Things You'll Need:
- Paper
- Pencil
- Internet (helpful, but not required)
- Family bibles or other records
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Step 1
Start with first-hand information. Write down all of the family relationships that you can remember. Most people can list their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, first cousins, uncles, aunts and so forth. You might be surprised at how many people you can remember. List everyone in a simple flowchart that connects children with their parents, brothers, sisters and so forth. This will be the basis for your family tree.
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Step 2
Decide how much you want to include in the tree. For each tree, you begin with yourself and work backwards. This will give you a maternal (mother's) and a paternal (father's) side of your family tree. If you want, you can research both at the same time, but this can be time consuming. You may want to work on each side separately to make you work easier and less complicated.
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Step 3
Get family involved. Have them look over your base tree for errors and make additions from their own memory. They may also have family bibles or other documentation that will help add to or confirm information on your tree. They can also be a great source of pictures, stories or other information that can be added to your tree. Continue this process with other family members until you exhaust your living family members.
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Step 4
Research family members who have died. Continue your search through other local means such as your church, library or county records department. These resources can help fill in holes in your tree and provide lots of other information such as land purchases, marriages, disputes or court records.
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Step 5
Sort through online sources. Keep in mind that unless you have documentation or first-hand accounts, this information can sometimes be misleading, faulty or just plain wrong. You should continue to record information in your tree until you feel that the accuracy is starting to decline (see Resources below).
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Step 6
At what point you stop researching is up to you. For most people, understanding the previous 8-10 generations of their family offers a great historical record. Once completed, you should have a wonderful family record that can be passed on to future generations.
