Kinship ties are one of the closest ties that determine the social structure of any society. But not always every family has complete data about their ancestors. To find relatives about whom there is almost no information, you will have to turn to the methods used in compiling a family tree.
It is necessary
- - notebook;
- - fountain pen;
- - Dictaphone;
- - documents from the family archive;
- - information obtained from state archives.
Instructions
Step 1
Start your ancestor search by interviewing your immediate and distant relatives. Explain to them that you want to restore information about a specific person so that the connection between generations is not interrupted. From casual conversations with relatives, you can glean the most necessary initial data, including the last name, first name, patronymic, date of birth and place of residence of the ancestor. Record the results on paper or use a voice recorder. This will allow you not to lose valuable information and refer to it later for analysis.
Step 2
Search your family archive. The source of information about a specific person can be old photographs, birth and marriage certificates, a secondary education certificate, a university graduation diploma. Often in the archives there are various kinds of help containing installation data. But the most valuable material for research can be letters from previous years. Of course, to get acquainted with them, get the consent of those to whom they are addressed. If possible, make copies of documents of interest to your search.
Step 3
After collecting the initial information about the wanted ancestor, seek help from archival institutions. For a long time, local and central archives have preserved many of the documents that may be key in your searches: data on places of residence and work, on service in the armed forces. There are specialized archives of enterprises, organizations and institutions, where information on the types of activities is stored. So, if your ancestor participated in the Great Patriotic War, his track record or data on awards can be found by contacting the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense.
Step 4
Sort all the collected information and analyze it. Make a list of all family ties through which you can access additional information about your relative. As a result, you will probably be able to find those persons with whom he maintained family or friendly relations, worked together or served. The most valuable thing is that your information search can be the beginning of a great and rewarding work of compiling a family tree.
