| Save steps and time and money and find your | | | | the project. Use caution as these are submitted |
| family now by using these tips. 1. When you have | | | | by ordinary people like you and people make |
| decided on your family surnames and have | | | | mistakes. |
| collected as many documents proving their | | | | 3.The Social Security Death Index Interactive |
| relationships as you can, go to a genealogy | | | | Search is on Rootsweb at no charge, a wonderful |
| service such as the free Rootsweb. Type in the | | | | place to find anyone who worked and applied for |
| surname and you will see many results and with | | | | social security in the years after 1935 when the |
| luck they will include your family. This is where | | | | act was passed. Remember, your ancestor may |
| you have to be careful and just print or copy the | | | | have worked for the railroad and these records |
| results that match your family. You might find | | | | are available here, also. These results appear to |
| some unknown cousins but you have to be sure | | | | be error-free and when you find your ancestor |
| you are on the right family. I have two rare | | | | you may send for the original record. |
| names in my tree and I did this now and found | | | | 4. Join a surname list and get a daily or weekly |
| some new results, so go back often. Post your | | | | email with a loads of interesting information and |
| family surnames on the RootsWeb Surname List, | | | | maybe some family. Even if your family name |
| a registry of more than 1,211,559 surname entries | | | | does not come up, you learn about customs and |
| that have been submitted by more than 303,651 | | | | language of their country. However, keep in mind |
| online genealogists. You will find dates, locations, | | | | that the more fields you fill in the more restricted |
| and information about how to contact the person | | | | your results will be and you may even eliminate |
| who submitted the surname. This is one of the | | | | the record you are seeking. Play around with your |
| primary tools on that online genealogists use to | | | | searches with different spellings and dates. |
| contact each other and share information. | | | | 5.The META SEARCH on Rootsweb brings up all |
| 2. On Rootsweb you can search the World | | | | the databases with your entered name. I put in |
| Connect Project, a database of family trees | | | | one of my rare names and received all the |
| submitted by thousands of other researchers. | | | | information available on the web with one click. |
| With a common name you will receive many | | | | Really neat. Rootsweb also has the California, |
| results so try to use place of occupation and | | | | Kentucky, Maine and Texas death records. You |
| dates to narrow the results. If you download your | | | | may find the names of the parents with the |
| family to this site, other family members can find | | | | maiden name of the mother. Use these tips and |
| you. Maybe you will motivate someone to look | | | | you may find your whole family with just a few |
| through their attics and cedar chests and add to | | | | clicks. |