Tracing the source of an email with the IP address.?

I know its possible by calling the ISP but I was wondering if there is a way to trace the source of an IP address myself. My father in law is the fire cheif in my town and the firehouse got some threatening emails and he was wondering if I could figure out where they came from. Is there some software that can do this or can I do it from the command line somehow with traceroute or something?