One branch of my family tree that possibly goes to B.C.

A few years ago I crossed paths with Ancestry.com and thought about researching my family’s footprint. It wasn’t until recently that I was inspired by my stepmother to give it a real try. Did you know Ancestry.com provides a 14-day free trial? 

This is what you can easily replicate in two weeks to get started:

1. Learning Center First Steps is a great way to get your feet wet in an organized way. Do you have baby books? Old letters? Just identifying your parents may not be enough to really get you rolling on Ancestry.com. Maybe you need to go to step two, like I did, to first get started.

2. Identify your great-grandparents to grow the leafs on Ancestry.com. Individuals that are still living are marked private and 1940 US Census Records now are indexed. You might also find it the best use of your time to conduct interviews and research photo albums for clues on recent generations.

3. Use Facebook to Grow your tree. If you’re not sure about who your great-grandparents are, Facebook is great alternative to trying to identify your great-grandparents by identifying distant relatives.

After my 14-day free trial, I was able to find links to all sorts of historically famous ancestors: William the Conquerer, Henry VIII, and King of France Hugh Capet. Currently I am going through to find more sources and verification of ancestry links, but this experience has been wonderful in connecting my family to our roots.