HOUGHTON — Have you ever wondered where you’ve come from? In this day and age our family trees have a lot of broken branches, and it may seem more like a vine than a tree.

There’s plenty of websites that offer ancestry search and some even offer genetic profiling if you submit a DNA sample. But here, locally, The Portage District Library is encouraging folks to learn their family histories, and showing them how to do so.

The library is offering two training sessions Thursday as part of their Ancestry Library Edition. Participants will be able to access billions of records including birth certificates, census records, immigration records, shipping manifests, news paper clippings, old photos and other items.

Now, at first glance some of this stuff may be seem a little confusing and difficult to connect the dots. As part of the program, you will learn how to piece the information together and understand more about your heritage.

The first session begins at 1:00 p.m., and another one beginning at 5:00 p.m. The library is located in downtown Houghton and they encourage you to bring a laptop or electronic media device, however those are not required.

The event is free and open to the public.