Tips and Tricks for Family Research
1. Talking with my Dad
My father and I spent many long hours on the phone. We talked about the immediate family and the world wide family. We've talked about Italy and our home Frosinone. We talked about Pingree and all of my relatives there. I jotted down every single thing he'd told me and then he gave me one of the best tips I could have ever had. Talk to my relatives. I grabbed my notebook and started making phone calls. I called my sister, my cousins and my favorite aunt. They were all delighted to hear from me and gave me more information than I could ever ask for from any computer on the market. My first suggestion would be to talk to a nearest relative and then proceed to make phone calls. Don't worry they'll be happy to hear from you and will be happy to know that someone in the family is interested in doing the family tree!
2. Talking with Relatives
You've been taking notes and listening to every relative you have. You've been talking to the older relatives in your world that remember the details of what it was like in World War 1 and World War 2. Or what happened to Italy when people got the plague. How scared they got and fled to the United States where it would be safe and they could start a new life. Aunt Betsy loved sharing the story of her life with you and the stories of when Uncle Fred got too drunk and got kicked out of this bar and that bar. She shared childhood stories of how her and your mother used to get into trouble all the time and talked until you were so tired you were cross eyed. You sent thank you cards to every one of the relatives that shared any information with you and you've sat down to start your journey into the world wide web of family research.
3. Sign up
You are now armed and ready with information and sitting at your computer wondering what to do next. Go to your favorite search engine and simply type in family research. ancestry.com will be in the choices. (or press on the link here and it'll take you right to it). Sign up for the 7 day free trial. I will guarantee you that after only 7 days of research you will be hooked! After 7 days it will be smart of you to sign up for the World offer. If you are researching Italians (or any other ancestors for that matter) you will need those archives for the information they give you. They are so packed full of information that the site will soon pay for itself and you will be one satisfied customer.
Start with your name first and go backwards. If you have no information on anyone but you, that's the only thing you can do. If you know of an Aunt or an Uncle start with their names. I started with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Sauce. (Sosio). There names (especially Uncle Sauce) aren't so popular and they were easy to find. After putting in a couple of names green leaves started to appear. Those are hints to who they might be and whom their family members might be. Click on those leaves. It'll take you back family after family and century after century.
Start with your name first and go backwards. If you have no information on anyone but you, that's the only thing you can do. If you know of an Aunt or an Uncle start with their names. I started with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Sauce. (Sosio). There names (especially Uncle Sauce) aren't so popular and they were easy to find. After putting in a couple of names green leaves started to appear. Those are hints to who they might be and whom their family members might be. Click on those leaves. It'll take you back family after family and century after century.
4. Italians
Italians are a seriously hard bunch of people to research. The name Rossi alone is just as popular in Italy as the name Smith is here in the United States. It is also spelled 12,0000 ways. There is the original version Rossi and then several other variations: Rossie, Rossy, Rosey, Rosse, Rosseau, Rossu, Rosso, Rossou, and in some cases Rossi became Ross as they traveled from Italy to America.
5. The Tree Maker
As you go along you will find out all about surnames, family crests etc. My father told me that Rossi means red in Italian. Our family crest is red. You can look it up on the Tree Maker. They've got a lot of useful information on that site. It's a site to go back to once you get serious about putting your family tree up on your wall or maybe in a collection.
6. Oops?
Okay, so, you've signed up for your 7 day free trial and you've done searches and your family research is coming a long quite nicely. You've connected all the dots and all of a sudden there is a glich. You're thinking, "This can not be right!" On the contrare, Italians from the old country in Italy believe that there is no men better for their daughters except for the ones that are already in their families. Therefore, there were marriages that were set up many many years ago (when it was not illegal to do so) where husbands and wives were picked for each other and then given a dowry to get married. Sometimes these husbands and wives were already related, sometimes they weren't. It may not be the thing we do today with our children but it was a belief and custom Italians did back in the day. Therefore, don't be surprised if you find someone whom has been in your family married to someone whom was already in your family. It may not be an oops.
7. Immigrants
My father came over on a ship called the Independence. Ancestry.com made a mistake and put her on the Constitution but his ship was called the Independence. He came over when he was 11 years old with my Grandmother and my Aunt Carmina. My Grandfather followed suit until later on. They landed in New York City on an Island by the name of Ellis Island. They later made their home in Pingree, Idaho. Pingree, Idaho is known as Pingree, Bingham Idaho in the search engines.
Ancestry.com has a wonderful archive chucked full of information on the immigrants that came over. When you are looking at the records it may be difficult to find the exact spelling of the last names. Many of these Italians didn't have a higher education than the fifth or sixth grade. A lot of them had to be pulled out of school to help on their family farms etc. So a lot of the spelling isn't correct. That's why when you go through the search engines you might have to spell it several different ways before you can actually find the right person.
When you get to one of these ship records make sure you look all the way through it under the name of the person that you are wanting to find. These records have a location and a box of whom the relative is that you're ancestor is meeting up with when they hit the states. This will further help trace back the family tree and help you make sure that you are picking the right relative.
There are many other sites to go to on the internet to look for family. There is the L.D.S. site. It's the Church of Latter Day Saints that helped create a site to help set up your family tree and do research through them. Latter Day Saint's Genealogy is what it's called. It has a ton of wonderful archives to help with the family research. I looked up a lot of my relatives through them. Sometimes when you get stuck thinking "out of the box" is the next best thing to solving the problem. Using a different site may get you different ideas.
Ancestry.com has a wonderful archive chucked full of information on the immigrants that came over. When you are looking at the records it may be difficult to find the exact spelling of the last names. Many of these Italians didn't have a higher education than the fifth or sixth grade. A lot of them had to be pulled out of school to help on their family farms etc. So a lot of the spelling isn't correct. That's why when you go through the search engines you might have to spell it several different ways before you can actually find the right person.
When you get to one of these ship records make sure you look all the way through it under the name of the person that you are wanting to find. These records have a location and a box of whom the relative is that you're ancestor is meeting up with when they hit the states. This will further help trace back the family tree and help you make sure that you are picking the right relative.
There are many other sites to go to on the internet to look for family. There is the L.D.S. site. It's the Church of Latter Day Saints that helped create a site to help set up your family tree and do research through them. Latter Day Saint's Genealogy is what it's called. It has a ton of wonderful archives to help with the family research. I looked up a lot of my relatives through them. Sometimes when you get stuck thinking "out of the box" is the next best thing to solving the problem. Using a different site may get you different ideas.