Tracing your family history
Tracing your family history does not start in an archive, it starts in your living room. Here is the order to work in if you want to climb several generations without getting lost.
Start with the living, always
The first and most perishable source is the older people in your family. They hold names, nicknames, villages and approximate dates that no archive contains.
Record those conversations rather than taking notes. You will come back to them repeatedly, and on the second listen you will catch details you missed entirely.
Write down what you know before chasing what you do not
Start with your four grandparents: full names, dates and places of birth, marriage, death. Then go back one generation, never two. Genealogy research fails almost always because someone skipped a link.
For every fact, note where it came from: a memory, a certificate, a headstone, a guess. An unsourced fact eventually becomes an error that gets copied for years.
The documents that actually move you forward
Three families of records are enough to go far back in most countries.
- Civil records: birth, marriage, death. They name the parents, and therefore the next generation up.
- Parish registers, often digitized, which predate modern civil registration.
- Censuses, which show an entire household on a given date: children, occupations, people living under the same roof.
Store the research so it stays useful
A family tree locked inside abandoned software or a forgotten spreadsheet does not outlive its author. Export your data regularly and keep copies of the records next to the tree.
What matters most to your family is not the list of names but the handful of stories you managed to reconstruct. Write them out in a few paragraphs: that is what your children will read.
Frequently asked questions
How far back can I realistically go?
It depends entirely on which archives survived in the region your family came from. Across much of Europe and Quebec, reaching the 1600s is common; elsewhere the records stop far earlier.
Are DNA tests useful?
They mostly confirm cousin relationships and open leads; they do not build a tree. They also raise sensitive family questions — better considered before testing than after.
Do I need a paid genealogy subscription?
Not at the start. Public archives and free digitized registers cover most of the first generations. A subscription becomes worthwhile once you are stuck on one specific branch.
Solexi does not replace a legal will, a notary or a lawyer. Solexi helps you gather, organize and pass on your information.