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Are you interested in family history?

Are you interested in family history?

Genealogy, Getting Started

Genealogy has been around for hundreds of years in Europe. Originally was a way to track noble families. At the end of the 19th Century, genealogy became a way for North Americans to document their lineage. Now genealogy is booming. With so many new tools and information sources, there has never been a better time to learn about your family’s history.

People become interested in researching their family history for many reasons. Some people are curious to find out if all those family stories they heard growing up were true, or some people adopted at birth take a DNA test to learn about who they are, while other people inherit boxes of family photos and want to be able to put names to all those faces.

In the past, the possibility of researching your family tree seemed too hard with all those hours spent in libraries and archives trying to find records that will provide more information about your ancestors. But in recent years many archival records from all over the world have been digitized and easily searchable online. This has made the idea of doing family history research much more appealing.

Interest in family history has also been piqued by the multiple shows on the topic, like my favourites Finding your Roots, Who do you Think You Are, History Detectives, and Genealogy Road Show. These shows have all made genealogy interesting and accessible by sharing family stories and explaining the basic research concepts.

You may have seen all the Ancestry.com ads, watched all the shows, and now you have developed your own interest in finding out more about your family history. But how do you actually start? Getting started can be intimidating, but I’m here to help. I’ve included a series of posts to explain some basic concepts and methods for family research so you can get started on the right foot.

–The best way to start your family tree.

-The most important genealogy records to look for

-Five things that can really trip up newbies (and tips for avoiding them)

-Dealing with brick walls in family research

-Approaching relatives for records, information, and family stories

-Research road trips, and what to bring in your portable genealogy kit

-The promise and perils of online research

-Getting started with genetic genealogy

-How to properly cite your findings

-Preserving family records and research for the next generation

Start with Yourself

Start with Yourself

Genealogy, Getting Started

how to start a family tree

Start with what you know: YOU

You are the base of your family tree, and it is a really good idea to start with yourself and work backwards.   You know your birth date, place of birth, parents names, and where you have lived.  If you follow this basic rule you will be able to start building a tree that will not only make you proud, but will also inspire and educate your extended family and the generations that follow.  As an adoptee myself, I realize not everyone knows all of this information; some circumstances might require you to do the best you can with what you know until you can discover all the correct information.

The Curse of Technology

It seems simple, but many new researchers do not start with themselves at the base.  People tend to get so excited by all the information now available online and start to jump all over the place collecting as much data as possible, as quickly as possible, when they first sign in to a genealogy website.  A lot of the time the information they are entering isn’t accurate because they aren’t fact-checking the details they are clicking on deeply enough and end up adding somthing that isnt for the correct person and unknowingly take their tree in the wrong direction.

Family Legends can be wrong

People also go wrong as new family historians when they believe that all family stories are true.  While family legends are interesting and inspiring, it’s important to go about collecting and documenting data in a methodical way if the goal is to establish the facts and determine the true story of your ancestry.

Stories are amazing and wonderful. They connect generations and let us relive moments in time with our ancestors. Unfortunately, they can also lead family researchers down the wrong paths. Just like in the old children’s telephone game, the more an old tale is passed around, the more likely it will contain mistakes.

Stick with what you know

Using what you know about yourself you can start learning good research skills that will help you find information about the lives of others.  If you begin with yourself and those in your own home it should be easier to locate critical documents needed to start the tree. What kind of documents? Most people begin with their own birth and marriage certificates. It should be easy to dig out the same basic documents for your spouse and children. You may even have records for other family members, especially if you were involved with the estate of a relative, or if you inherited old family documents from someone. There is another aspect of starting a tree that relates to recording what you know about yourself and close family members, including basic facts (names, dates of birth, etc.) and details relating to occupation, religion, places of residence, military service, and more.   These details can help inform you about the types of documents to seek out.