Skip to Main Content

Academic Success Center
Learning Technology
Mennonite Historical Library
Accessibility

HIST 212: Thinking About the Dead (Elizabeth Miller) - Fall 2025

Discovering your "Family Tree"

Tree

Image Credit: Tree by Tim Green under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Steps in exploring family history.

1. Identify what you already know

  • Fill out a pedigree chart (family tree diagram) or a family group sheet.
  • Ask family and friends for what information they have.

2. Decide what you want to learn

  • Look at the missing pieces.
  • Decide which missing piece(s) you want to research.
  • Consider what type of sources to look for. Vital Records and Newspapers are great starting sources!

3. Search and obtain sources

  • Look in genealogy databases for digitized sources
  • Visit and/or contact libraries, such as GC's Mennonite Historical Library, for sources and subscription databases
  • Visit and/or contact places that hold government records (health departments, etc.) 

  • Unfortunately, very few options for online access to individual data for places outside North/South America and Europe

4. Evaluate sources

  • As the Board for Certification of Genealogists says, "Both professional genealogists and casual family researchers need genealogy standards in order to get their genealogy right. Without standards, inaccuracies and myths can be created and perpetuated."

5. Apply findings, then repeat the cycle

  • Share what you have found on FamilySearch or other sites.
  • With this new information, return to step one and repeat these steps.

Search Strategies

  • Start searching with information about which you are most sure

  • Start with exact searches for names/places

  • Start with 3-year range for any date (to better catch relevant records that have approximate dates)

  • Look at results by collection/category of record to more easily find records relevant to your interest.  

  • Too many results?  Try narrowing your search.

  • Too few results? Experiment with fewer, broader, or different combinations of search terms.  

  • Use asterisk with exact searches to truncate words that may have different spellings (e.g. “Kauf*” will find Kaufman, Kaufmann, Kauffman, Kauffmann)  

  • Remember that many records have mistakes in them—either because original record incorrect or misread by transcriber

Pay attention to all the information provided in a record

  • Any clues about where the person was born/lived earlier?

  • Any information about parents or children?

  • Economic status/occupation?

  • Census, shiplists, etc. list “proximate” people:

    • Do any appear to be relatives? 

    • Is your person similar to/different from those around him/her?  How? 

    • How might that help you understand what their lives may have been like?

  • Will an earlier/later record of the same type include this person?  Where will you go to find it?

Some Key Resources for Mexico & Canada

National censuses are most helpful (see links below). Many birth, marriage, and death records from various states in Mexico (into the 1980s at times) are available as well.