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Obituaries and cemetery records are great for finding people. Census records are also invaluable. Search for a local genealogy library or group. My mother belongs to the org for our county and has tons of physical records and resources along with friendly volunteers willing to point you in the right direction.

Get Your Free Genealogy Forms Understand surname origins and naming conventions and traditions. ... Ask relatives. Study family trees and profiles with the same name. List surname variations and misspellings. Look into DNA surname studies. Join a society or one-name study. Visit specific surname websites.

English: nickname or status name from Middle English fre 'free' (Old English fr?o) with reference to either tenurial status ('free born') or to character ('noble generous open-handed'). Irish: variant of Freeman . Americanized form of Swiss German and German Frei and Frey .

The place to begin is at home. Here you can find much information in family bibles, newspaper clippings, military certificates, birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, naturalization certificates, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, photographs, backs of photographs, baby books, and many other documents.

There is no 'easy way'. Sometimes, if you use Ancestry or Family Search (two online software applications) you might get lucky and find out somebody in your family has already done some of it ? and then you can use that info to build more Tree.

You can find the origin of your surname by determining if it is patronymic or matronymic, derived from a father's or mother's name. It can also be occupational, based on what your ancestors did for a living, or geographic, based on where your ancestors lived.

Surnames may have originated from personal characteristics, locations, events, or from family associations. The use of surnames was not common in Europe before the Middle Ages.