Almost everyone eventually wants to learn more about their family and ancestors. What were they and what were they doing, what memory did they leave about themselves? But, unfortunately, few can boast of a good knowledge of their pedigree. In the daily rush, people have no time to listen to the stories of elderly family members about distant and, it seems, completely unimportant things. After all, you need to work, raise children, do household chores. Where can one patiently listen to grandmother's memories of people who have long been dead?
However, 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 representatives of the family - they will tell about their parents, grandparents. Elderly relatives will tell much more than any archive, because they are living witnesses to the story. Such memories are best recorded on any medium or outlined, and only then systematized.
Old photographs play an important role in restoring the history of their ancestors. They are usually signed, and so you can find out what a relative looked like, with whom he talked, where he lived.
Diaries and letters must be collected. The stamp on the envelope can talk about where one of the ancestors worked or served, and the notes will help restore the chronology of events.
What can a surname tell?
You can learn a lot about your ancestors by last name. As a rule, she can talk about the origins of the genus, indicate belonging to a particular estate. For ordinary people, peasants and artisans, the surname was often formed on behalf of, profession, nickname or appearance, and among representatives of the nobility from the name of the possessions of the clan.
Special directories contain information on the history of the surname. Sometimes she can say a lot about her carriers, because it is not for nothing that the main character traits inherent in the family were reflected on the family emblems and seals of noble people.
Using archives
Unfortunately, not everyone has relatives who can learn about their ancestors. Surname - both by chance and on purpose can be substantially changed. Some representatives of the nobility could give their children truncated or altered surnames. Entries in church books are also sometimes erroneous. Therefore, for the exact result, you need to go to the archive.
A census in our country has been going on since the 18th century. All important documents, such as certificates of marriage, birth and death, were issued in duplicate, one of which remained in the church, and the other was transferred to the vault.
A visit to the archive requires a lot of free time and painstaking work. Some of the departments are closed to ordinary visitors, and they can be visited only on 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 turn to professionals for help.
But it is important to understand that before starting the search, it is necessary to collect at least minimal data on your ancestors, to find out both the surname 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 archival data has now been converted into electronic form, and therefore more and more often 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 who died or disappeared 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 definitely known that they are in the archive, then you can try to write a request there. It is important to understand that some documents still have a security stamp, and no one can provide this information.
On specialized genealogy sites, you can find many useful tips on where to start. The recommendations will help to understand the confusing terminology of kinship, tell you what information and where to look, learn to systematize the data, and on their basis correctly compose the family tree of the family.
Genealogy
All found papers, photographs collected in one pile have an unattractive appearance. Therefore, all known information about their ancestors must be systematized. The generally accepted method is the compilation of the family tree of the family, which is a diagram of all family ties.
There are certain rules for registration: 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 an opposite arrangement of family ties.
When compiling a family tree, it is necessary to take into account the features of the 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 genus was considered interrupted.
You can compose a family tree both independently and by contacting specialists for help. It will become a real gift for any family celebration and will be passed on from generation to generation, overgrown with new descendant branches.
Moscow was not built in a day…
Drawing up a family tree is a painstaking task, requiring a lot of time and a great desire to understand the history of their ancestors. Recognizing the surname, as practice shows, is far from everything, because it could undergo various changes or be lost for several generations.
The difficulty is also that many of the information was lost or deliberately destroyed in a whirlwind of bloody events of the XX century. The revolution and the wars that claimed millions of human lives, hundreds of thousands of children who ended up in orphanages after losing their parents, and sometimes even not knowing and not remembering their family - all this is a serious obstacle in establishing the genealogical roots.
Great desire, patience and painstakingness are indispensable in this difficult matter. Many abandon what they started in the middle, failing to get through the intricacies of family ties, a huge amount of documents and information. But when the information, collected with little difficulty, begins to take shape - this becomes the best incentive to continue such a great thing as restoring the history of your Family.