Tracing roots: Milton man discovers family lineage

Former software engineer Chris Puda quit his job to learn about his family history through various photographs, documents and census reports. 

It all started back in his freshman year of high school when he became interested in genealogy. Puda wanted to learn more about his family lineage after reviewing some pictures with his mother.

“I was always curious about my family and where they came from,” Puda said.

During genealogy research, Puda uses many different methods to trace his history. The one he specializes in is record research. He looks at various birth records, marriage records, death records, censuses, obituaries and more. If available, he said there may also be DNA analysis and photographs to find out more. 

Puda has been working on his research for many years and has discovered up to 14,000 family members; some date all the way to the 17th century.

“Usually the most difficult parts are the ones where there are no records online yet,” he said.

He finds that Poland is the most difficult place to find records. 

Puda does not work alone. He looks at records that others may publish, trying to find where people have the same last name on immigration records. There are other struggles he must overcome, such as pieces go missing. 

“Sometimes there are situations where birth records are burned in churches. Trying to figure out those people is very hard,” Puda said. 

He has learned numerous facts about his family, as well as himself.

When looking at various records and documents that were preserved by family members, he can sometimes pick up small details. 

An example of this came from his grand-aunt who, he said, “will write very small and fill up a whole postcard.”

He believes that one of the reasons he does what he does is to find out what makes him the way he is. 

To learn more about Chris’ research, email him at cp2732@gmail.com.