CLSNA' LamontCentral Forum

For the past ten years genealogy has been one of my major interests and hobbies.  My mother told me many years ago that her mother's family was Scottish, I have always been interested in my Scottish roots but was never able to make much progress tracing the families of my heritage until internet usage became commonplace.  One of my older cousins gave me a copy of our family tree for my mother's side of the family back in the 1960's, he had done most of the research the hard way, searching courthouse records, visiting cemeteries and talking to relatives.  I was very fortunate to obtain a copy of his research. This proved to be a very valuble starting point for my continued research.

Most of the people I talk with about genealogy today have no idea where to start. The purpose of this post is to give the beginning genealogist some information and ideas on how to begin researching their family roots.

Step 1:  Write down the information you already know about your own family.  Starting with yourself write down all of the information about your own family, get birth dates, birthplaces, marriage dates and dates of deaths and burial places.  Got to www.ancestry.com, click on "Learning Center" at the top of the page, then click on "Get Started", then go to "Charts and Forms".  You will find two charts that will help you get started.  You can download a pdf file of the "Family Group Sheet" and the "Ancestral Chart". Make some additional copies of these sheets, you will need several to get started. Use the Family Group Sheet to record your family information for your immediate family, another for your father's family and another for your mother's family. Be sure and list all of the siblings.  If you don't know the exact dates, estimate them, you can find out the exact information later.

From this point move on to your grandparents and great-grandparents. Prepare family group sheets for them, fill in all the information, dates and places you know including siblings.  This set of records will give you a good basic starting point to begin your research.

Step 2: Determine what information is missing.  Decide what information you want to find.  Start with your parents and grandparents and begin the process of finding the missing information. 

Step 3: Find out if any research has aready been done. Talk with the older members of the family, you will find they have a lot of information stored in their heads.  You may find a family member who kept records of births and deaths in a bible, clipped obituaries out of the newspaper and have a lot of family photographs they will share with you.  Hopefully there will some information written on the back of photgraphs to help you indentify the subject in the picture.  Make copies of any information they may have. 

Death certificates can be a very valuble source of information.  Death certificates are readily available even for your relatives who died in the early part of the 20th Century. The original copies of Death Certificates in many states will give the names of the deceased parents as well as birth and death dates of the deceased. As an example I have the Death Certificates of my Great Grand Parents who died in the 1920's, these certificates confirmed the names of my Great Great Grandparents.  At my stage of life I have granchildren, these records provide confirmation of a lot of information back five generations.  For a small fee you can obtain copies of Death Certificates from the state department of vital statistics.

You may find a relative who has already done some research on your family, ask them to give you a copy of their records and information.

Step 4:  Search other resources.  At this point you should have a good collection of family data that will allow you to begin an informed search of other sources.  The internet is a valuable resource, but be aware that well meaning people copy records from the internet, repost them on the net, mistakes and all to other websites.  So be aware that all of the information you may find on the internet may not be correct. Check out the sources of their information.

www.rootsweb.com is a great source of family records, this website is free and has millions of available records.  www.ancestry.com is a good source of census records, but does require an annual subscription fee.  Another good free website is www.familysearch.org, this site is sponsored by the LDS Church.  You can also find information by using a search engine such as google, just input the name with " marks on both sides of the name, you may not find anything,but continue to vary the search options.  These searches will sometimes lead to family associations, message board, forums and other discussion groups that have information on your family name.  Most serious researchers are quite willing to swap information with you.

Step 5: Invest in a good family tree software program.  The software will provide you with a great storage place for your family information.  As you accumulate additional information you can continue to enter the information and build your family tree.  The program should be able to provide you various reports and allow you to display your information in various modes.  I use Family Tree Maker, you can find this program at Staples, Office Max and other stores that sell computer programs.  This program will come with a free trial subscription to Ancestry.com, and is also compatible with some of the back-up storage programs. 

It is a very good idea to buy some storage space to back-up your records.  These services cost about $10.00 a year, if you lose 3500 names out of your data base, it's going to take you a long time to restore this information.  Back-up your records on a CD and also on the on-line back-up service religiously.  If you have a major computer crash, you will be glad you did.

I have tried to outline the basics and provide a good starting point for a beginner.  If you have questions be sure and ask, your comments are always welcome.

-- Edited by MacPatrick at 14:01, 2008-12-02

-- Edited by MacPatrick at 14:03, 2008-12-02