Family History Research

Introduction
The family history paper is one of the most rewarding projects you may do during your student career. It is intended to expose you to the variety of research materials--oral history interviews, government documents, financial records, correspondence, photographs--that make up the historian's toolbox. Because many students in this class will ultimately go on to teaching careers, the project also provides an opportunity to explore the kind of assignment that can work well even at an elementary-grade level. Because the subject--our own families--is familiar to almost all of us, it is assumed that the more sensitive aspects of social history, for instance asking embarrassing questions or dealing with issues of ethnicity, can be bridged more smoothly.

The Web
The Internet contains many resources for researching your ancestors. It will not, however, provide you with all of the answers. It is a tool, nothing more. It does not contain a complete data base for everyone who ever lived. It can help point you in the right direction and might bring you into contact with someone who can help you over a hurdle. In the end, it is still up to you to do the work of finding the information you need. I make no endorsement of any of the sites or the contents of any of the sites listed below.

Texas GenWeb Genealogy
This is a clearinghouse site for Texas genealogy. A large number of Texas history links, which are not directly genealogical, is also included. It contains the same links outlined below, as well as many others. It can serve as the starting place for any search. For those of you who know where it is you want to look for information, you might want to try linking directly from one of the links described below:

Genealogy.org
A comprehensive reference guide to for-profit genealogy sites on the Net. This site contains an extensive guide to everything related to genealogy that is available on the net. This is a for profit site, so the services provided will cost money beyond the free trial period, as will other sites to which this one links, including Ancestry.com, which does contain downloadable charts and forms.

A pre-eminent source of genealogical information is the Family Search site of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons). A search function allows you to enter name, date, and place information to search through the digitized part of the LDS records.

Other Sources
The Online Guide to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission is an extremely useful tool for those tracing their ancestry in Texas back more than two generations.

The Texas General Land Office has a descriptive guide available on line. As the repository for the state's original land grant records, its documents date back to the early eighteenth century and include some census reports and other indexes of importance to tracing the genealogies of early Texas families, both Mexican and Anglo.

The National Archives site is full of interesting information regarding American history. For family history, the National Archives has set up a separate page called Genealogy, where you can find the microfilm catalogs for a variety of record groups containing individual information, including military, court, and census records. The census record catalog is divided into five parts, the records from 1790-1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930. The catalog is organized by state and then by county, township, or ward. The catalog will let you know which microfilm reel will have the information you need. Once you have this number, you can go to the Genealogy Library in Austin and find the right microfilm reel quickly.

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