Restore the family tree. How to find out your family's pedigree - step-by-step instructions

The generally accepted definition is as follows - the process of succession of generations or a system of generations of one kind, which establishes the origin of individuals and compares them with information about other individuals to establish the degree of relationship. The term “genealogy” is often used as a synonym for this concept due to the similarity of the essence of these processes. In a narrower sense, genealogy is the process of systematizing knowledge about generations within one clan. In a broad sense, genealogy is a science that establishes and studies kinship between specific individuals.

In Europe, many people became interested in the process of recording family history during feudal times. Maintaining a pedigree at that time was the only confirmation of the right to inheritance. Due to the fact that power and property were passed down the male line from father to son, there was a need to confirm kinship in controversial situations.

Families of noble families and high classes sought to give their children in marriage to people no lower than their status. The genealogy of the family also served as proof of status for obtaining a profitable party. During the period of feudalism, the process of recording family history became a tradition and became stronger.

In addition to entering into advantageous marriages, proof of noble origin for several previous generations was required for entry into the knightly order. To eliminate the possibility of deception and false testimony, in sixteenth-century England, officials appeared who checked the veracity and correctness of the genealogy.

The tradition of recording family history in Russia appeared in the fifteenth century. The first documents testifying to a family generation were genealogical books. From the times of princely Rus' to tsarist Russia, the history of the tradition of compiling a family book stretches. Papers testifying to class and clan began to act as official documents. In the course of history, they were used as proof of status to distribute service people and establish the amount of their salaries, register nobles in the public service, confirm the privileges of a certain class, and other situations.

It so happened historically that compiling genealogy was a necessity for people, a kind of applied science and confirmation of certain states and rights of privilege. Despite the fact that people compiled the history of their family based on the needs of life, the recording process itself connected living generations with their ancestors, told about not only the origin, but also the type of family activity, marriages and the formation of new family ties. The tradition of recording history gradually formed the significance of the concept of family, the authority of previous and older generations, and fostered the need to know one’s ancestors.

The importance of knowing your family's ancestry

A series of events that happened in our country has led to the fact that many people do not know their ancestors. Revolutions, wars and other historical events have negatively affected family connections. Many relatives lost their loved ones; certain circumstances forced them to change their place of residence or cut off all contacts with their family. There are many reasons for the loss of communication between generations, but thanks to the desire to find out the pedigree of one’s family by last name, both in the archives and on one’s own, a person can gain invaluable knowledge of one’s genealogy.

Knowing your family history is of utmost importance. The tradition of compiling a clan book makes it possible to obtain information about previous generations, their type of activity, and participation in critical historical events. Knowledge of family history is an integral part of the spiritual and cultural development of the individual.

Instilling in children the tradition of drawing up a pedigree has a positive impact on their developing character and psyche. The child develops a clear understanding of the importance of his family’s history in the development of the state. Such understanding fosters a sense of self-worth, and also provides invisible support from previous generations. The child begins to understand the need to honor his ancestors, as well as the living generation, that is, a sense of respect for elders is cultivated in his character.

The very process of compiling a family tree, that is, searching and collecting information, isolating individual facts to organize the system and regularly updating the tree with new information, also has a positive impact on children. The child becomes more diligent, learns to identify important factors for systematization, and also understands the sense of responsibility necessary for regularly replenishing the family tree.

Knowing family history is also important for an adult. The genealogy of generations acts as a kind of pillow that makes a person understand his significance and the significance of his family. For an already formed personality, such knowledge gives support and support, allows you to feel not alone, but confident.

In addition to the positive impact on the organization of character traits, the process of obtaining and systematizing knowledge stimulates the unity and development of family traditions and values. Information gathering activities carried out jointly with the family allow its individual members to get closer, gain new common ground, make important discoveries together, and also foster a sense of the need to know ancestors.

Knowing your pedigree can help you find relatives with whom you have lost contact or, conversely, acquire new family members who were previously unknown.

