You can also consider the other relatives you could interview via phone or thru email, that is if they would be unavailable in person. However, it is best that you first ask your own relative s permission if they are willing to let themselves be interviewed. When your relatives have given their okays, tell them the parameters of the subject you plan to ask them about. Document it all Of course, mere documentation is not enough. It is important that you document everything as carefully and as appropriately as possible. First things first, copy the book title, reel number of the microfilm, the number of the page, author, publication year, publisher and whatever detail you could see on the sheet cover. Gaelic ancestors are the source of family names like 'Mac', 'Mc', 'O' and 'Fitz', such as Macdonald, O'Donnell, Fitzherbert. Names like these are patronymic, meaning they are derived from the father or a male ancestor, although some surnames are taken from mothers. Through residence or geographical location. Like for an instance, if you want to find out your real ancestors way back in the 19th century, a broad research is needed from the stored photographs in your house to the era of world war 1 and 2 and so on. Some people may see it as a waste of time but the truth is it can be rewarding in the end. What you will find out is the greatest mystery. It was not uncommon for a royal to claim a god as his grandfather. Even early Roman society was not exempt. These claims, outrageous as they may be for modern people, helped clans and tribes to build stronger ties within families and groups. Genealogy was also a way to claim dominance over another tribe. Other than that, most early marriages don t have hard documents to support them, or records may have been destroyed, lost and yes, even misfiled. You can try to get around this by looking at other documents such as church records or newspaper announcements and bulletins. Disappearances from records There are other reasons that people's names disappear from a record other than death.