How do I even begin to trace back, do a family tree,whatever... to an ancestor who signed the Declaration of Independenc?

How do I even begin to trace back, do a family tree,whatever... to an ancestor who signed the Declaration of Independenc Asked by YoreAcres 52 months ago Similar questions: begin trace back family tree ancestor signed Declaration Independenc Society.

Similar questions: begin trace back family tree ancestor signed Declaration Independenc.

Exactly, a family tree that is documented as best as can be expected If you are doing this by the book, you need to start with yourself and work back. Gathering documents, birth, death certificates, family bibles, marriage license, wills etc. And lay out a family tree. You can do this my hand or there are pre-made forms and there are computer programs that help you build a searchable database of the information.

There are many resources online as well to do searches on family lines. Someone may have done some work for you on a distant common relative! As you go further back the records that we take for granted today will thin and disappear.

Since you are looking for a connection to signer of the Declaration of Independence. You may be able to work forward from history books and such. Gathering names of children for example that give you further leads to investigate.

Sources: Personal experience .

Resources I assumed that you’ve used all of the local and free ones, such as family records, family oral history, and tracked them through local historical societies. I’ve had some good luck with the public records on Ancestry.com, but some of the scholarship on it is not of very high quality (i.e. , they make links between people who are not family members).

On the plus side, they do have a lot of original documents scanned in, so I always validate with the original documents. I’ve been lucky enough to have been able to do that back to 1729, but that was for a branch of my family that lived in 1 place for more than 150 years. If you are trying to establish a connection for membership in a society (such as the DAR, etc.), they usually want to see copies of the documents (birth, marriage certificates, etc. ), so you’ll need to know the names and key dates for people, then write to the state or local government that handles these and ask for copies - it usually involves a small cost.

Also - get a good software package that lets you upload pictures, draw the tree, move people around, print a book, etc.Don't try to do this on paper- it's too hard to add and delete people, and keep all of the relevent documents straight. Sources: personal experience Mingo's Recommendations Family Tree Maker 2008 Essentials Amazon List Price: $29.95 Average Customer Rating: 2.0 out of 5 (based on 10 reviews) Family Tree Maker Version 16 Essentials Amazon List Price: $29.95 Used from: $8.99 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 12 reviews) .

Start with yourself... and work backwards... In doing genealogy, we always say the same thing to beginners. Start with the known and document backwards. You should have a copy of your own birth certificate (so handy to have when you need a passport and just for the next generation, keep it safe).

If your parents are living and have copies of theirs make yourself a copy. If one or both are dead, get copies of their birth, death and marriage certificate. (I know, you are thinking you know all these facts, why get copies?

Because, if you or your relatives ever want to do anything like join a lineage society, you will need the documentation). Also, it turns out that many things we "know" turn out not to be true... Don’t forget to check with aunts and uncles; never ignore the sibling lines of the person you are tracing. Try to do the same with each generation back but very soon you will run into trouble.

Many states did not require vital records be recorded until near 1900 (amazing...) This is where census records can help you. The 1930 records are available (as are all the ones back to 1790) and can give you dates and locations of births, clues as the where death might have occured. These are available online (for a fee) through different services.

You may be able to use some online through your county library as well. Check to see if your library has a subscription to Heritage Quest. A relatively cheap way to find sources is to locate your local Family story Center run by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).

They have computers, records and help for anyone who needs it (not just church members). Nice people (even to pagans like me). A really good book is "The Source, A guidebook to American Genealogy" edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking.

Gives a great overview of sources and where to find them. Wills, probate, land records, church records, town directories, military records are all covered. You should see if there are published genealogies of your family but watch out... some resort to wishful thinking when the research becomes tough.

Use them as guides but document what you find AS you go. I cannot tell you how agravating it is to have a "fact" you cannot support ten years later. A relatively "new" tool once you have located areas where your ancestors lived are the digitized newspapers (some fee, some free).

I had a bunch of San Francisco people whose vital records were all gone with the 1906 quake/fire. I found lots of articles on them in the newspapers (birth, death, marriage). Library of Congress has some up right now at their site.

