Family tree charts are a nice start to uncovering your family's rich history. However, your collective past is so much more than a listing of family facts. Today, we can combine newspaper articles, photographs, source documents, artifacts and family folklore into a family history book. There are many stories to be told about the major life events of our past. If we don't fight to preserve them, they will be forever lost in the portals of time. You may feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin. Purchasing family tree software or signing up to a family tree website can help you get organized and begin your epic search for meaning.

One of the family facts you'll discover with genealogical research is the meaning and history of your surname. Perhaps your last name breaks down or translates into a specific meaning in another language. Maybe your name was changed over the years, which can provide even more clues to your origins. You may be able to look up a coat of arms to get a clearer picture on what it meant to be in your family. It might be neat to have the coat of arms on display at your house somewhere. Also, you may find your surname belonged to a prominent family back in history, which will lead you to find out more about your ancestry than you ever thought possible!

Family facts may also include valuable medical information that can ultimately lead you live a healthier and longer life. To compile these records, you should look at death certificates, obituaries, microfilm newspaper articles and death records. However, the further back you go, the less information you'll find. Many older death records only list the direct cause of death, while newer records will often list the contributing causes as well. While this may seem morbid, recording medical records in your family tree project can help you become more aware of genetic inheritances. You may need to get tested for certain things earlier or monitor your diet more carefully, for instance. Some family trivia can be life-saving, as well as eye-opening.

One of the family facts you may be interested in is the occupations of your family members. Wouldn't it be cool to have a president, a king or a philosopher in the family? Maybe someone in your family history genealogy was an influential writer in their time, a famous bard or songwriter, an inventor, entrepreneur or a scientist! You may find that your ancestors built the roads, the railways and the canals that you travel on today. Or you may find that your family has always been a group of land barons, who owned fields of crops and animals. No matter what the case may be, it's intriguing to imagine what sort of life each branch of your family may have had. You can find occupational information listed on emigration/immigration documents, as well as in the state and federal census records.

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