After collecting details from family sources, investigate public records that tell you more about your ancestors. Millions of records are available, often as a result of your ancestors' interaction with local, county, state, and federal governments.

These records:

• Help identify ancestral relationships, dates, and places
• Often furnish wives' or mothers' maiden names, which help you look for their parents
• Give interesting details about ancestral lives
• Are usually the most accurate sources because they were contemporary with the ancestors

You can begin with birth and death certificates and marriage records. States began recording this information at different times. See www.vitalrec.com for information.   Better yet, visit the United States Genealogy Sleuth, which has an wonderful list of sites that they use when conducting genealogy research. These are all searchable online databases or informative tools.

Plan to read federal and state census records -- potential genealogical gold mines. U.S. censuses from 1850 to 1920 provide individual information, including name, age, birthplace, and occupation. To find out the existence of a person, birthplace, family members, and other information, census records are among the best utilized tools for genealogy research. Census records are available on microfilm in many libraries and archives. Although many are available online at subscription sites, many indexes exist in books, on CD-ROMs, and online at free sites. One good inclusive source to research and read census records is at Census Finder .  Their mission is to provide access to all available census records online. This includes both free and paid subscriptions. They fulfill their mission well.

http://www.tedpack.org/biogd002.html#further  is a great site on how to do genealogy research.  If you are new to genealogy research, browse here and gain points and tips on getting started.

Ancestors in local and county records
In ancestral communities, genealogists get information from tombstones, religious and educational institutions, public and academic libraries, and newspapers.

County courthouses contain fascinating records, including ancestral land transactions, wills and estate divisions, business licenses, and debt or divorce court records. Some records reveal whether the family owned a piano or what they called the spotted cow!

Local and county records are sometimes available as published abstracts or as original records on microfilm. Furthermore, volunteers sponsor genealogical Web pages for many U.S. counties at www.usgenweb.org.

Other state and federal records
State archives (or state historical societies) may hold early county and tax records, family and business papers, state censuses, and evidence of citizens' interaction with the state government. To learn about state archives holdings, you can link to their Web sites from www.cyndislist.com. Some of the sites contain indexes and searchable databases.

Genealogists also find ancestors in other federal materials, including military, immigration, land, and Social Security records. As you widen your search, The following Web sites may be helpful:

• Some military pension abstracts: www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pensions
• RootsWeb offers free access to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). This database contains several important bits of information on the more than 78 million persons whose deaths whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration (SSA) beginning about 1962.  Data available include social security number, date of issuance, state of issuance, date of birth, date of death, and last address of record. http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/  Additionally, once you are in RootsWeb, you will see on the side of theor SSDI a place to do additional research on Ancestry.com , which neatly puts out for you some additional names that might connect with the person shown on the SSDI, e.g., the census records that show the same name.
• www.ancestry.com  - Largest collection of family history records on the web
• www.cyndislist.com  - List of genealogical sites on the Internet<
• www.familyhistory.com  - 3,000 Family history databases
• www.familysearch.org  -  International Genealogical Index
• www.gendex.com
• www.genealogylibrary.com
• www.historyplace.com  - American Revolution
• http://web.uccs.edui-history/index/151maps.html#chesapeake  - Colonial maps
• Rare Maps of Colonial America
• Civil War soldiers and sailors: www.itd.nps.gov/cwss
• Some World War I draft registrations: www.ancestry.com under "Search>Record Type>Military Records"
• Ellis Island passenger arrivals, 1892-1924: www.ellisislandrecords.org
• Federal land patents for some states: www.glorecords.blm.gov under "Search Land Patents"
• Social Security Death Index, 1937 forward: www.ancestry.com under "Search>Record Type>Birth, Marriage, & Death Records"
• Social Security history and information: www.ssa.gov
• National Archives regional branches and Microfilm of National Archives records (under "Microform Catalogs and Finding Aids)
• Library of Congress: www.loc.gov

Visit our More Bucklin Research Resources page.