Because of this, China thought of eliminating these characters in the year of 1950. Up to now, a lot of Chinese are still not aware of their writing system tradition. On this article, we will try to understand Chinese characters so that we can appreciate its existence. The Chinese characters are viewed as complex but in reality they are just made up of a few simple ideographs and pictographs which are built to be remembered easily. Genealogy: It s Time to Know Where You Came From Charles Darwin explained (or at least tried to) where humankind began. In his study, the modern Homo sapiens originated from apes. Most people would not like to embrace such a theory even with the most extensive scientific explanation. This writer would most certainly not want to! At first, names were used to identify an individual through a unique characteristic: his family (usually his father), his place of residence, geographical location and even a personal trait like hair color or height. Other unique information about the individual was also used such as occupation and nicknames. One s family history could be stressful. Being considerate of the feelings your relatives may have is important as they may not similarly be as interested as you are in recalling memories of the past. Show pictures Bringing photographs may also be helpful as these could help jog their memories. You could also ask your relatives if they could recommend another family member to be interviewed. Since family names could sometimes have different spellings, doing a search on each variation is highly advisable. An example? The Smith search. The so-called Smith search is when you search for an ancestor with a very common name such as, well, Smith. In these cases, it is wise to add other information such as dates of birth or death, even location or occupations. You can try to get around this by looking at other documents such as church records or newspaper announcements and bulletins. Disappearances from records There are other reasons that people's names disappear from a record other than death. They could have moved to another county, state or even to another country.