Remember that it is never too late to start recording the history of your family and obtain information about previous generations. Don't wait for a specific date or event, start collecting information now. Start a tradition that will be carried on by future generations of the bloodline.

How can you find out your ancestry by last name?

In the era of computer technology and the Internet, each person can independently obtain information about their ancestors. There are several methods of collecting information - from communicating with relatives to contacting specialized genealogical organizations.

Interview with loved ones

Communication with relatives is a great way to find out your family's ancestry for free. Interviewing parents and grandparents will provide information directly from the horse's mouth. In addition, this is a good opportunity to please the older generation with an unplanned visit and give a reason for pleasant nostalgia. You can contact relatives who live in other cities and countries via the Internet - write an email, start communicating on social networks or via video chat.

To properly systematize the information received, it is necessary to immediately separate the data during the survey. This approach allows you to specify information and not miss important points. To simplify the interviewing process, you can prepare cards with questions in advance:

Last name, first name, patronymic (+ maiden name for women).
Place and date of birth (+ date of death if the person is no longer alive).
Last name, first name, patronymic of parents (mother and father).
Estate (if a person was born before 1917).
Changes in place of residence by year.
Professed religion.
Education (school, secondary, higher).
Places of work, services.
Positions, titles.
Availability of awards and bonuses (military, scientific and others).
Last name, first name, patronymic of the spouse.
Children's names and dates of birth.

Thanks to the use of such prepared questions, you can systematize information immediately upon receiving it, and not miss important points in a person’s biography. Attach a photo to each personality card, if possible include several photos at different ages.

Systematization of information will also allow you to understand the overall picture of the family tree, see gaps in the data table, and also tell you in which direction to move next. Start from the current generations. Children, parents, ancestors, move into the depths of time in this order.

Going to the archives

Data received from relatives requires documentary confirmation. For example, older grandparents may get names mixed up or dates incorrect. To be completely sure of the correctness of the information received, you must seek official confirmation.

Information about changes in a person’s civil status can be obtained from the registry office, as well as from church archives.
Information about military personnel is stored in the databases of the relevant military services.
Information about the war participants can be obtained on Internet portals that provide data about the fighter’s path.

By contacting these authorities, you can obtain evidence confirming family ties with the person for whom the information was collected. And also verify the authenticity of the information received from the relative during the interview. It should be remembered that you can find out your pedigree in the archive either for free or for a fee. Many organizations close free access because they cannot obtain the necessary financial support in other ways.

Contacting specialized organizations

The most reliable method of collecting information is to contact companies that specialize in compiling family trees. These organizations have professional access to archival data stored at the regional and federal levels, as well as in departmental databases and pre-revolutionary archives.

The Russian House of Genealogy provides assistance at all stages of drawing up a pedigree:

Drawing up a search strategy.
Access to archives in various fields of activity.
Data authentication.
Systematization of information into a family tree.
Organizing a genealogy book.
Assistance to authors in maintaining the book of the family.

Through cooperation with such organizations, you can gain access to information that is impossible to obtain on your own. Also, the genealogical examination will be deeper, which will make it possible to recognize relatives ten to fifteen previous generations.

Where can you find out your ancestry by last name?

To simplify the process of independent search and drawing up an action strategy, you should familiarize yourself with some divisions of historical state archives:

In the archive of socio-political history you can obtain information about participants in youth movements and organizations.

The Naval Archive should be consulted for data from the Navy Ministry dating back to 1827.

In the archive of recent history you can find out information about members of the Communist Party.

The military archive contains information about military personnel from 1920.

The military historical archive contains information about the military of the pre-revolutionary period from 1797.

Archive of Ancient Acts - contains information about the life of people in Tsarist Russia.

The departmental archive contains information about the merits and awards of the Soviet people.

Don't forget about regional libraries and city museums. In these authorities you can also find out information about your ancestors, which will help you create a family tree.

Probably everyone has wondered how to find out their ancestry by last name. Most often we know the first and last names of our grandparents. And we know nothing at all about the older generation. The difficulty is that the archives are closed to ordinary users, and the services of the compilers are not cheap.

