Find the European town your ancestors came from.
A step-by-step method for tracing your family from a US, Canadian or Australian record back to the village, parish and register in Europe. Nine countries, plus how to read the old handwriting once you find it.
Country chapters: Germany, Ireland, England & Wales, Italy, Scandinavia, Poland, France, Scotland, the Netherlands.
Instant PDF. Reads on any phone, tablet or computer, or print it.
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Primary sources, named
Parish registers, civil records, census pages and passenger manifests. Every source is named, with where to find it.
The old scripts
Decode keys for German Kurrent and Sütterlin, Cyrillic, and church Latin, so you can read the records yourself.
Free archives first
Built around the free national archives. It says plainly what is free and what costs a few euros to order.
Most family lines stall at the ocean.
The surname is spelled three different ways. The country’s borders moved twice. The records are in German, Latin or Russian, in handwriting you were never taught to read. The aggregator hints run out.
This guide works backward from there: from the US record that names the town, to the European archive that holds the register, to reading the entry once you find it. It is the order a professional researcher works in, written down step by step.
169 pages, 24 chapters, nine countries.
- Find the exact town. The US, Canadian and Australian records that name the European place of origin, and how to read each one.
- Read the old records. Decode keys for German Kurrent and Sütterlin, Cyrillic, and church Latin.
- Get around a brick wall. The FAN method: tracing the neighbours, witnesses and godparents recorded alongside your ancestor.
- When records were destroyed. Which losses are real, and the substitute records most people never check.
- Search the right country. How shifting borders put a family’s town in a different country than its descendants expect.
- Write to European archives. Request letters you can copy and send, in five languages.
- Use a DNA result. Turning an ethnicity estimate into an actual research lead.
- Keep track. Fillable worksheets for recording what you find.
- The full 169-page guide, 24 chapters in four parts
- 9 country chapters: Germany, Ireland, England & Wales, Italy, Scandinavia, Poland, France, Scotland, the Netherlands
- The two European record systems, and the vital records behind every tree
- Reading old handwriting: Kurrent, Sütterlin, Cyrillic, church Latin
- Brick-wall methods, the FAN technique, destroyed records, names and shifting borders
- Appendices: fillable worksheets, archive request letters, a free-website directory by country, a glossary
Real documents, shown as they are.
Public-domain scans, with the foxing and fold lines left in.
Sample pages from the guide.
Click any page to read it full size.
Guarantee
30 days to change your mind.
Read it for 30 days. If it does not help you get past your brick wall, email us for a full refund and keep the file. No questions.
One file, yours to keep.
A professional genealogist costs $50 to $200 an hour. This is the same method, written down, for $19.00.
The Guide
The complete 169-page ebook.
- All 24 chapters, 9 countries
- Worksheets and archive letters
- Instant PDF, Letter and A4
Mega Bundle
The ebook and all nine country cheat sheets.
- Everything in The Guide
- All 9 one-page country cheat sheets
- The full guide for about $10 more
The Cheat Sheets
All nine country cheat sheets on their own.
- One-page field map per country
- Which archive holds which record
- Instant PDF
Instant download. Works on any device. 30-day money-back guarantee. Secure checkout via Stripe.
Before you buy
What format is it, and will it work on my device?
A PDF, set up for both Letter and A4. It opens on any phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, and you can print it. No app needed.
How do I get it? Is it instant?
A download link appears on screen and is emailed to you the moment you pay. Nothing is shipped, and you can re-download it later.
I’m a beginner and I’m stuck. Is this too advanced?
No. It starts from a name and a country, and from the records already in your family’s papers. It is written for people who are stuck.
Does it cover my country?
Germany, Ireland, England & Wales, Italy, Scandinavia, Poland, France, Scotland and the Netherlands each have their own chapter.
Do I need to read German, Latin or Russian?
No. The guide teaches you to read old German (Kurrent and Sütterlin), church Latin and Cyrillic, with worked examples.
Do I need an Ancestry or MyHeritage subscription?
No. It is built around the free national sources and tells you which records are free and which cost a few euros to order.
What if it doesn’t help me?
Email us within 30 days for a full refund, and keep the file. No questions. See the Refund policy.
Is my payment safe?
Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
169 pages, 24 chapters, nine countries.
Instant PDF. 30-day money-back guarantee. Secure checkout via Stripe.