October is Family History Month!

Do you know who your ancestors are?

The majority of us know our grandparents and some younger people have the privilege of knowing their great-grandparents. (What a blessing! What I wouldn't give to have had opportunity to know my great-grandparents!) But, who else do you know?

I have traced my family name back to the late 1600's. Three of my four grandparents came from German fathers and Irish mothers! The other one was pure Italian! (I have traced her line back to the mid 1700's.) 

I even have a Great Great-Grandmother named Kate! I didn't know that growing up, but I am very glad I know it now! Knowing my ancestor's connects me to them. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of them. I am very thankful that they sacrificed and endured the trip to America to give me the opportunity to be born here.

Tracing your ancestors is easy! You don't need a fancy subscription service to find them. You can do it for FREE! (Well, you do need a computer and internet service, but you already have that or you would not be reading this post.) 

Go to www.familysearch.org. You don't even need to create a free account to search for your ancestors, just click on the Search button at the top of the page. If you want to save the information you find, you can either print it out, or create a free account and save it to the cloud.

Enter all the information you know about your ancestor in the search fields. Not sure of a date? Put in a range. I have put ranges up to 10 years and still found people in my family!

Give it a try!  I KNOW you will be introduced to a family member you didn't know about!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a FREE web site that you can use to help you locate your ancestors: www.familysearch.org. This web site has all sorts of tutorials and on-line help if you don't know where to start. It has records from all over the world! Anyone, from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection, can access this site to search for their deceased family members. If you want even more help, stop by the family history center at your local church. You do not have to be a church member to use the local family history center. There are family history centers in almost every country in the world!