-
Step 1
**Start Asking Questions**
Your best source of information on family history is (surprise!) your family.
Start asking for background information. Start with your parents, or grandparents, other relatives who can give you a personal history, as well as some of the details of the family history overall.
There's no need at this point for formal tools like a genealogical questionnaire, or a family tree. That can come later. But for starters, just ask the obvious questions like where were you born, who were your parents, were did they come from, what did they do for a living? You'll be surprised at how quickly the details start building up.
Asking questions may also put you in touch with another family member -- a cousin or great aunt -- who has a similar interest, and who already has a lot of family history pieced together. You'll have a lot to talk about. -
Step 2
**Go Online**
The internet has opened up an incredible world of free databases and historical materials that you can use to search for your family roots.
There are so many sources, in fact, that it's difficult to know just where to get started. Searching for African-American family history is different that looking up ancestors from England, which is different, again, than researching the history of a family from Asia. But there are some key resources to get started.
Cyndi's List, at www.cyndislist.com, is an incredible collection of genealogical resources. It can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but it's definitely worth a good, long explore.
Familysearch.org is an online database that makes research as simple as can be: enter the name of an ancestor (and optionally, a bit other information) and see what pops up. The site is more of a pointer to existing information than a full-fledged information source itself, but it is an excellent family history resource.
Google News Archives (news.google.com, then click on 'News archive search') is amazing. More than 250 years of news resources in one fell swoop. There are tons of small town newspapers archived here, carrying birth announcements, obituaries, wedding notices, or an article about your grandmother's art exhibit, or grandpa getting arrested in a barroom brawl. You'll be surprised at what pops up. -
Step 3
Grandma?**Check Out Ancestry.com**
Ancestry.com is a subscription service, but it gives access to a wealth of resources that are hard to come by otherwise. Perhaps most valuable are the access to old Census records from the 1800's through to 1930. Virtually everyone in America was recorded on these census records. Ancestry.com also makes available immigration records from Ellis Island, shipping manifests, vital records (official birth, death, marriage and divorce records) and many other databases.
Comments
honeyd81 said
on 3/28/2009 Great ideas. I've been trying to research more on my dad's side. He's adopted and we've found out who birth mom was. I have never heard of some of the sites in step 2. Thanks for writing this.