However, you can still find something. Today we will talk about various services that will help restore at least part of the pedigree and family history.

First, you can look for information about your last name or Such dictionaries can be found on the shelves of bookstores. Or refer to online dictionaries. The only difference is that not complete dictionaries are posted online. And some names may simply not be there.

You will find information in dictionaries approximately as follows: Elizarovs are Russian noble families. The first of them came from the Tatar prince Egul, baptized Vasily, who served Vasily the Dark against Shemyaka. He had a son, Elizar, whose descendants took the name Elizarov. Of these, Fyodor Kuzmich, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, was the Duma clerk, Duma nobleman and okolnichy, and in 1658 he was in charge of the local order; his brother Prokofy ruled the zemstvo order.

This Elizarov family apparently died out. Two other families of Elizarov date back to the 17th century. and included in the VI part of the genealogical books of the Kostroma and Novgorod provinces.

It is clear that this information will not help you find out your personal ancestry, but it will indicate where to move next. In these dictionaries you can get information about the region of origin of the surname, which means that you can figure out which archive to contact in the future.

In dictionaries you can get information about the region of origin of the surname

Metric information from approximately 1790 to 1919 is stored in the state archives of regions, territories, republics and districts of the Russian Federation. In some archives, registry books have been preserved since 1703; the information needs to be clarified.

Archives are searched on a commercial basis. And anyone can request information about their ancestry directly.

The cost of compiling a family tree along one line in the archives of the Sverdlovsk region is 50 thousand rubles!

The main sources of data are parish registers of church parishes, audit records, and confessional paintings. As well as other sources with lists of names and surnames of local residents, genealogical books of nobles by province.

The prices for compiling archival references in the state archive of the Sverdlovsk region for April 2016 are as follows:

According to documents of the 18th century 1 archival certificate 2,350.00
According to documents of the 19th century 1 archival certificate 2,150.00
According to documents of the 20th century 1 archival certificate 1,950.00

Viewing parish registers in order to identify documents (records) for genealogical queries:

Parish books of the 18th century for 1 year 890.00
Parish books of the 19th century for 1 year 590.00
Parish books of the twentieth century for 1 year 490.00

You can make a request to compile a family tree (painting one line of kinship) - the cost is 50 thousand rubles.

Information about your relatives can also be found in various electronic document banks.

There are entire resources where information about the dead, missing, award documents, and lists of mass graves is published. You can even find

On the website of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense there is where you can find interesting facts that the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who fought might not have known about. For example, using a map, you can track the coordinates of your grandfather or great-grandfather’s battle route, if there were injuries, see in which hospital he was treated, and much more. Here is another one, created by the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, where you can find information about those who fought in the Great Patriotic War.

Also on the Internet you can find lists of soldiers who went missing and were found recently, which will also help restore the history of the family. Information can be found here or here. At the same time, work is constantly underway and data is updated. So, for example, on the second site the last update was carried out on March 29, 2016.

We discussed why every man should research his ancestry, arguing that doing this kind of research is not only fun, but also a moral duty. The work of restoring a family tree creates a sense of identity and at the same time serves as one of the ways to honor the memory of the ancestors who gave you the most valuable thing - life.

This article outlines the basics of researching the history of your family and preserving the memory of your ancestors. Researching your family's genealogy is a journey, so before you go, you should make a plan. Here are a few things you need to do before you dive headfirst into your kind of history.

Find out what has already been done

There are also special online resources for restoring a family tree. You can take their help to fill in some of the gaps.

When I started digging into my family history, I discovered that quite a lot of information was available about my maternal relatives, which was not the case for my father's ancestors. However, when I signed up for FamilySearch a few months ago, I saw that my sister had managed to find quite a bit of information about Dad's half of our family tree and make connections to research that had been done by other users of the site.

So, when you start studying the history of your family, first of all, familiarize yourself with what has already been done by your relatives, and only after that start searching for the missing information.

