Beginning to research your family tree

Well, someone asked me recently how they should go about researching their family's background. As I typed up what I recommend as the starting point for aspiring genealogists, I realized that I have quite a bit of advice on the topic. Since it's already written up, why not blog it?

Just so you understand the background for this, I began working on my family tree as when I was about 12-13. I'm still working on it, although with varying degrees of diligence due to time and resource limitations. Thus, from that experience, here are my suggestions for starting your own look at your family origins.


Related to the family tree question, I have traced or helped trace several other people's family trees with pretty good success. First, you need to be able to identify positively your great-grandparents generation*. In other words, if you know their name, date of birth, anniversary, and date of death (or at least 3 of the 4), that's good enough. Or, if you know their name, their parents' name, their children's names, and the state they lived in, that will normally work as well.



The primary difficulty will come depending on how common the last names that you are searching for are. Secondary difficulties will arise depending on when your ancestors arrived in America: the more recent it is, the less you will be able to trace probably. It is very difficult to trace more than one generation beyond the generation that crossed to America.
The two best research sites are Ancestry.com and familysearch.org. Ancestry is interested in the money, has more records, and will cost you. (You can get an excellent, two-week, free trial however, but you must remember to cancel the order if you don't want to be billed, and you have to call them to do that.) Familysearch.org is run by the Mormons, and they are not in it for the money; thus, it is free. However, I don't think they are quite as convenient or helpful, and they don't have nearly as many records. I recommend using the two sites complementarily if possible.


There is a learning curve/gaining instinct on which records and names to pursue; expect to spend some time in trial and error. If your family has been in the States for a couple or several hundred years, your task is tremendously simplified, because by the time you go 2-3 generations beyond your great-grandparents you will usually find people who have already done the research, and you can gain from their information (although at times it will conflict).


Another seemingly obvious source of information is extended family. One of my great-grandfather's wrote an autobiography; two of my (other) grandmother's siblings were researching their family lines. A couple of my mom's second cousins were doing research; and so on, the more connections the better. These may be able to give you copies of actual legal documents and family lore, which is one of the most interesting parts of the entire process.**



If you have relatively rare names that you are researching, you could come up with exact results and fun facts within 10 minutes. If the names are more common, it will be more difficult. Just get as much specific information as you can and jump in. You'll probably get captivated by the search. Have fun.


* "Great-grandparents' generation" - the ancestors born shortly prior to 1915
** I highly recommend quizzing all surviving "old" relatives. Most of the time their memory of people is pretty good if they say it is. And, the stories that they tell you are what will add color to the names and dates you are researching. RECORD THESE STORIES!