Genealogy
Sometimes it is very difficult to get data about your ancestors.
Genealogy (Genealogie, Ahnenforschung) tries to close the gap. The key is to join already available data-sets to even bigger data-sets.
Data can be shared in the GEDCOM data format.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia :
GEDCOM (/ˈdʒɛdkɒm/ JED-kom) (an acronym standing for Genealogical Data Communication) is an open de factospecification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as an aid to genealogical research.
Fortunately some people are doing research on genealogy. Unfortunately there are different programs, which keep the data (somehow) private within their data-bases, with no export functionality.
At the moment I try the free program "Gramps" to structure my information. Gramps uses the GEDCOM specification, and has export and import functionality.
Genealogical DNA test
Wikipedia :
"
A genealogical DNA test is a DNA-based test which looks at specific locations of a person's genome, in order to find or verify ancestral genealogical relationships or (with lower reliability) to estimate the ethnic mixture of an individual.
"
Seems to be an interesting method to get valid information ! DNA tests are offered by many companies to.find out facts about your ancestors.
I am researching the following names :
Amles-Westerkamp
Jezierski
Diersch
Dietrich
Kurras
Westerkamp
There are so many genealogy programs available. I will dig into the following in more detail :
AHNENBLATT - FREE
ANCESTRY, https://www.ancestry.com/
GENI (part of MyHeritage)
GRAMPS - FREE current favorite
KINSMAP
MYHERITAGE
PHPGEDVIEW - FREE
TNG, The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding©
Nice example / Schöne Seite : http://www.cridermcdowellfamily.com/