Tracing Your Family's Heritage

Many Armenians are interested in learning more about their ancestors and/or completing a fully researched family tree to pass onto their children. A number of resources are available to assist Armenians and others in this process.

Step 1--Interview Living Members of Your Family

The best place to begin researching your family's heritage is by interviewing members of your family--beginning with the oldest living members. These relatives will undoubtedly have some basic information, which you can use to begin a family tree. You can interview in person or through correspondence if they live far away or speak a different first language. Also ask about and even look for old documents such as passports, entry visas, birth certificates, and so forth. There are many good books on how to draw up a family tree and a variety of computer programs that can be helpful.

A number of online resources can assist you in learning more about your family's history.

A general website is http://genforum.genealogy.com/armenia/ with general questions and answers from the public which contain useful information.

Another great resource to learn more about your ancestors' arrival in the United States is the Ellis Island web site www.ellisisland.org. If your ancestors entered the US through here, you can find their ship manifest, and sometimes names of other relatives.

A number of other resources can help you learn more about your family once you have basic information that includes some specific family names, dates of birth, marriage, death, or the place of domicile.

The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America in New York City has a large collection of volumes published by Armenian village and city compatriotic societies. These are largely in Armenian, though a few have been translated into English. Not only do they contain information on daily life and the history of a particular village or town, but also they often give information about prominent families. The Zohrab Center collection is open to the public. The Zohrab Center also has some of the microfilms of the Mormon center, as well as many other books on Armenian history and culture. There are similar libraries in several other cities in the US. Unfortunately, the research process for tracking down family members is very time consuming, and the Zohrab Center does not have the resources to do searches for individuals.

If you read French, http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Palais/2230/index2.html is also a good potential genealogical resource.