Search guide
Ancestor search, from a blank page to a documented relative.
An ancestor search is the process of finding records — census, vital, church, land, immigration — that name a specific ancestor and prove their place in your family. Start with a name paired with a place and a rough decade. Use the free FamilySearch and NARA catalogs first. Then confirm every claim with at least three independent sources before you add it to your tree.
Start with what you already have
The single most productive hour in a beginner's research is not spent on a search engine. It is spent on the phone with the oldest relative who will talk to you. Ask for full names — including maiden names — places of birth, dates of marriage, the towns people moved from and to, the names of siblings who died young, and any old photographs with writing on the back. Write it all down. You will use half of it, and the other half will save you later.
Where to look — free US archives, ranked by first-try success
| Archive | Best for | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| FamilySearch | Census, vital, church, immigration | Global, deepest US coverage |
| NARA (archives.gov) | Federal census 1790–1950, military, land | United States, federal only |
| Chronicling America (LOC) | Newspaper obituaries and mentions | US papers 1777–1963 |
| State archive websites | Vital records, land, probate | Varies by state |
| USGenWeb (state → county) | Local cemetery, marriage indexes | Volunteer-maintained, patchy but valuable |
| Ellis Island / Castle Garden | Passenger arrivals | 1820–1957 |
| Find A Grave | Cemetery leads and dates | Global, crowd-sourced |
The four moves that unstick most searches
1. Search by spouse or child, not by your target.
If John Smith is impossible to find, look for his wife Bridget O'Shea. Distinctive names are easier to isolate, and once you find her household you have found him too.
2. Use wildcards or Soundex from the start.
Federal census indexes were typed by human hands from handwritten pages. Soundex clusters names that sound alike; wildcards catch initial-letter mistakes. If your target is Kowalski, run K*wal* — you will pick up Kowalsky, Kowalksi, Kovalski, and the Anglicized Cole.
3. Move sideways to neighbors and witnesses.
A marriage witness in 1878 is almost never a stranger. A census neighbor is often an in-law. When the ancestor's own trail runs cold, research the people around them — this is the FAN club approach and it is the single most reliable brick-wall solvent.
4. Cross the ocean only when you have the port.
You cannot search European archives for "Giuseppe from Sicily." You can search Palermo parish records for "Giuseppe Marino, son of Salvatore, baptized 1873." Do not attempt the overseas jump until you have a place-of-origin more specific than a country.
When a match is really a match
The professional standard is the Genealogical Proof Standard — five criteria published by the Board for Certification of Genealogists: reasonably exhaustive search, complete and accurate citations, analysis of the evidence, resolution of conflicts, and a soundly-reasoned written conclusion. In practical terms, if you have three independent sources that agree on identity and one plausible explanation for any that conflict, you can add the person to your tree with confidence.
Once you have a documented ancestor, drop them into the tree builder, attach the source, and move to the next generation. When you need to understand what a specific record actually contains, our records reference covers each type in detail.