There are no trees in our life. Moreover, trees are important not only those with leaves and green, but also those with relatives and genealogy. The family is a powerful life foundation that provides support and strength in order to grow and develop. Not knowing his relatives, a person, in fact, does not understand who he is, therefore, cannot move forward. How to find out your roots? You will find the answer in the article.
Why look for your ancestors?
After asking grandmothers and grandfathers about the topic of genealogy, there are still a lot of questions and gaps in family history. Here, the age of the ancestors plays a role, and the wonders of wartime, when people were added years, then removed. To collect information about your family tree, you have to try hard or put out a round sum of money to someone who will try for you.
The logical question is: why then do this? There are reasonable answers to any reasonable question:
- First of all, the family is the foundation, and not a single house can be built without a foundation. A person needs to be grounded in order to push off from this earth and take off in the future. Family and involvement in a certain group of people provide strength for great accomplishments and victories. The fear of loneliness disappears, because behind each of us is a whole clan. This is one of the basic human needs.
- Secondly, the search for relatives leads many people to completely different countries or regions. Once again it is confirmed that there is no pure nationality. With an understanding of his multinational family tree in a person, nationalism, bloody fascism, simply a bias towards some ethnic groups and stupid national pride are dying out. No one bothers to be proud of the ancestors, but this does not mean that you can belittle other peoples.
- Thirdly, it will help to better understand your health and body needs. After all, most predispositions to diseases are hereditary.
- Fourthly, it’s just a wonderful tradition that will unite the family, making it even stronger, stronger and friendlier.
Drawing up a family tree
Having understood the purpose of the search, it is worth considering how to find out your roots. In the age of high technology and growing opportunities, there are really many ways to do this. How to find out about your kindred roots? The most obvious and systematic method is to compile a family (family) tree.
You can start such a global project with parents who will help with the main branches. Next, we switch to grandparents. It is worth going around absolutely all relatives, including cousins and second cousins: you never know who is the custodian of invaluable information. Further, having the main tree on hand, there are several options:
- contact the city archive;
- order genealogy services;
- Explore genealogy related online resources.
Exploring the archive
The most reliable way to find out your roots by last name is to study the city archive. In fairness, it is worth noting that this is the most difficult way to go. How to find out your roots by last name? The archive contains metric books and track records. You will be asked to give the name, patronymic, year and place of birth of your close or distant relative.
Study books
It is also worth considering which religion your ancestors belonged to, at least approximately. Having decided, you can start a search in the Orthodox consistory, rabbinate or Catholic deanery. And better - in all three.
Pay attention to such a valuable source of information as the All-Russian book of memory. This is a body of knowledge about everyone who participated in the hostilities of the Great Patriotic War. People are grouped there by last name. It is nice that if the search for a relative is successful, you can find out about his military merits. By the way, a book does not have to go to the archive. It can be found in the public domain on the Internet.
There is also a memory book of political repressions, industry books, address books and various calendars of ranks. Getting access to all this information is not so easy, but the result is worth it.
Internet Services
The most logical and easiest way at the moment, how to find out your roots and family tree, is the Internet. There are many ways. Some of them are listed below:
1) FamiliSpace Internet resource. A wonderful portal created specifically for people who have wondered how to find out their roots. Ancestors can be searched not only by last name, but also by profession, region of residence and year of birth. The site often replenishes the database, information is constantly updated.
2) Various online directories. The portals http://www.vgd.ru/ or http://www.litera-ru.ru/ offer a search by last name and first name. Other services are also provided there. We are talking about compiling a family tree, searching for and reconstructing the family coat of arms, and creating family albums. Prices for such procedures bite, but it's worth it. Sites offer master classes in teaching independent pedigree research. They will just tell you where to start the search, how to find out your roots, help in compiling a family tree.
3) Social networks. The easiest and cheapest option to search for relatives is social networks. Of course, here it is impossible to demand a 100% guarantee of the information received, but it is worth trying this way of research.
4) Specialist services. Having ordered the work of a genealogy, you get a quality result. Then you will not need time and effort. If it is important to get the result, and not the pleasure of the process, then this is certainly the best way.