Perhaps there is a line in your family tree that suddenly breaks due to the absence of some important data. Or maybe one of your relatives knows the dates of birth and marriage of your great-great-grandparents, but he (s) knows nothing about their biography. These are the gaps that you could address.

In short, use the information available to guide your own research.

Convert temporary information into digital form

Genealogy is more than just a family tree. This is the story of your family. Remember, we are trying to prevent the “second death” of our ancestors by recording and passing on information about their lives from generation to generation. When you begin to reconstruct your family tree, spend some of your time collecting facts that will help you get a holistic picture of the history of your family. Pay special attention to temporary information.

So, what sources of genealogical information are perishable?

First of all, people. Every person will die sooner or later, but while he is alive, he is the keeper of useful and valuable information about the history of his family. You must get this information from him before he passes on to the next world. Talk to older relatives and record (preferably with a digital voice recorder) their personal stories and what they remember about their ancestors. Your grandfather can tell you a lot of interesting things. Communication with elderly relatives should be your priority. Don't put it off until later, because "later" may be too late.

Other sources of mortal information include photographs, diaries, letters and other documents. These items deteriorate over time and may be lost forever. If possible, try to convert all recordings into digital form. As for photographs, be sure to accompany them with appropriate explanations (where and when they were taken, who is depicted in them, and so on).

Digitization of mortal information is a very labor-intensive process; if you do not have time for this, seek help from special services.

Setting goals for genealogical research

When you first begin to reconstruct your family tree, this activity may seem intimidating and difficult at first, because you do not know in which direction to move. However, don't rush to give up.

To overcome this problem, first of all, set yourself fairly specific and modest goals. These will depend on how much information you have and what genealogical research has already been done. For those starting from scratch, it would be a good idea to first fill out tables with data about your relatives (more on them a little later), including great-grandparents. Completing this goal will provide you with information that will serve as the basis for filling in the gaps in the rest of your ancestry.

Once you have completed this task, focus your efforts on one family group. Impatience may make you want to jump from one line to another, but to keep your work organized and efficient, do not move on to the next family group until you have completed the previous one.

If, before starting your research, you find that, for example, there is more information about the maternal line than about the paternal line, focus on the former in order to go from simple to complex.

If your relatives have already filled out the family tree on both sides, start delving into your genealogical research. If the low hanging fruit has already been picked, move on or focus on collecting biographical information about your ancestors to create a more complete family history. Talk to distant relatives and write down their memories. Visit archives to find primary documents related to your ancestors. Read history books to better understand the time and circumstances under which your grandparents lived.

The deeper you dig, the richer your family history will be, which will continue to develop in the future.

Filling out tables with data about your relatives

You can conduct genealogical research using the Internet and special programs, as well as tables with data about your relatives, which need to be filled out manually.

These tables serve as road maps for your family history research. They should contain data such as last name/first name/patronymic, date of birth, marriage and death of relatives, as well as (preferably) information about their profession, religious views, military service, place of residence and purchase of real estate.

This information will help you determine which direction to take and will indicate what needs more careful documentation.

Beginning of genealogical research

After you have made all the preparations, you can begin to directly study family history. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, genealogical research has never been easier. Just some thirty years ago, people had to go to archives and spend hours reviewing documents to find any information about their ancestors. Today there are many online resources (including forums) and programs that can provide you with invaluable assistance with this.

If you find little useful information on the Internet, then you should look for it in archives, libraries, parishes, churches and cemeteries located where your ancestors lived or died. In some cases, you may need help from people living in those places. For a certain fee, they will fulfill any of your instructions (for example, they will make copies of any material and send it to you, etc.).

Researching family history and the need to make educated guesses

What to do if you reach a dead end while researching family history? For example, you managed to find out the name of your great-great-great-grandfather, but the matter did not progress beyond that. You know nothing about his spouse, date/place of birth or death. If you do not receive this information, you will not be able to continue the study.

What should I do? You need to become a detective for a while and start checking various clues. If, say, you know the date and place of birth of your great-great-great-grandfather’s son, you can assume that he died in that city or village. Thus, your search will be significantly narrowed.

