Life expectancy

[Ashcan Bill]

Originally Posted by shilala

How do you guys search this stuff?
I'd like to hunt back a few generations. Maybe to around 1850 or so.

I started years ago, talking to all my living relatives and recording as much data as I could. Names, dates, places, relationships, stories.

Then I started researching data on microfiche at the National Archives. Census, birth, death, immigration records. That was long, tedious work before the miracle of the internet.

Today you can sign up on a couple of sites and not only research the same data online, but probably hook into trees that other distant family members have already put together.

Start with a decent genealogy program, fill in what you can, and then start looking at census records. That should keep you busy for a year or two.