The Family Tree Guidebook To Europe

Your passport to European research! Chart your research course to find your European ancestors with the beginner-friendly, how-to instruction in this book. This one-of-a-kind collection provides invaluable information about more than 35 countries in a single source. Each of the 14 chapters is devoted to a specific country or region of Europe and includes all the essential records and resources for filling in your family tree. Inside you'll find: • Specific online and print resources including 700 websites. • Contact information for more than 100 archives and libraries. • Help finding relevant records. • Traditions and historical events that may affect your family's past. • Historical time lines and maps for each region and country. Tracing your European ancestors can be a challenging voyage. This book will start you on the right path to identifying your roots and following your ancestors' winding journey through history.

Your passport to European research! Chart your research course to find your European ancestors with the beginner-friendly, how-to instruction in this book. This one-of-a-kind collection provides invaluable information about more than 35 countries in a single source. Each of the 14 chapters is devoted to a specific country or region of Europe and includes all the essential records and resources for filling in your family tree. Inside you'll find: • Specific online and print resources including 700 websites. • Contact information for more than 100 archives and libraries. • Help finding relevant records. • Traditions and historical events that may affect your family's past. • Historical time lines and maps for each region and country. Tracing your European ancestors can be a challenging voyage. This book will start you on the right path to identifying your roots and following your ancestors' winding journey through history.

Provides information on online and print resources, finding relevant records, and traditions and historical events to help find European ancestors.

Explore Your German Ancestry! Follow your family tree back to its roots in Bavaria, Baden, Prussia, Hesse, Saxony, Wurttemburg and beyond. This in-depth genealogy guide will walk you step by step through the exciting journey of researching your German heritage, whether your ancestors came from lands now in modern-day Germany or other German-speaking areas of Europe, including Austria, Switzerland, and enclaves across Eastern Europe. In this book, you'll learn how to: • Retrace your German immigrant ancestors' voyage from Europe to America. • Pinpoint the precise place in Europe your ancestors came from. • Uncover birth, marriage, death, church, census, court, military, and other records documenting your ancestors' lives. • Access German records of your family from your own hometown. • Decipher German-language records, including unfamiliar German script. • Understand German names and naming patterns that offer research clues. You'll also find maps, timelines, sample records and resource lists throughout the book for quick and easy reference. Whether you're just beginning your family tree or a longtime genealogy researcher, the Family Tree German Genealogy Guide will help you conquer the unique challenges of German research and uncover your ancestors' stories.

Journey Into the Past! Envision your ancestors' world--as your ancestors knew it--through hundreds of beautiful full-color reproductions of useful eighteenth and nineteenth century maps. The maps illustrate the historical boundaries of each of the U.S. states as they progressed from territories to statehood and show the shifting of county boundaries and names within states over the years. Inside you'll find: • Full-color historical maps of the United States from each decade of the nineteenth century. • Detailed, full-color historical maps of all 50 U.S. states. • Time lines of significant events in each state's history. • Charming nineteenth-century panoramic maps of key cities. • Special-interest maps, which provide intriguing peeks into American society from average family sizes to taxation per capita to regional industries. This book is perfect for family historians researching their American roots. The maps can help you: put research in geographical context; identify jurisdictions that likely hold your ancestors' records; note the potential locations of "missing" records; track and visualize migrations; and understand the evolution of national, state and county borders. The maps also provide great historical context for students, teachers, homeschooling parents and anyone with an interest in U.S. history. Bring American history to life with this ultimate collection of vintage maps.

The popularity of Family History has increased over the past five years due to TV shows like Genealogy Roadshow, Finding Your Roots, and Who Do You Think You Are? The ability to access records online has opened up the one time hobby for genealogy enthusiasts to the mainstream. Companies like Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, Findmypast.com, and MyHeritage have spent millions of dollars making records available around the world. DNA technology continues to evolve and provides the instant gratification that we have become use to as a society. But then the question remains, what does that really mean? Knowing your ancestry is more than just ethnic percentages it’s about creating and building a story about your family history. The Family History Toolkit is designed to help you navigate the sometimes overwhelming and sometimes treacherous waters of finding your ancestors. While this is not a comprehensive guide to all things genealogy, it is a roadmap to help you on this journey of discovery, whether you are looking for your African Asian, European, or Jewish ancestry. The Family History Toolkit guides you on how and where to begin, what records are available both online and in repositories, what to do once you find the information, how to share your story and of course DNA discoveries.

Guides readers through the complexities of genealogical research in Europe, and includes up-to-date information on church, state, and provincial archives.

"Actor and award-winning travel writer Andrew McCarthy discovers his ancestry in a compelling narrative that combines 26 intriguing and heartfelt stories about discovering home and roots with tips and recommendations on how to begin your own explorations. Addressing the explosive growth in ancestral travel, actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy recounts his own quest to uncover his family's Irish history, along with 25 other prominent writers whose stories span the globe. Each story offers a personal take on journeying home; actively seeking unknown relatives, meeting up with seldom-seen family members, or perhaps just visiting the old country to get a feel for one's roots. Sidebars and a hefty resource section provide tips and recommendations on how to go about your own research, and a foreword by the Genographic Project's Spencer Wells sets the scene. Stunning images, along with family heirlooms, old photos, recipes, and more, round out this unique take on the genealogical research craze"--Provided by publisher.

"A revised and updated edition of National Geographic book of peoples of the world, including all-new material"--Cover.

Island of Tears No More! Embark on the journey of finding your Ellis Island ancestors Nearly 20 million immigrants arrived through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 - roughly 40 percent of Americans descend from these "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Since the Ellis Island website launched in April 2001, there have been more than 60,000 users visiting it every day, trying to find their ancestors. For some researchers, locating their immigrant ancestors in Ellis Island's massive database of passenger arrival lists is a snap. For others, the "Island of Hope, Island of Tears" takes on a new meaning. You know your ancestors are in that giant computer file somewhere, but where? The Family Tree Guide to Finding Your Ellis Island Ancestors is here to help. In this comprehensive guide, you'll discover: the basic information you need to begin your search. tips and strategies for successfully finding your Ellis Island ancestors online. how passenger lists were created and what information they contain. how to use microfilmed passenger lists and indexes. what to do if you're still coming up empty-handed. Journey with your ancestors as you learn what it was like for them to travel across the ocean by steamship, how they processed through Ellis Island, and where to find information and photographs of your ancestor's ship. And for those who had ancestors who arrived right before the Ellis Island years, a special chapter is devoted to Castle Garden and its arrivals. It's the only guide you'll need for finding your Ellis Island ancestors.