Trace Your Family History and Surname Story for Free
Start with the relatives you already know, build a free family tree on your phone, look up what your surname means and keep living family members private.
Most families have one person who knows who married whom, which village everyone came from and why a great-grandfather changed his name. When that person is gone, the story often goes with them. Tracing your family history is how you keep it, and today you can do most of the work for free, from your phone.
This guide takes you through it in order: what to ask your relatives, how to build a tree in the free FamilySearch Tree app, how to look up the story behind your surname, where to search old records, and how to keep details about living relatives private.
Start with the people who remember
The best records you will ever find are sitting in your own family. Before you open any app, call or visit the oldest relatives you can reach. Parents, grandparents, great-aunts and older cousins often remember names and places that were never written down anywhere.
Keep each conversation relaxed. Talk to one relative at a time, let them wander into stories, and take notes or record the chat with their permission. Small details, like the name of a village temple or the town where an uncle first worked, can become the clue that opens up a whole branch later.
Questions worth asking
- Full names of their parents and grandparents, including maiden names and nicknames.
- Where each person was born, married and lived, down to the village or neighbourhood if they know it.
- Rough years for births, marriages and deaths. "Around the time of Partition" or "just after the war" is still useful.
- Whether the family surname ever changed, and why.
- Who kept papers: old letters, land documents, school certificates, wedding cards, photos with writing on the back.
Gather what the family already has
Next, collect the papers and photos lying in cupboards and trunks. Birth, marriage and death certificates, passports, school leaving certificates, property papers and old letters all carry names, dates and places. Wedding cards are handy too, because many of them name the parents and sometimes the grandparents of the couple.
Photograph each item in good light and name the files clearly, for example with the person's name and the year. Then hand the originals back. Readable copies are all you need to build your tree, and the originals are safer staying with the family.
Build your tree in a free app
Once you have a page of names, put them in order. A family tree app lets you add one person at a time and link them as parents, spouses and children, so the shape of the family builds itself on screen.
We use FamilySearch Tree in this guide. It is published on Google Play by FamilySearch International, has more than 10 million downloads, and is free, with no ads or in-app purchases shown on its listing. FamilySearch is provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it is open to everyone, whatever their religion, and its help centre says there is only one type of account: a free one, for anyone aged 13 or over.
One thing makes it different from a private notebook. FamilySearch Tree is a single shared tree: deceased people sit in one large public tree that everyone works on together. A cousin you have never met may already have added your great-grandparents, which can save you a lot of time. It also means you should check what others have added instead of assuming it is right.
Create a free account
Create a free FamilySearch account (the FamilySearch website has a simple sign-up page), then sign in to the app with it.
Start with yourself
Add yourself, then your parents, then their parents. Working backwards one generation at a time keeps the tree accurate.
Check before you add
When you add a deceased relative, FamilySearch tries to connect them with what it already knows about that person. If the same person already exists in the shared tree, link to that entry instead of creating a duplicate.
Add sources and memories
Attach records as sources, and add photos, written stories or audio recordings. A recording of a grandparent telling an old story can become the most treasured part of the whole tree.
Look at the map
The app can show on a map where key events in your ancestors' lives took place, which is a good way to see how the family moved over the generations.
What your surname can tell you
Many people start family history because of a surname. Where did it come from, and what does it mean? Surnames grew out of different sources: a place, a trade, a father's name, a title or a community. In English, Smith comes from the trade of a metalworker and Johnson simply means son of John. Many Indian surnames work the same way, pointing to a place, a traditional role or a community.
FamilySearch has a free surname page on its website. Type in a last name and it shows a short note on the name's meaning and origin, a map of where people with that name appear in its tree, and ways into its record collections; some parts ask you to sign in. Treat it as a starting point. A dictionary meaning tells you where a name came from in general, not the story of your own family.
Search old records
Once your tree reaches people born before anyone alive can remember, records take over. The app shows which of your ancestors FamilySearch has already found in historical records and suggests what to try next. On the FamilySearch website you can search its billions of records by name, place and year.
For roots in India, what you find depends a lot on community and region. FamilySearch's India collections include indexes of births and baptisms (1786 to 1947) and deaths and burials (1719 to 1948), drawn mostly from church and British-era registers. It also holds images of the pilgrimage registers kept by the pandas of Haridwar, which trace families across many generations. Those images cannot be searched by name and online access to them is restricted, so check the collection page for the current rules.
If part of your family lived abroad, look for records from that country too. Census, passenger and civil registration records from many countries are online, and they often give ages, birthplaces and the names of other household members.
Search tips that save time
- Start with fewer details, then narrow down. A full name plus an exact year can hide a record with a small spelling difference.
- Try other spellings. Names written in English from Indian languages often appear several ways.
- Confirm a match with more than a name. A matching father's name, spouse or village is much stronger evidence than the same name and year.
- Attach every record you trust as a source, so relatives can check it too.
Keep living relatives private
Your tree holds names, birth dates and places of living people, which is exactly the kind of detail used to answer account security questions. So privacy matters more in family history than most people expect.
FamilySearch treats the living and the deceased differently. Its help centre says a living person in your own private tree can be seen only by you. If you set up a family group tree, the living people in it are visible to everyone in that group. The app's listing notes that what you add about deceased people becomes publicly available.
A simple house rule helps: ask before adding a living relative's photo or story, and never put phone numbers, home addresses or ID numbers into any family tree.
Work with relatives, not alone
The app includes messaging with other FamilySearch users, so if someone else is working on the same ancestors, you can compare notes. Be polite and specific: name the person you are asking about and mention the source you have.
Inside your family, share the job. One cousin can interview the elders on your mother's side while another photographs papers on your father's. A shared goal, such as a finished tree to show at the next wedding or reunion, keeps everyone going.
Is FamilySearch really free?
Yes. FamilySearch says it has only one type of account, a free one, with no subscription. Its Google Play listing shows no ads and no in-app purchases.
Can other people see my living parents in my tree?
Not if they are in your private tree; FamilySearch says only you can see them there. Living people in a family group tree are visible to that group, and photos or stories stay public until you change their visibility.
Will the surname page tell me my family's exact history?
No. It gives a general meaning and origin for the name and shows where it appears. Your own family's story comes from relatives, documents and records about specific people.
Can I use FamilySearch if my family is not Christian?
Yes. FamilySearch says it is free to everyone regardless of tradition, culture or religious affiliation.
What if two relatives remember different things?
Write down both versions and who told you each one. A birth, marriage or death record found later usually settles the question.