Finding Your Roots: How to Trace Your Ancestors at Home and Abroad

Finding Your Roots offers a step-by-step guide into the world of personal genealogical research, beginning with something you already know -- your own name.

There are more than 1,500,000 family names (surnames) in the U.S. today. Although enormous numbers of European, Asian, Mexican, and other immigrants brought their surnames to this country during the last two centuries, the predominant family names are still very close to what they were in Revolutionary times. And because most Western countries formed family names in four ways (place names, patronymics (son of, e.g., Johnson), occupation, and nicknames), your surname can be a clue to where you came from and what your ancestors did.

Next, find out what's already known about your family history, by interviewing older relatives -- grandparents, aunts, and uncles, etc. Westin shows you how to conduct interviews by phone, letter or in person, gives tips on taking notes and transcribing recordings, and perhaps most important, describes how to keep and organize your records. Simply getting back in touch with a long lost family member on a project of such mutual interest can be immensely rewarding in itself.