Finding family records
For families researching for themselves.
Family records are the documents that show where a family lived and who belonged to it: birth, marriage and death registers, census pages, passenger lists, naturalization papers, gravestones, and the files kept by archives abroad. These guides start with the papers at home and the American records any family can search, then turn to the town the family came from, the archives of Europe, and the reading of old letters in other languages.
Before anything goes into a family tree, check it against the original record. How to check that a record really belongs to your family sets out the method, with a correction from a published family history.
Where to begin: the papers in the house, the oldest relatives, the free American records, then the archives abroad.
Starting out
- How accurate is FamilySearch? How to check an index against the original recordGuideHow far to trust the big sites, and how to test an index entry against the original, with a correction from the example.
American records
- How to search Ellis Island records and find the right passengerGuideWhere the lists are, the years they cover, how to search every spelling, what both pages of a manifest give, and how to know the passenger is yours.
Names and towns
- How to find the town your family came from in EuropeGuideEvery record that can name the family's town, then how to find that town today when its name and its country have changed.
- Jewish last names: how they were formed and what they meanExplainerWhen each state required Jewish surnames, the kinds of name, what common names mean, and how to trace your own.
Records by country
- How to write to a European archive and get a replyGuideFinding the right archive, what to ask for, a letter to adapt, fees and payment, how long replies take, and keeping a log.
Reading old records
- Yiddish translation services: how to get old Yiddish and Hebrew letters readGuideWho reads old Yiddish and Hebrew letters, what it costs, how to date a letter and prepare copies, and what a full translation gives.
Some records can be searched from home, and others only by writing to an archive abroad. A Zichronos commission includes that work. How we work