Genealogy is actually a study of a person's family or their roots.
Essentially people are always interested to know where they have come from.
They want to know which part of the family tree they belong to.
Well the idea that you may come from the ancient line of Viking or from the Middle Eastern knights can be quite exciting to many people as well.
Now you can get only certain bits of information from the older generation.
They will in turn get the information about the family from old memories, certificates, photographs that they would have stored in the attic as well.
One of the easiest places and the most convenient places where you can get a lot of information pertaining to your genealogy is the internet.
There is a plethora of information that is available and can be of use to you.
There are all sorts of information that is available on the internet, you will just have to find a way of extracting the information.
There are a number of genealogy specific sites like Ancestry.
com, Roots web.
com and My heritage.
com that are great sites and can offer all the information that is you required.
These sites have varied information pertaining to birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, military records, census information and even tax and will records.
One of the most difficult parts is to find out which person is a relative and may be connected through the family tree with you.
With many people from the past having the same names and surnames, it can be quite a difficult thing to filter the right people.
However, if you have bits of information and history on your side, then this piece of the puzzle should be an easy one to put together.
More information will make your chances of finding the relatives higher.
In fact the records from this place have been uploaded from various places such as Ellis Island in America.
Now you can also know whether your grandfather or grandmother came as an immigrant to the country or not.
Since the records were all handwritten, there is a possibility that names may have been misspelled as well or may even have been wrongly given.
Family history can also be researched from the records that are kept at the local court houses.
Just like the websites that have the marriage licenses, birth and death certificates, divorce records etc, the local courts also maintain all the records As well as being held in the archives of the library they are also held by the government in the capital city nearest to where you are searching.
Many of these documents can provide you with the necessary links and will fill in the gaps in the information that you have.
Once you have the basic information, you can always revert back to the internet and carry the search further.
Another place, where you can find information and missing links are funeral homes.
Here you can get data on the death records as well as the details on spouses and children of the person.
Genealogy is actually a work in progress.
This is a hobby that can require quite a bit of your time and effort but it is very rewarding for you and for the future generations of the family as well.