When you begin a family tree you find yourself playing a detective, just like in an Agatha Christie novel or like Sherlock Holmes. Some of the best reasons to begin searching our ancestors are who we may turn up as a relative. Blackbeard the pirate or Robin Hood. The possibilities are endless.

This year with the census being conducted again makes one think of all the records that have been kept over the years. On the internet you can look up old census from over 100 years ago. With that thought you think why not check out some relatives and see what turns up.

It is usually easy enough to start with your grandparents. If you can narrow their date of birth down to a few years you may able to find them in census records. Once you get some basic information on them you can continue searching dates for marriages, and children they had.

Many old census records have the names of the people in the household at that time.
The next step would be to follow the information on the members of the family. You will be surprised on how much information you will start to gather.

You can trace where people were born and in what town they lived in. From there all sorts of records can become available. You will be able to find how many children belonged to a certain family. That is how you start finding out about distant cousins you probably did not know existed.

You will soon find yourself completely enthralled with all the information about your family that you can find. You learn things about your great grandparents and grandparents that will make you understand them and maybe why they choose a certain occupation, or why they choose to live in a certain area.

When you begin a family tree, or genealogy search it is like discovering a whole new family. Where people lived over 100 years ago. Who was married to whom? Was there more then one marriage. Are there step families.

Many people years ago took in cousins from their family and helped raise them. The whole family structure was very different then now. Some families were split and children went to distant relatives and some even to orphanages.

These are just a few of the details you will start to learn about your family over the centuries. Many people in the 1800's and 1900's lived in extreme poverty. The children all worked from very early ages.

Many people ended up in the poor house, which did exist.
To see how your ancestors lived and how they made a life for themselves and their family, explains so much of what kind of people they were.
Sometimes you may wonder what made your grandmother or grandfather the way they were. What in their early days shaped them to become the people you knew?

Many of your grandparents came from a different country. Imagine what they must have gone through to get here. Did they come with their parents or were they sent alone to work here and send money home.

When you learn about your family and what they had to do to get here shine a whole new light on them. It would be a benefit for your children to know first hand how hard their great grandparents worked so they may have the life they have now.

When you learn about your ancestors, it puts life in perspective. Most of us in this year of 2010 have a much better quality of life then your ancestors.

Making family trees are a great educational tool for you to use. To be able to show your family what their ancestors did to make life a little better for everyone.

You are lucky you are living in this time. The more you can learn about your past, the more respect you will have for all of those who came before.