How does a person figure out who their ancestors are without really anything to use for records?

There are records, you have to search for them yourself. Don't know if your parents or grandparents are still living. If not, their death certificates can usually provide you with the names and sometimes the place of birth of their parents. They usually will always give the mother's maiden name.





Also an application for a social security number can also provide this info. It is a little more expensive than a death certificate. But the information was given by the person themselves, not some widow or widower giving the info on their inlaws or the children of the decedent giving info on their grandparents. So I feel it can be more reliable.





Here is a link. You don't need the social security number.





http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/








All you need to do is put in the name as it was on social security. After you pull up a person, on the right, you can click on a tab and it will pull up a letter you can print off, add your return address to it and attach a $27 check.





Disregard the One Great Family ad with a space to be completed.





Social Security went into effect January 1, 1935. If a person was drawing social security at time of death and on their own social security number, and their death was no earlier than the late 1950s, you will probably find them.





Also a Family HIstory Center at a Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Church has records on people all over the world, not just Mormons. In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their FHCs can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee.





I have never had them to try and convert me or have I heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their resources. Just call the nearest Mormon Church or visit their free website, FamilySearch.org to get their hours for the general public.





Ancestry.Com has a lot of original source records. If you find it too pricey, your public library might have a subscription to it you can use. They have all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet. They have military, land, immigration records. They have indexes to vital records(birth, marriage and death) of many U.S. states. When you go into their website, I like their old seach the best. When you go under ';Search'; click on the ';Old Search'; in the little peach bar at the top.





Just be very very careful about taking as absolute fact everything you see in Family Trees on their website or ANY website, free or not free. The trees are submitted by folks like you and me and there are errors, believe me. If you disagree with something someone has on your family, the owners of the websites will tell you that is between you and the other subscriber.





Here is a link givings links to various websites, some free and some not.





http://www.progenealogists.com/top50gene鈥?/a>How does a person figure out who their ancestors are without really anything to use for records?
You can start by talking to your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and anyone else that might be available. Get as many names as you can and as much information as you can as to when and where they were born. Also you can find out about their parents and grandparents. Ask lots of questions. You should be able to build a family tree at least several generations back. Then to go further back than that you will have to do a little work.





You can go to the County Recorder of Records in the places where your grandparents or great grand parents lived or were born and try to get census records, birth records, property records etc. Each document may lead you further back in time. There is a web sight ancestors.com that can give you lots of information provided that you have the persons name.How does a person figure out who their ancestors are without really anything to use for records?
without knowing your location, I have to address this as if it is US.


I suspect you are thinking in terms of records you have at home. While we hope to have home records.. those are only the tip of the iceberg. If someone has passed away.. there is their death certificate. Other items might be obituaries, photos. tombstones, probate files at the court, land records. Anyone living pre 1930 is normally findable in the census which is available from 1790 through 1930. Depending on when the person immigrated (if born overseas), you can often find a record of that, or of naturalization.


This is why it is important to work from present, backwards. I assume you have your own birth certificate. Using that..you prove your parents; then use their certificate to prove your grandparents. The critical thing is to know that you build a chain, and verify each step.


I can't tell you exactly what documents will apply to your family members.. that is the challenge of the game. Each step, you learn more about the types of records..and WHERE THEY are likely to be. The same is true of other locations.. except the records will be relevant to that country.