There are many and varied genealogy tools on the net – the most famous, of course, is Ancestry.com but there are others like Geneanet which can also help. The great advantage that Ancestry has over others is the sheer number of members ~ literally millions. And while it’s easy, at least at first, to check census records and the like, those millions of users have often done a lot of the legwork for you, and you can piggyback on their hard work.
One of the reasons that works is because the further you go back in time, the more people share your ancestors. One very interesting probability model created by a demographer for genealogists, is that a child born in 1947 in England tracing back to 1492 would have 60,000 ancestors. Going back further to 1215, this child would find that 80% of the entire population of England at that time would be on his or her family tree! So anyone living in present-day England who traces his or her lineage back through English history would theoretically be related.
But part of the interest, for me, is seeing the actual records of my forebears. Above is the census of 1851 showing the Trathan family. Ruth, one of the daughters, is my great great grandmother. Her parents are my great great great grandparents. And seeing this document, nearly 200 years old, makes me feel a connection with them. Armed with the information I can find out more about them, about their day to day lives.
So we may not have as exciting a background as the celebrities on the TV show Who Do You Think You Are? But these were real people, living their lives tens, hundreds and even thousands of years ago. And their blood runs in our veins.