I need help searching my family’s history. I’m not tech savvy.

CatrinaGaston

I need help searching my family’s history. I’m not tech savvy.

Paul W

@CatrinaGaston

A lot of us aren't (including me!), but there are certain strategies that can be easily adopted to make tracing ones genealogy that much easier. However, it would help if you could be a little more specific about your immediate tasks, in order to be provided with advice on, say, how or where to make your searches and perhaps the geographical area(s) where your family might have lived. Resources that will help in your research vary considerably according to what part of the world and/or what time period you are (initially) wishing to look at.

susan herceg

Do you live near a family center at a Mormon Church? They can help you get started.

CatrinaGaston

I’m familiar with the concept of researching and truthfully, I don’t know exactly what I’m seeking—closure maybe. Questions of where I “came from” have continuously flooded my mind from time to time. My younger brother always made a point to say, “We all hope you find your real parents some day because you’re adopted.” He’d laugh. I’d brush it off because everyone said I favored my dad. I was pregnant at fourteen; married and a mom at fifteen. Life went on and I felt erased from my family. I’d made a mistake and was punished for it, severely. But, the grandmother who I only saw at the age of two andI had no clue who she was at that time, was never a part of our family. I did not know of her existence until approximately six or seven years ago. In the recent year learned she had dementia—I chose not to meet her then. She’d never know who I was. So, I guess I just want to find some of her other grandchildren. My brother and I aren’t mentioned in her obituary; my dad and mom are. Other grandchildren are. I just met my dad’s real brother 49 years after walking this earth. It’s all just very peculiar and odd to me.

WilbergClarkN

@CatrinaGaston As Susan Herceg suggested (above), seek out a FamilySearch Center in your locale https://locations.familysearch.org/en/search The staff there will be able to assist you in your efforts to identify your family and research information pertaining to them. Prayers for you that you may find the peace you seek.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Also check your local library or local genealogy/historical society - many offer classes and one-on-one help with researching.

CatrinaGaston

Thank you all for the kindness and advice!! It means a lot.