How to Begin a Family Tree

Where do you even begin in researching your family tree? Here are some simple steps to get started finding out about your ancestors.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• spiral notebooks
• ancestral charts
• family group sheets
• tape recorder (opt.)

1. Start with what you know. Using first the ancestral chart, fill in everything you know, starting with you. Search online for ancestral chart to find examples. Do the same with the Family Group Sheets, one sheet for each couple on your Ancestral Chart. Gather any photos you have of any of the people on your chart or any photos that you're unsure of who they are.
2. Find out what your family knows. Take your charts and photos and talk to your siblings, parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents, cousins, etc. Use the charts and photos to help jog people's memories. Ask to make copies of any documents, family Bibles, or photos they may have. Make notes on what everyone says and add the information to your charts.
3. Visit libraries, especially in areas your family lived in. Libraries have many resources such as school yearbooks, cemetery records, and other family histories that may include your ancestors. Ask the librarian if they have a genealogist on staff that could help you locate records. Some libraries specialize in genealogy, so make a few calls to find one nearest you for searching census or newspaper records. (See Step 6 if you're really serious.)
4. Visit government buildings that house records in areas your family lived in. Get copies of records, such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, death certificates. These often have maiden names, parents' names and other information that you may be looking for or need to verify.
5. Go online. There are a number of free family search sites, like Rootsweb, where you can search other family trees to find others who are researching your family. There are passenger lists you can find. Even simply searching for a person's name often reveals sources of information.
6. Subscribe to online search sites. To go even further you can subscribe to a site like Ancestry where you have access to thousands of records, including census and military records. These are easily searchable and will save you a lot of time if you're serious about your search. If going this route, make it Step 3, using Steps 3 through 5 above to enhance this step.

Tips & Warnings

• Write everything down. Sometimes you'll get conflicting information. Write it all down and do what you can later to verify what is correct.
• Use a tape recorder so you get all the details of any family story you might hear.
• Write down your source when you write down information, whether it's a person or a book or newspaper. If you get conflicting information later you'll want to gauge which source is more reliable. You may want to look up the source later to verify or check your facts. It's easier when you have that information at your fingertips.
• Do not rely on a tape recorder. Take notes, in case the tape recorder fails or background noise makes voices indistinguishable.
• Don't expect to be able to find every ancestor. Certain families are easy to find records of. Others just seem to disappear and all you can do is keep digging.
• Just because you find information in someone's family tree doesn't mean it's accurate. Many people have a research style that is basically, whatever they find they include it, whether they've verified it or not. So be careful. Even getting several sources with the same info doesn't always mean anything more than they are getting their info from each other.