Growing up, I knew very little of my extended family. My grandfathers both passed away before I was born and my paternal grandmother died when I was 6. So, naturally, I was a bit curious about my genealogy. A few years after I first logged into the internet (waaaaaaaayy back in 1993), I discovered Ancestry.com, Rootsweb, and many other genealogical research sites.

I had very sketchy information about my family, so I asked my parents for a little more info. Armed with a few more names, dates, and places, I started searching. At first, it was very frustrating and I hit a lot of brick walls. However, slowly but surely I started finding bits and pieces of new information. I kept at it and within a few months I had a branch of my family tree stretching back to the 1600s.

It was fascinating reading about what some of my ancestors did: farmers, photographers, mayors, coal miners, and more. Hey, I even found royalty in my tree. Imagine, little ol’ me related to King James of Scotland. Cooooool.

I have researched all of this without ever leaving my house. It’s amazing. Someday I’d love to travel to Ireland and Scotland to do some research there, but for now, I have a wealth of information at my fingertips.

I’ve even helped some of my friends research their family trees. It can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you don’t have a lot of information to go on. But believe me, persistence pays off. One day you’ll find nothing, a few months down the road, you suddenly have a branch of 10,000 new family members!

Soon, I will be adding some tips and tricks for searching for your ancestors online. In the meantime, check out the Ancestry.com Free Trial and start building your own family tree online!