Looking for Your Family?

There is more than just finding out glory relatives when you are trying to find them online. It is about finding a connection with people who had the same blood as you, from whom you descended. And without whom, you would never be.

Another reason why people may look for relatives that they never knew that they had is because they want to connect with people who are still alive but who share the same bloodlines. I have found many cousins online that I never knew existed because of the internet. We have shared pictures of family members. One of my greatest feats was finding a family picture of my great grandparents and grandfather, along with his siblings, when he was a little boy.

Living relatives may have pictures of family members that can help you or they may have stories to tell about those you never got to know. One of the best things to come along for this is the internet and the number of public records that are now accessible online. Prior to the internet, you had to write to local counties and obtain information from their sources. It could take you many years to track down records about relatives through these government sources.

You can find relatives that you never knew existed by going online or you can find long lost ancestors, depending how far back you want to search. You can usually get to the era around the Civil War as this is when most records started to be recorded. In order to go further, you will have to go off line and do some searching on your own. There are always death records, marriage records and birth records that were recorded prior to these times, although do not be disappointed if you run into dead ends or that records were destroyed.

The main reason that people search for long lost relatives online is to tell a story. When you do this, you are giving an historical account of your life. From the beginning. Of how you came to be and the many sets of gene pools that created you. It can be an interesting journey, but one that is arduous, despite the convenience of the internet and sites like Ancestry.Com that make it convenient for you.

You may end up being surprised or disappointed at what you may find. You may have been told that your family members dated back hundreds of years and then find that they came over in the early part of the last century. You may find criminals and other notorious persons in your past. Or you may find a hero or two. Chances are that you will find a mix of people in your family tree that can help you understand where you came from.

Once you understand what you can find and are prepared to go find it, the next step in searching for relatives is to get started.