Who
When optional
Where optional
e.g. Utah, Chicago, or Brooklyn

Get started with findmypast!

There's never been a better time to trace your family history with more than 1.5 billion records and newspapers available online with findmypast. Now you can search millions of records from home, providing immediate access to your family history from all corners of the globe.

Start broad, and then filter

Start searching using a name and gradually add in any additional information in order to refine your results. You can easily narrow your results by using the filters on the left hand side of the results.

findmypast can also search for name variants. In some cases original documents could contain alternate spellings, or were difficult to read when being transcribed (this happens more often than you would think!). Using the name variants option will improve your chances for better results.

How to search multiple years

Dates and ages within records can be misleading as they might have been approximated or were not accurately recorded. Search a few years before and after a date to ensure you cover all the possibilities.

Don't know the date? A record might only include an individual's age so you may have to calculate a birth date.

Try attaching a date to an event in history

For example, if your grandfather served during World War I, you could estimate he was likely to be born between 1880 - 1900 as most soldiers were between the ages of 18 and 30.

Other potential estimates are:

  • Marriage Years: 25 – 30 years after birth
  • Births of Children: Every 2-3 years