Almost everyone over time appearsdesire to learn more about your family and ancestors. Who were they and what did they do, what memory did they leave about? But, unfortunately, few can boast a good knowledge of their ancestry. In the daily bustle of people, there is no time to listen to the stories of elderly family members about distant and, as it seems, completely unimportant things. After all, you need to work, raise children, do household chores. Where is there to patiently listen to the memories of a grandmother about people who are no longer alive?
Nevertheless, with age, almost every person has a craving for their origins.
Search for roots. Where to begin?
So how do you know the history of your ancestors?You can ask questions to senior family members — they will tell about their parents and grandparents. Older relatives will tell much more than any archive, because they are living witnesses of history. It is better to record such memories on any carrier or to take notes, and only then systematize.
Old photos play an important role in restoring the history of their ancestors. They, as a rule, are signed, and thus you can find out what the relative looked like, with whom he spoke, where he lived.
Diaries and letters must be collected. The stamp on the envelope may indicate where one of the ancestors worked or served, and the records will help to restore the chronology of events.
What can the last name tell?
Much can learn about their ancestors by name.As a rule, she can tell about the origins of the birth of the genus, indicate belonging to a particular class. Among ordinary people, peasants and artisans, the surname was often formed from the name, profession, nickname or appearance, and among the nobility from the name of the possessions of the genus.
Специальные справочники содержат информацию по history of the names. Sometimes she can say a lot about her carriers, because it is not for nothing that the main character traits inherent in the clan were reflected on the family emblems and seals of noble people.
Archive use
Unfortunately, not everyone has relatives,who can learn about their ancestors. Last name - both by accident and on purpose can be significantly changed. Some members of the nobility could give their children truncated or altered names. Entries in church books are also sometimes erroneous. Therefore, for the exact result you need to go to the archive.
The population census in our country has been conducted sinceXVIII century. All important documents, such as marriage, birth and death certificates, were issued in duplicate, one of which remained in the church and the other was transferred to the depository.
Archive visit requires a lot of free time.and hard work. Some of the departments are closed to ordinary visitors, and they can be visited only by special passes. A huge number of documents greatly complicates the task of restoring the history of the genus. Those who do not have time to visit the archives, can seek the help of professionals.
But it is important to understand that before starting the searchit is necessary to collect at least the minimum data for their ancestors, find out both the name and the year and place of birth. Without such information, even experts are unlikely to be able to help.
Search for relatives on the web
Some archived data is now translated intoelectronic form, and therefore, more and more people are trying to find out about their ancestors on the Internet. By surname and place of birth, you can find the burial places of soldiers killed or missing during the war, clarify the fate of relatives, if information about them was posted on the Web. If there is no data on the Internet, but it is known that they are in the archive, then you can try to write a request there. It is important to understand here that some documents still have a security classification, and no one can provide this information.
On specialized sites dedicated togenealogy, you can find lots of useful tips to get you started. The recommendations will help to understand the confusing kinship terminology, tell you what information and where to look, learn how to systematize the data, and on the basis of them correctly make the family tree of the family.
Pedigree compilation
All found papers, photos collected inone pile, have an unattractive look. Therefore, all known information about their ancestors must be systematized. The generally accepted way is the compilation of a family tree of a family, which is a pattern of all kinship ties.
There are certain design rules:the roots of the tree are the oldest representatives of the genus, the trunk is the main representatives, the branches are descendants. Sometimes there is the opposite arrangement of family ties.
При составлении генеалогического древа нужно take into account the peculiarities of inheritance of the genus. In Russian families, it was transmitted only through the male line, and if there were no children in the family or only girls appeared, then the clan was considered interrupted.
You can create a family tree asindependently, and asking for help from specialists. It will be a real gift for any family celebration and will be passed on from generation to generation, acquiring new descendant branches.
Moscow was not built in a day…
Generating a pedigree is hard work.requiring a lot of time and a great desire to understand the history of their ancestors. To learn by name, as practice shows, it is far from all, because it could undergo various changes or get lost for several generations.
The difficulty is that so much informationwere lost or deliberately destroyed in the whirlwind of the bloody events of the 20th century. The revolution and the wars that claimed millions of human lives, hundreds of thousands of children who found themselves in orphanages after losing their parents, and sometimes not even knowing and remembering their family — all of this is a serious obstacle in establishing the genealogical roots.
Great desire, patience and hard workirreplaceable in this difficult matter. Many abandon what they started in the middle, failing to wade through the intricacies of kinship, a huge amount of documents and information. But when information that is hardly collected bit by bit begins to take shape, it becomes the best incentive to continue such a great cause as the restoration of the history of your Family.
