5 Must-Do's for Building Your Family Tree from Vital Records

If your ancestors lived in certain countries, you can find lots of records for your family tree. You may find census records, city directories, military records, ship manifests, and more. But what if your ancestors' countries don't have those records available? How can you build your family tree using only an incomplete set of vital records?

Welcome to my world. I have two sets of 1st great grandparents who emigrated to the U.S., and one set of 2nd great grandparents who came here. Everyone else stayed in Italy for centuries.

Commit to these 5 rules and you can build your family tree from vital records alone.

With access to Italian vital records, I have documented facts for 415 of my direct ancestors. They're the ones with Ahnentafel numbers. My tree is still growing because I'm obsessed with my ancestral hometowns. I'm using vital records to find every relative of my direct ancestors. And I continue to expand each family because of all the intermarriage in their towns.

Let's take a look at 5 "must-do's" for building your family tree from vital records alone. These tips are not confined to Italian vital records!

1. You Must Start Close to Home

When I learned I could view Italian vital records at a Family History Center, I jumped at the chance. This was many years ago before these vital records came online at the Antenati Portal.

I started with the town of Baselice. I knew the names of my grandfather's parents, but nothing more. I had to start with them and begin putting families together. By the time I finished viewing all the vital records between 1809 and 1860, I'd added 15,000 people to my family tree. For complete details of this process, see "5 Steps to Grow Your Italian Family Tree".

2. You Must Understand the Local Marriage Customs

My 4th great grandparents, Gregorio and Apollonia, came from the town of Circello. In 1814 Gregorio and two of their young children died. My 3rd great grandfather Francesco, still a baby, was the only surviving child. What happened to Apollonia? I couldn't find a death record for her in Circello.

I thought about all I'd learned from viewing tons of Italian marriage records. If a spouse died and there were young children in the family, the surviving spouse needed to remarry. Apollonia was widow with a one-year-old baby. She had to remarry, right away.

To find out how I found Apollonia and learned her parents names, see "How I Tracked Down My 4th Great Grandmother's Parents".

3. You Must Look in the Margins

I hate that most of my ancestral hometowns have no available marriage or death records from 1861 to 1930. But there is one saving grace that can make up for this lack of records. Margin notes! Sometimes you'll find a note in the margin of your person's birth record that can tell you:

• Who they married, where and when
• Where and when they died
• That their father died in World War I, and more!

To learn about these and other facts to fill in the gaps, see "3 Types of Bonus Details on Italian Vital Records".

4. You Must Scan for More Details

I have lots of cases in my family tree where a baby is born shortly after their father died. Early on, I was overlooking one incredible detail on that birth record. The father's death record isn't available. But his date of death is often written at the bottom of his child's birth record.

In one of my towns, I don't have access to the matrimoni processetti (see "The Italian Genealogy Goldmine: Wedding Packets"). I was so upset when I realized they were missing. But there is a substitute! In this town, the marriage documents themselves contain tons of detail, including:

• the bride and groom's exact date of birth
• when and where their parents died
• when and where their grandfathers died

Don't miss out on these and other important information on vital records. See "10 Details Not to Miss on Italian Vital Records".

5. You Must See Past the Clerical Errors

I've found glaring errors in a set of marriage records many times. Those glorious wedding packets have birth records for the bride and groom. But then you go to your family tree and see the mistake. The birth record isn't for the bride. It's for her same-named older sister who died as a child. Or the grandfather's death record is for a completely different man with the same name.

You've got to consider each document with care and make sure everything adds up. You'll avoid all these errors if your family tree contains all the siblings in every family.

What other common errors must you look for? Read the details in "5 Common Mistakes on Vital Records".

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Old-country vital records have more accurate details than a U.S. vital record for an immigrant. That can be because the family was in one place for centuries. Everyone in town knows who this person's parents were.

Keep your eyes open for the many nuances of vital records as described in this article. Then you'll be ready to squeeze out every last detail for your family tree.

