Few experiences in life are as enriching and rewarding as researching your family history. To trace your ancestral roots is to take part in an exciting detective story; one that asks you to rebuild the past from oral tradition, written records, and artifacts, such as family
photographs.

Genealogy, however, is about more than just digging up the past. It’s a journey of self-discovery that can teach you as much about yourself as about those who came before you. After all, your ancestors’ story is your story as well. But most important: It’s a way for you to uncover and write one of the most important stories you could ever tell—one that’s unique to your individual life; one that no one else can tell; and one that you can pass down to future generations.

But there’s an obstacle that holds many of us back from unearthing our family history: uncertainty about how to go about it.

- Which online resources and databases should you use—or trust?
- How do you make your way through the tangles of public records out there?
- How do you bring separate facts and events together into a complete story you can share with future generations?

With Discovering Your Roots: An Introduction ­­to Genealogy, you’ll learn the same skills and methodologies the experts use to solve genealogical mysteries and create compelling nonfiction narratives about the past. In 15 engaging lectures, genealogist, writer, and lecturer John Philip Colletta shows you how to uncover information from the long-forgotten past in the most effective ways possible.

Maybe you’re working on a family tree. Maybe you’re writing a personal memoir. Maybe you’re just curious about how people rebuild history. Whatever your reasons, this lecture series is your chance to plunge into the past and start finding the life-changing insights about where you come from.

Learn the Tools of the Trade

“Genealogical inquiry is a progression from the known to the unknown,” remarks Dr. Colletta. “You always start with a few known facts that allow you to access the sources that will yield new facts. Then those new facts allow you to access other sources for more facts. And so on, further and further back in time.”

To help you navigate the winding road into your family’s past, Discovering Your Roots provides you with smart and savvy ways to find—and use—the most helpful online and print resources available today. These include the following:

- Interviews with living relatives, who can often provide you with the names and events that will serve as the foundation for future research
- U.S. population censuses, the single most important historical records for constructing American lineage
- The Periodical Source Index (PERSI), an online index of 11,000 genealogy and local history periodicals from the mid-1800s to today
- The National Archives and Records Administration, which holds millions of records documenting your ancestors’ dealings with U.S. government agencies
- Passenger arrival records, which can help you recreate an ancestor’s voyage to America
- Court records, including dockets, minutes, case files, and probate packets

You’ll also learn a practicing genealogist’s tools of the trade for working with these and other sources, as well as countless tips for making your own research more useful. You’ll discover

- how to make your interview subjects more engaged and informative;
- how to judge the reliability and veracity of the information you uncover; and
- how to collect and organize your findings in family group sheets and pedigree charts.

Rebuild Your Ancestors’ Lives
Of course, genealogy is about more than just collecting facts. It’s about discovering the real lives and stories of your ancestors. In addition to showing you genealogical resources and methods, Discovering Your Roots reveals how you can flesh out your forebears’ lives and write engaging historical narratives that can inform and entertain family members or a more general audience. You’ll learn

- seven steps for personalizing biographical facts by placing them in their historical context;
- how to construct and narrate the timeline of an ancestor from birth to death;
- four fundamental questions you need answers to before you start writing about your ancestors;
- and much more.

Dr. Colletta incorporates hands-on activities into each lecture, offering applications for the skills you’re learning and also stimulating you to get started on your own genealogical detective work. And he also makes the journey personal—constantly illustrating the genealogical process with stories from his research into mysteries about his own family. Using documents and sources pertaining to his ancestors, he helps you develop a stronger sense of what records to look for and how to use them.

As one of America’s most popular genealogical lecturers, Dr. Colletta is a master of the field and a passionate instructor who has spent decades teaching students and laypeople about how to shed light on the past. His clients have included the National Park Service, the National Archives, and the Chicago Public Library, and his work has been recognized by several prestigious genealogical societies.

“Every discovery brings a new mystery to be solved,” notes Dr. Colletta. So grab that old photograph, sit down with an elderly relative, comb through old files and records, and prepare to embark on a personal adventure that can dramatically reshape how you think about your past—and yourself.

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