Strategies for Ancestor Searching

Find relatives on Switchboard.com

Step 2: Find other genealogists who may be willing to share.  

Use a search engine like Familysearch.org.

Use a search engine like Ancestry.com

Use a search engine like Genserv.com

Use a surname list like Rootsweb Surname List

Find and join a mailing list.

Find the address in a book or magazine.   Pedigree Chart for Mary Margaret Coffman

Step 3: Write a query letter and send it.

Writing a Query Letter

Cyndi's Queries and Message Boards

Write Successful Genealogy Queries

Pedigree Chart for Mary Margaret Coffman after responses

Step 4: Put your own genealogy on the Internet.

RootsWeb Surname List Interactive Data Edit/Submission Form

My Family.com

Join GenServ.com

Create your own page and put it up on the Web. You will need some knowledge of HTML and tables.

Template for Pedigree Chart   

Bring up this page. Open "Page Source" from the "View" menu. Save this page as an HTML file on your hard drive. Then fill in the cells of the table (columns #1,3,5,and7) with your own data.