How do I go about discovering my ancestry?
I have to do a project on my family tree for English class, but it seems that everytime I think I have some sort of lead towards my ancestry I hit a dead end. Besides talking with relatives and without spending any money, are there any websites or archives you would reccomend for finding more out about my ancestry? Give me any tips you can think of. Also…is it possible to get any information with a person’s name birth/death date and SSN?
Go to your public library. Find out what they have. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com which has lots of records.
They have all the censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available to the public yet.
Now, be careful about taking as fact things you see in family trees on any website, free or paid. They are submitted by subscribers.
Most of the information is not documented. You might see different information on the same person. But all too frequently you see the same information repeatedly on the same person without documentation. This no doubt means foolish people are copying without verifying. There are errors in trees on the internet. Also many people resent someone copying their information without permission.
Call your nearest Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church and find out if they have a Family History Center. They have records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City they have the world’s largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a very nominal fee. They don’t bring up their religion and they won’t send their missionaries by to ring your doorbell.
Social Security was voted in by Congress in 1937 and began January 1938. There is a Social Security Death Index on Rootsweb, Ancestry.Com and FamilySearch.org(LDS) site.
A person is on it if they were drawing social security at the time of death and off their own social security number. For instance, my mother had a social security number and worked for a time and put into social security but she is not on it as she was drawing off my father’s social security when she died in 1976.
Some persons have been added to the Death Index that never put into social security or drew social security. These were elderly people who had to get Medicaid and therefore had to get a social security number. The dates of death on the 2 I saw were wrong.
To find a person on the Social Security Death Index you only need their name as listed with Social Security OR their social security number. You don’t need both.
On Ancestry.Com and Rootsweb SSDI you can probe a link to the right and a letter will come up for you to order a copy of the social security number application. It cost $27. It does give the name and place of birth of both parents, including mother’s maiden name.
I don’t know how far back you have to go but I think sometimes teachers don’t understand the scope of genealogy. You can’t just put a name into a website and BINGO you pull up your family tree. You might pull up some family lines but the information must be verified. You can’t take it for granted that it is correct.
Also don’t get involved in the origin of a surname. The same surname can come from more than one nationality. Also not everyone with the same surname is any way related. Be very careful of peddlers of surname products, like coats of arms. They are all over the internet. They sell them at airports and shopping malls. They are shams. Coats of arms do not belong to
surnames. A misnomer for a coat of arms is “family crest.”
See links below
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerpsst.cfm
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Faq.htm
2007 Discover Your Roots Tour to Western Ukraine-Part Two
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