Check the old boxes in your storage room to see some old pictures of your ancestors, diaries and the like which could help you identify your ancestors. Ask your family and other close relative to help you out. Step two is the phase wherein you will take your family back to the year of 1870. It is an important date to all African Americans who are residing in the United States because it is the year wherein all blacks names were listed.

Sometimes, knowing the meaning of the ancestor s last name could also be of help. Do foreign language family name search. Search engines that are in foreign language can be accessed in Google. It offers 140 versions of international search engines. MSN can also be a good source. The site that claims to have the biggest collection of family history (which comes in free, thank goodness!

It also has a site search engine, databases and a surname list where you could look up possible relatives. A useful page is their Social Security Death Index, that allows you to check for ancestors who have disappeared from public records. The main goal of Rootsweb.com is to give people from all over the world the chance to communicate and compare family ties and probably possible common ancestors.

Begin the process with your own name, after which, try to work backwards to the name of your parents and then the names of the parents of your parents, and so on. Check with legal documents It would be best to look for your own birth certificate as this basically contain the names of your parents as well as the dates of their births.

Database set up by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints- also known as FamilySearch.org. FamilySearch is a collection of programs and files that can help an individual in his search for his ancestors. Inclusive in FamilySearch are: Family history Library catalog, the International Genealogical Index, Ancestral file, the SSDI, church records from Scotland, and the US military index.

You can also ask for copies of certificates from the Bureau of Vital Statistics. And don t forget your local library. Get in touch with organizations that conduct genealogical research and historical societies. There are also private institutions you can get in touch with. If you have an ancestor who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, then you're in luck.