Ancestry, race, religion, who you are and finding long-lost family

Problem
How do you trace your ancestors? Where are your long-lost relatives? Will they be keen to correspond and meet you?

Answers
Your library is full of books. You can buy books online. Log into sites about family history research an you will be inundated with regular emails and stories of searches, successful, stories of sorrows and joys. Plus intermittent offer of join for a year at this week's seasonal reduced rate. The web is full of advice and fun facts.

Because I have been doing this a long time, I assumed everybody knew all about it, in England, America and worldwide. But this week I met a man from the Philippines, and it was all new to him. So here's a summary of what you might find interesting about tracing your ancestors and doing a saliva test to link up with ancestors and living relatives.

Stories
I started listing my ancestors and their dates of birth, marriage and death, and writing brief notes on my family when I bought a family history album from the trolley in hospital when my son was born. A while ago. He is now in his thirties.

Much later, I went onto an ancestry site and put in a family name and indicated that anybody researching the same name was welcome to contact me. The site acts as intermediary. I found three people who were distant relatives, one in the north of England, one in Europe and one in the USA.

A fourth person contacted me. She is Miriam Margolyes, the actress.

I also wrote an article for a family history magazine about three family wills and the revelations and problems caused by these three wills.

I have also had mixed results trying to trace an ancestor by marriage (my late mother's first husband). He was killed in a plane in WWII and is commemorated at El Alamein. I've never managed to find a photo or anything about him.

The first exciting thing about living in the 21st century is that you can contact people all over the world on the web.

Tips
www.ancestry.com
https://www.ancestry.com/dna/
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records-in-census-land-and-surveys/and_census
https://blogs.ancestry.co.uk/cm/diary-of-a-dna-test/?o_xid=74561&o_lid=74561&o_sch=External+Paid+Media

Post links updated intermittently. More later.
Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Look at my books on Amazon.com and Lulu.com