

It has been estimated that more than 30 million people immigrated to the United States between 1607 when the first of the colonies were established until the 1920s. You may be able to find the information about on which ship your ancestors came to the New Land by searching through passenger lists of those ships bringing new immigrants. If your ancestor came during the 1800s, there is the chance that you can find track down which vessel brought them to the United States. As always try to find out if any indexes have been published, either online or in book form to save you the trouble of a long search.

If you are unsure where to start, you should check for census records of your ancestors. Beginning with the 1850 US Census, which was the first to ask the birthplace of the individuals being enumerated, you will begin to figure out where to look. The problem is that these earlier census records provide sparce information about where exactly the person came from. Most people when asked where they were born would say "New York", or "Massachuesetts", or "England" or "Ireland" which makes it somewhat difficult to track them down. The later censuses provided more information about immigrants, and are more completely indexed. Don't forget about Naturalization or citizenship records, some of which start from the 1790s and could include declarations of intentions or petitions for citizenship.

The Congress of the United States enacted legislation in 1819 to regulate transportion of passengers from foreign shores to the United States. One of the requirements of this act, was that ships' captains had to provide the collector of customs in the district in which the ship arrived with a list of passengers.

These passenger lists are the main body of immigration records. The information on earlier lists is usually a bit sparce and has changed significantly over the years, but most should include the following:

• Name


• Age


• Occupation


• Place of origin


• Destination in the United States


• Name and type of ship


• Port and date of departure


• Port and date of arrival

A lot of the these lists survived the ravages of time and are now held by the National Archives in Washington D.C. and were microfilmed to preserve and protect the information on the lists as well as improve access. Back in 1977 the lists for five of the most major ports were transferred to the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research at Temple University, Philadelphia and the center has been transcribing and publishing abstracts since that time. The major ports were:

• Boston


• New York


• Philadelphia


• Baltimore


• New Orleans

During the colonial era, Philadelphia was the most popular of these ports for landing, however, within the first two decades of federal immigration regulation, New York City became the preferred port of arrival. By 1850, the number of immigrants who arrived in New York city outstripped all other the ports combined. One point - the early Customs Passenger Lists are indexed for all of the ports for which there are lists, but the New York index is unfortunately incomplete and has no index from 1847 til 1896

How Do I Get My Hands On Passenger Lists?

You can go the the National Archives in Washington D.C., or one of the their branches. Here is a list of US National Archives branch locations that is available on the website for the NA. Another option is to visit a Family History Center and that link will show you how to find out if there is one nearby.