Finding Your Roots -- Lesson 1

The best way to get information is to ask grandma for some help! People often ask me “how did you find out all that information?” In my case, I didn’t have any grandparents left to ask, but they are certainly the best source of information. The more data that you have about your grandparents, where they lived, when they came to America, if they migrated, the better. Birth and death certificates are a great source of information also, as they have both parents names, and typically maiden names of the mother. It’s important to remember that in Italy, women did not take their husbands names and are recorded as “legitimate wife of…”.

I was able to get my hands on my mother’s parents death certificates, which helped immensely in finding the Italian Records back to 1803. Napoleon dictated that all towns keep birth, marriage and death certificates. Prior to that all records were kept in the church. More and more records worldwide are being added daily, especially in the US. Familysearch.org is also digitizing deeds, wills and other legal documents.

One thing to remember while searching is that many times the name you are searching may not match the records exactly, so it is best to try name variations or use wildcard searches.

Of course you can ask grandpa too,