How would I go about tracing my family tree online

Asks Howard Piercy

A. There are two ways of tracing your family tree online, you can either do it yourself via a research site or a named surname site,�for example, you would search under 'Piercy'; or pay an online organisation to do it for you, and there are various websites that will help you do both.

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Q. My family are originally from Scotland but we've lived in England for at least two generations, how would I go about tracing our background, bearing in mind that I'd like to do the majority of the work myself

A. The best place to start would be with the Scottish Genealogy Society. It promotes research into Scottish family history and undertakes the collection, exchange and publication of material relating to genealogy. It does not undertake any of the actual record searching for you. However, a lot of its original material is in paper format so a trip to Edinburgh to visit its Family History Centre may be necessary at some stage.

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It has comprehensive information on all aspects of family history, including peerage, biography, clans, heraldry, topography, emigration lists, school and university rolls and military casualty and pensioner lists. In addition, it houses IGI and Ancestry Search CDs for the whole world.

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Q. I have no idea how to even start tracing my family tree, would you have any tips

A. Via the Family Education website�you can learn the basic skills of how to get started from the Helms, authors of the book Genealogy Online for Dummies. These include tips on interviewing family members, structuring interview questions and searching individual family websites.

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It also promotes www.genalogytoolbox.com a great site that really gets you started, it is divided into three sections: Genealogy Sitefinder, Query Central and the Journal of Online Genealogy. The Geneal