How to find ancestors?

Question:

How to find ancestors?

What is the best way to track down my ancestors from Ireland?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Information in family trees on any website must be taken as clues not as fact as most is not documented. Even if you see the same information over and over by different submitters, a lot of copying is being done which is poor family history.

Don't know where you are at. You should start with your parents and go back one generation time. Work on one family line and if you run into a brickwall, set it aside and work on another.

Most public libraries have a genealogical section. If yours do, check it out. They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com.
Ancestry.Com has all the census records through 1930 and a lot of other records and is obtaining more all the time.

A LDS Data Center at a Mormon Church can be helpful. They have records on people all over the world and are very nice and helpful. I have never had one come ringing my doorbell because I availed myself of their services.

Death certificates and applications for social security numbers give both parents' names and place of birth. I feel the application for social security number is more trustworthy as the applicant usually knows where their parents were born while the death certificate depends on someone remembering where Grandma was born, or the spouse of the deceased remembering where his/her inlaws were born.

When you get past the 20th century going back, church records will be very important. You have to know whether they were Catholic, Church of Ireland or Presbyterian.