This is exactly the problem I encountered when I was trying to find the missing information about my paternal great-great-great-grandfather. And I managed to get the information I needed thanks to the method I described above.

Family history of the 21st century: genetic genealogy

If you want to find your distant relatives, consider DNA testing. In America, for example, there are special companies that provide genetic testing for $100. All you have to do is spit into the tube and mail it in a pre-paid box. Within a week they will provide you with a list of your potential genetic relatives. These people can be excellent sources of genealogical information that you are missing.

However, you need to keep in mind that DNA testing may reveal some unpleasant family secrets. You must be prepared for such surprises.

What if I was adopted?

If you are adopted, you can take several paths. Your adoptive family remains your family. Yes, you have different genes, but you inherited family culture and traditions from them, so the ancestors of your adoptive parents are your ancestors too. There is no need to doubt whether it is worth studying the pedigree of your adoptive family. Just remember to indicate that you are adopted.

If you know who your real parents are, you can also reconstruct the history of your biological family.

Establishing the reliability of information

When conducting genealogical research, it is very easy to get carried away and take this or that information at face value. For example, I made the mistake of filling out a line of ancestors in my digital family tree that I thought were related to my great-great-great-grandfather. I did this because of my carelessness. I discovered the error a few days later and had to start all over again. This is why care and authentication of information are so important when working with a pedigree.

You must be absolutely sure that the information you receive is reliable. When you evaluate genealogical data for reliability, you should consider the following five criteria:

1) The search carried out was quite exhaustive.

2) Each statement of fact has a complete and accurate source of citation.

3) The available evidence is reliable and competently correlated and interpreted.

4) Any conflicting evidence was excluded.

5) The conclusion is justified and reasoned.

If you can confidently say that your information meets these criteria, then it is reliable. Of course, you should be prepared for the fact that with the emergence of new information, it will need to be revised.

What to do with the pedigree

So, let's assume that you are already researching your family history and have made significant progress. What should you do with them?

It depends on how deep you want to dig.

If you are only interested in establishing family connections, then you will simply need to fill out your family tree.

If you want to get a more complete understanding of the history of your family, you need to collect information about the type of activity of your ancestors, as well as the period in which they happened to live.

The third option is to create an album with a family tree, photographs and copies of relevant documents. It can be passed on from generation to generation.

You can use your research to plan a pilgrimage to your ancestral homeland or organize a large family gathering.

And most importantly, share your knowledge with others. Perhaps someone really needs the information that you have. Place it on a special online resource or create your own website, which will be accessible to other members of your family.

Looking back at the events of our country’s past, one can understand why many of us have finally lost touch with our forefathers. In the cycle of historical events, people either lost contact with their blood relatives or deliberately refused any relationship with them. And today one cannot blame anyone: in an effort to save their children, many families deliberately changed and destroyed old documents in order to avoid repression and execution.

Nowadays, the presence of venerable ancestors in the pedigree is highly valued: belonging to a family with important (from a historical point of view) surnames will give your person a certain weight in a cultural society. But even if you are sure that the names of your great-grandparents and their parents are not known to public history, knowing your roots is still very important, because this knowledge is an integral part of the spiritual, religious and cultural aspects of a modern personality.

Options for searching for information about your ancestors

For those who want to take the shortest route, we inform you that on the virtual market of services on the Internet today there are a lot of specialized services that guarantee, for a certain amount of money, to “unearth” the history of your family in the archives and ultimately compile your family history for you. You will become the owner of an officially certified certificate, which will list in detail all representatives of your family - with surnames, professions and dates of life. However, it is necessary to mention the disadvantages of this type of investigation: no one will give you a guarantee that they will find your blood relatives, and not their namesakes. True, MirSovetov offers another time-consuming, but reliable option - to find information about your ancestors on your own.

Independent search of a kind: drawing up an action plan

To get the necessary information yourself, be prepared:

interview your relatives;
systematize the received data;
use search queries;
obtain affiliation status.

Conversation with family and friends.

