Daniel Webster said, "Those who do not look upon themselves as a link, connecting the past with the future, do not perform their duty to the world." Whether you've been working on your genealogy for a while, or whether you're just beginning, your question may be the same: how do I trace my family tree?
People differ in their approach to tracing their family tree, in everything from what records to search to how many generations to search for. Some search only for their sixteen great-great-grandparents. Some want to connect their family tree back to a famous ancestor.
The Domesday Book
As you get further and further back in time, there are fewer and fewer genealogical records to search. The eminent medieval English record is the Domesday Book. After invading England in 1066, William the Conqueror commissioned a cataster or survey in 1085 to assess land and holdings in England. Because the book also lists property owners, it is one of the first and only genealogical-type records available for England in the Middle Ages. The name for the Domesday Book comes from the Old English word dom, similar to doom, meaning accounting or reckoning. The original book is now kept at the National Archives at Kew.
Catholic Parish Records
Catholic parish records are also an invaluable resource that pre-date most other genealogical records. The Council of Trent of the 1500s decreed that all Catholic priests record all the sacraments of baptism, marriage, and last rites that they perform; for that reason, almost all parish records date back to the 1500s and some parishes began recording sacraments even earlier than that. If you have Catholic ancestry, the question, "How do I trace my family tree?" can be easily answered: with parish records.
U.S. Federal Census Records
"But how do I trace my family tree for more recent American ancestry?," you may ask. U.S. Federal Census records are some of the premiere American genealogical records. They can help you track where your ancestors were living at a given time and who the living family members were.
The records available are abundant, and the work is rewarding. Tracing your family tree is work well worth your time.
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