How can you find your ancestry?like when your family first came to america?

Question:

How can you find your ancestry?like when your family first came to america?

My friend has been trying forever to find her and so have i.We get to these sites that don't really go back that far do we have to look into other countries.What she knows so far about her family from asking her great great grandfather was german her great great grandmother was a really light skinned black maybe mixed woman they were married he was born in germany they had kids together all she can find so far is info on her great grandfather.My great grandparents were born in sicily near lecarra fridda i might be spelling that wrong.Should we be checking into german and sicily ancestry instead of american.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Information in family trees on any website should 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 and that is not good family history. There are errors in those trees.

What you need to do is start with your parents and work back one generation at a time. Work on one family line and if you come to a brickwall, set it aside and work on another.

Death certificates and applicatons for social security numbers give name and place of birth of both parents, including mother's maiden name. I feel the application for a social security number is more reliable as a person is more likely to know where their parents were born. The death certificate means someone has to remember where Nana was born.

Check with your public library and see if they have a genealogy section. If so check it out.

The Mormon Church has Data Center in most of its churches, They have records on people from all over the world. They are very helpful. I have never had them come ringing my doorbell because I availed myself of their services.

Courthouse records are important, Deeds, wills, etc. Before the 20th century almost all vital records were in Churches. The Catholic Church keeps very detailed records and usually the parish sends them periodically to the Chancery to be microfilmed.

When a person is baptised, makes first communion, is confirmed, married, dies, there is a log kept on all. These records show parents names. Actually if a person is confirmed in a different parish than where they were baptised, it not only is recorded in the parish where they were confirmed but the information is forwarded to the parish of baptism and the confirmation information is put in the baptismal record. Marriage records are done the same way.

Good Luck!