The first and simplest stage of the search begins with interviewing relatives. At the same time, do not miss the opportunity to communicate with close friends of their families and neighbors if your relatives live in one place for a long time. The older the history of your family, the more difficult it is to collect the pieces of the mosaic that make it up. All data received must be carefully recorded in order to systematize it later.

Features of data classification.

Systematization of the collected information is the next important step on the path to your own. Finding a person involves not only familiarizing yourself with historical information about him, but also studying photographs that may be related to him. So, on an old photograph you can find a clue (background, style of clothing, strangers) that will tell you in which direction you should move next.

Without a clear systematization, it is not possible to create a family tree of your kind, because you must know for sure what names were in the string of your ancestors, who and by whom came to each other and to you. Having a large amount of knowledge, you can find out and prove the significance of the surname, if there are any in your family. In addition, systematization will indicate gaps in the family chain. To make up for them, you may have to ask your relatives more than once about what interests you.

How to create a search query.

All information about your prospective relatives that will be of some value to you needs official confirmation.

Let’s say that if a woman was married more than once, then her last name changed several times. To know about this reliably, you need to write a request to the registry office archives. Information about distant ancestors is sought in church archives.

If the person you want to know something about was a military man, and you only have his first and last name and a photograph, do not think that everything is lost. It happened that ammunition and uniform added missing details to the image of a stranger. In such cases, a written request is sent to the military archive. The task will be greatly simplified if the military man has received an award: all orders are registered in a special journal, where they must note when, to whom and for what merits the order was issued. In this way, you can find out which military unit your ancestor served in and then send a request to the military archive - as a result, you can get information about rank, membership in a famous family, or whether this person is your namesake.

Please note that in addition to information from the military archive from the registry office, you can study census lists or arctic fox books from the 15th century. All written requests to official organizations are usually paid.

List of divisions of Russian archives

In order for the search for information to be prompt and productive, you must clearly understand where to look for certain information. All domestic historical archives have divisions:

State Archive of Socio-Political History - contains data on workers and participants of youth organizations.
State Archives of the Navy - all the documentary information of the Navy Ministry, starting from 1827, is collected there.
State Archive of Contemporary History - this organization stores the personal files of Communist Party members.
State Military Archive - contains data on the military since 1920. There is a rich archive of the Red Army, as well as foreign military operations of the Second World War.
State Military Historical Archive – information from the pre-revolutionary period, starting from 1797, is stored here.
State Archive of Ancient Acts – contains documents from various archives. These include documentation belonging to the imperial court from 1869 to 1920, ancient manuscripts from the period 1854 to 1882, records of old affairs (1782 - 1852) and a repository of patrimonial affairs (1768 - 1852).
Departmental archive - in it you can find comprehensive data about people of the Soviet period, their labor awards and orders.

Do not neglect district libraries and local museums, where you can get access to various search literature, archival documents, newspapers and other information and reference publications. Don’t forget that you can use the services of archivists, historians and bibliographers.

Additional sources of information search

Check out several free virtual services that you can use to create and create your personal pedigree:

Tree of Life - genery.com. The site provides the opportunity to create a family tree, determine the degree of relationship with ancestors, and also store photos, videos and other information about the life and occupation of relatives;
The Family Chronicle - the-family-chronicle.com. On this site you will create a large colorful tree of sorts. You can also store photos, videos and various documents.
GenoPro - genopro.com. You can display your pedigree in the form of a graphic table.

The following libraries can help in investigating the origin of a surname:

russian-family.ru;
Petergen.com;
knigafund.ru.

Finding your genealogical roots is labor-intensive, time-consuming work. After officially confirming your direct relationship to the noble family, you must decide what to do with the result of your labors. Some apply for an inheritance, and if they are lucky, they also enjoy certain material benefits.

If you managed to find some relatives, but their names do not represent any historical value, do not be discouraged. On the contrary, you can be proud of yourself because you not only made every effort to find out your origins, but also gave a wonderful gift to your children and grandchildren (present or future). Knowing and honoring your ancestors is the key to mental health and well-being of the entire family.