A guide to searching for your ancestors and finding your own personal history.

The great-great-great-great-grandparents of BuzzFeed's Michael Blackmon, Harriet and Toomer Johnson. They were born in North Carolina in the 1840s; the portraits are from a distant cousin who was researching their family history online.

Marie Wilson

Finding your ancestors can be incredibly rewarding and an amazingly inspiring experience. The cool thing is that searching for your family tree online has never been easier — there's more digitized and scanned records than ever before, and more resources online to help you.

"One of the biggest misconceptions is that African-Americans can't find our history because of slavery," Kenyatta D. Berry, a professional genealogist who is one of the stars of PBS's Genealogy Roadshow , told BuzzFeed. The first national records to include former slaves after emancipation was the 1870 census; in 1860 and earlier, only whites and free blacks were counted on censuses. "In genealogy we call that the 1870 brick wall," said Berry, who specializes in African-American and slavery research. But it's possible to go back further.

"These stories of your ancestors affect who you are," Berry said. "You might be struggling with something day to day, at work or school, but when you realize this person before you survived slavery and so much hardship, it changes your perspective. It will inspire you to change your life. You have this story to share, everyone has a story. Your ancestors have gone through so much; just to learn that story makes it so worthwhile."

The following is a guide for searching for African-American family roots (although a lot of these tips can be applied to any family background).

This sounds obvious, right? I strongly recommend talking to them before you even start online — trust me, you won't get very far without their help. Most of us know the names and maybe the birthdays of some of our grandparents, but do you know the names, birthdays, and birth locations of your great-grandparents? All eight of them? Not likely. This is where your parents and grandparents can really help.

They can also tell you a lot more facts than just birthdates and names. "A lot of it is around oral history," explained Berry. "It's extremely important to interview elderly folks in your family. These stories are passed down in our families, and they're so so important. Talk to them about their families, their childhood. Where did they come from, why did they leave?"

Plus, do you know what old people love doing? Talking about their family. Asking your parents, grandparents, or even aunts and uncles to tell you about the old days is like Christmas morning to them. Then later, you can return the favor by showing them what you've found. Bam! Now you're the favorite grandchild.

This is what an Ancestry.com tree looks like for five generations. (I may or may not have created a family tree for North West because she is perfect and I love her.) The little leaves on some people are Ancestry.com's way of suggesting a "hint" for a likely match to a record.

Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed / Via Ancestry

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