If your people came from or spent a lot of time in one region, genealogical societies can be a big help. The web will let you search for local, state and national ones. Fee based sites with a lot of stuff: ancestry.com genealogy.com (there are more) New England storic Genealogical Society NewEnglandAncestors.org Great fun and addictive as well as a wonderufl way to make history come alive.

I found a victim of a horse theft! Think about it.... everyone says they are afraid they might find a horse thief and no one mentions those whose horses were stolen! Sources: years of looking for the people who didn't keep good records!.

Backwards and forwards First off I hope you know which signer is your relative. That will help so much. I have two family rumors that I could work on.

First is that Great Great... Great Grandpa fought in the American revolution at Bunker hill. I have his son’s name so I have his last name, but not his first. So far no luck.

The other rumor is one of my ancestry came over on the Mayflower. I don’t have a name so I had to give that one a pass. Next you go meet the nice ladies of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution.) They are the experts on finding ancestry going back to the EXACT time you want.

There are local chapters all over the USA, and they have libraries that can be used for a small fee. They will be especially interested in someone related to one of the signers. This is their site.

http://www.dar.org/natsociety/default.cfm OK this is where "backwards and forwards" comes in. You make a modern tree of every relative that you know about (even guesses, but mark them as such) in your direct line starting with yourself. I also recommend investing in ancestry software so that you can have a more inclusive tree with cousins and aunts and uncles, etc. This is the forwards.

As for backwards you should be in luck. The signers are famous so there will be writings about them and their children. Many of them already have trees at DAR.

Hopefully, you will have both trees meet in the middle. Also, you can "piggyback" on other DAR members trees. If you have enough proof that you are related to a person that is (for example) 4 generations below your signer, and a DAR member has proof that that person is related to your signer in her family tree then you have it.

This might seem complicated, but trust me the DAR ladies are good at research and explaining. Also, for more research possibilities you can go any Mormon Church that has an ancestry library. They have access to tons of helpful ancestry websites, tapes, pictures, and book after book.

All I had to do was sign in, and I got a computer until all are full and there was a line.(I never was bumped once. ) They also answered all of my questions. Here’s one of their sites http://www.onegreatfamily.com/Home.aspx?PID=12310 There are online services, too.

http://www.ancestry.com/default.aspx is a popular one. OK this is enough to get you started. By the way, don’t be surprised if you invest in notebooks, folders, blank family tree papers, a laptop computer (if you don’t have one), and ancestry software.

Good Luck! Sources: My own experience Lady_Wolf_is_Lost's Recommendations Heritage Family Tree Deluxe (Old Version) Amazon List Price: $39.95 Used from: $99.00 .

Start with current relatives and work your way backwards... You have the advantage of using mostly American records which are often more easily accessible than foreign records. Start by talking to relatives and write everything down. Find out exactly where the Declaration of Independence story comes from.

Go to your local library and utilize their subscription to Ancestry or Heritage Quest (hopefully they have this). See if they offer any classes. Check out some books on getting started on genealogy.

Look at census and land records. Request vital records (long form-there's more information). Utilize local genealogical and historical societies.

Find out what records the local Latter Day Saints Family story Center can provide. http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp Record what you find on one of the many great Family Tree software programs out there. I've had success with the free download from MyHeritage.com, but recently switched to Geni.com to allow the rest of my family to get involved, too.

Cyndi's list has about every internet resource out there, but it can be overwhelming and unwieldy. http://www.cyndislist.com/ It can take a long time to connect the dots, but it's a really satisfying journey. Really, that's just the very tip of the iceberg, but it's a few places to start.

Sources: Cited above. Viaggiatore's Recommendations The Handybook for Genealogists : United States of America (10th Edition) Amazon List Price: $59.95 Used from: $14.45 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 8 reviews) How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy Amazon List Price: $24.99 Used from: $0.90 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 5 reviews) Genealogy Online for Dummies Amazon List Price: $24.99 Used from: $3.50 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 10 reviews) Genealogy Supply Kit - Patriot Edition Amazon List Price: $19.99 Average Customer Rating: 1.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) .

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.