1. An Overview John Samuels March 2011

2.  An-ces-tor: one from whom a person descends, either through the father or the mother, at any distance of time.  Gen-e-al-o-gy: an account or history of the descent of a person or family from an ancestor; pedigree; lineage.  Her-i-tage: something handed down from one’s ancestors or the past, as a characteristic, culture or tradition.

3.  To fill in all the details you should have asked about when growing up, but didn’t  To find relatives you didn’t even know you had  To provide a feeling of continuity  To preserve family data for your descendents  To provide insight into medical problems  To do detective work

4.  Aunt Sis and Aunt Sister’s Book  Early Attempts  Family Tree Maker

5.  Your own recollections  Sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their friends…  Family bibles, diaries, birth, marriage and death certificates, correspondence  Photos, films, handed-down stories, items  Registry offices, churches, synagogues, schools

6.  Internet:  Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon church) FamilySearch.org  Boards.ancestry.com, boards.rootsweb.com  Google, Intellius ($), etc.  Ancestry.com ($)

7.  A notebook and pencil  A program  Family Historian (shareware)  Gramps  Family Legacy Tree  Family Tree Builder  GEDTree  Family Tree Maker

8.  The Greeting Card 1966

9.  What my father told me…  2 brothers, 2 sisters  What my mother told me…  “Willy? We brought him and his family over from Germany before the war.”

10.  Search for William, Willy, Wilhelm, Willi, etc.  Only found 1944 name change document – William Nathan Samuel to William Samuels  Dead End  An idea…  Jackpot!

12. GerhardKurt

14.  Put out a message on the SAMUEL boards looking for Kurt and Gerhard.  Added info to my tree and published it.  Contacted by Arnold Samuels of WA. In the army he changed his name from Kurt to Arnold and added the “S”. His father, Wilhelm Samuel came over two years later. I finally found his record.  Arnold shared his whole ancestry tree with me, filling in all the info from Max (my grandfather’s brother) on down, and much else.

15.  The Search  The Message  Response!  The Story

18.  Purchased software to capture, schedule, research, print, and share your ancestry  Build descendent and ancestry charts  Save, import or export your data  Link to online services ($) to search over 6 billion records – birth, death, census, passport, immigration, etc.  Well integrated.