New Feature Sets MyHeritage Apart

New in March 2025, the MyHeritage Cousin Finder™ is a robust alternative to Ancestry's ThruLines^®. You can use Cousin Finder even if you have a free account on MyHeritage like I do. (Read on to see the roadblock I hit.)

Now it has a new and big advantage over the competition. And that makes Cousin Finder a remarkable asset for your genealogy research. You can use it to find cousins for Any Person in Your Family Tree, as long as they have ancestors in your family tree. On Ancestry, you can only view ThruLines for the AncestryDNA tests you manage.

My sons have not taken a DNA test, but I can view their Cousin Finder results. I see cousins from their father's side of the family. (I've gone deep, but not wide, on my ex's family.) I can see two cousins in Canada who seem to be brothers, one in the United Arab Emirates, and one in Ireland. And it names the common ancestors they share with my sons. I found even more of my boys' relatives when I viewed my ex-husband's Cousin Finder.

No DNA test? No problem. Follow these steps to use the unique capabilities of the MyHeritage Cousin Finder™.

The results page tells you each relative's expected relationship to the subject. Plus it breaks that relationship down to one of 6 categories:

• Father's side
• Mother's side
• Father's father's side
• Father's mother's side
• Mother's father's side
• Mother's mother's side

This means I can see that my sons' cousins in Canada are:

• their father's mother's 4th cousin
• related through common ancestors Patrick Egan and Mary Hickey. Patrick and Mary are my sons' 5th great grandparents. They're the Canadians' 3rd great grandparents.

The cousin in the UAE is my sons' 5th cousin on their father's father's side. Their common ancestors belong to my sons' paternal grandfather's mother. (She's the lady who swore she was the niece of the captain of the Titanic, but she wasn't.) The cousin in Ireland is the boys' 6th cousin on their father's mother's side. Their common ancestors are, again, Patrick Egan and Mary Hickey.

Give It a Try!

Using this new, expanded feature is simple.

• Create a MyHeritage account if you don't have one. It can be a free account.
• Build or import your family tree. It's easy to import a GEDCOM file using the Family Tree menu.
• Choose a person as your subject and click their name.
• In the panel that opens, click their Profile button. This opens up a detailed page with the person's facts and immediate family.
• Scroll down and look for the "Additional actions" box. Click the person's Cousin Finder in that box.

I ran into a new roadblock when viewing anyone's Cousin Finder, including my own. I can't click to view a diagram of the relationship. And I can't view their family tree. I used to be able to do this on my free account, and it was a huge benefit. I wrote all about it 4 months ago. Now it seems to be behind a paywall. Take a look at "5 Super-Cool Features of MyHeritage" and you may decide it's worth paying a little money for. (It is available with the lowest paid subscription level.)

Even with the roadblock, you can use this feature to your advantage. The relatives you find using Cousin Finder may be on other DNA websites and social media. You may be able to use the Cousin Finder hints to learn how they fit into your family tree.

The names I'm seeing in Cousin Finder are all new to me, so I'd say it's well worth a try.

How to Create Your Origins Chart

You may have seen people sharing a different kind of family tree online. Instead of showing the names of their direct ancestors, each block shows a person's place of birth. I made a somewhat different version of this chart.

My family tree is so extensive, it includes nine of my 9th great grandparents. When I created my Elder Scroll, it was clear I had more ancestors from one town than any other. Having more Colle Sannita roots than any other justifies all the time I spend on this town.

But a visual is always nice, isn't it?

Get out your crayons! Create your Origins Chart and see clearly which places are the most important to your genealogy.

To make my origins chart, I used the 10-generation fan chart I exported from MyHeritage last April. These are so beautiful and fun to look at. If your tree is on FamilySearch or Ancestry, you can see your fan chart there, too.

I used Photoshop for this project, but you can make an old-school version. Print your fan chart in black and white and get out different colored markers or crayons.

The MyHeritage fan chart using blocks of color to separate my ancestral lines. It uses a different color for each of my 8 great grandparents. There's also a version that shows all the names rather than color blocks.

I opened the color-block chart in Photoshop and kept the fan chart with all the names open on MyHeritage. (You can keep your family tree open for reference if you aren't using MyHeritage.)

Divide and Color

Starting at the center with myself, I saw that my maternal grandmother, my mother, and I were all born in New York City. So I outlined the 3 of us, filled the area in with one color (yellow), and wrote New York City on top of it.

If you're doing this on paper, outline and/or color in each group of people from one place. Make a separate key to show which place each color represents.

Next I chose the area representing my father. It was already colored baby blue, so I kept that color and labeled it Ohio. He's my only ancestor born there. His mother is my only ancestor born in New York State, outside the city, so she gets her own label, too.

Now comes the parts of my family tree with the deepest roots. The reason I kept my tree open on MyHeritage was so that I could click any person and see where they were born. My maternal grandfather and all his ancestors came from Baselice, Benevento, Italy. I outlined them, made them red, and labeled them with the town name.

All my great grandfather Sarracino's ancestors came from one town. His wife and her paternal ancestors came from the same town. So I outlined those blocks and made them orange. I labeled them Sant'Angelo a Cupolo, Benevento, Italy. Then I carved up my great grandmother Saviano's maternal ancestors. I colored in and labeled them: (1) Santa Paolina, Avellino, Italy, and (2) Apice, Benevento, Italy.

My paternal grandmother's section was simple. Her maternal side came from one town. I colored them green and labeled them Pesco Sannita, Benevento, Italy. Her paternal side was all Colle Sannita. So is most of my paternal grandfather's side. I carved out the ancestors not from Colle and colored them dark blue. I labeled them Circello, Benevento, Italy. Everyone else on my paternal side is from Colle Sannita. I colored them a lighter blue and labeled them Colle Sannita, Benevento, Italy.

These colorful fan charts from MyHeritage inspired me to turn my family tree into an Origins Chart.

How to Use Your Origins Chart

As you look at your colorful origins chart, remember to keep the scale in mind. My chart has a big chunk of yellow from New York City, but that represents only 3 people. The big chunk of baby blue from Ohio is only one person—Dad. His family was only in Ohio for a short time, and he moved to New York City as a toddler. So despite the large block of color, Ohio represents a very small part of my genealogy research.

It's the earlier color blocks that drive my genealogy research. When you consider the scale, Colle Sannita is an enormous chunk of my family tree. The second largest is Baselice. I've spent years researching these towns' vital records. I created and published inventories of all the available vital records. I have fit almost everyone from these towns into my family tree.

But it's clear I can do a lot more work with the other towns. I've gathered the vital records for all my direct ancestors already. But with such deep roots, there's much more to discover.

• Sant'Angelo a Cupolo is problematic because they have no vital records before 1861. But I can try to connect more of the town's families.
• Pesco Sannita holds a lot of promise for me.
• Santa Paolina is my only ancestral town outside of the Benevento border. It's close by in the neighboring province of Avellino. I've found DNA cousins with roots in this town. I need to connect more of those families.
• Circello has an added bonus to drive my research. My aunt's husband had roots there and in Colle Sannita. That gives me lots of ways to connect to him and his children, my maternal 1st cousins.
• Apice, the little ghost town I've written about before, is my latest target. I've almost completed an inventory of its available vital records. My nearest ancestor from Apice, my 3rd great grandmother, was born in 1816. That's so early that I didn't expect to find a lot of relatives. I was wrong. Like all these small towns, every family intermarried. That creates a lot of connections I'm eager to pull into my family tree.

You can see how your origins chart can focus and drive your research. Of all the towns I've visited, it was Colle Sannita and Baselice that had the strongest pull on my heart. My origins chart actually bears that out.

Can you see which places in your origins chart make up the most of you? If you have lots of unknown places—areas you can't color in—that's where you should focus your work. What if you haven't done any research in a place that winds up being a very important part of your story?

I invite you to create and share your origins chart. Then use it to guide your genealogy research.