Whenever I mention family history or genealogy, the usual reaction is "Oh. I could never do that." That or, "Oh, that's, um, exciting." First things first:
1. You CAN do it. Doing family history work is so much easier than it's made out to be. You just have to start.
2. Family history is not boring, its rewarding. There's a major difference. Trust me, I wasn't all too excited for it either until I got started. Now, it's one of the most exciting things for me.
First, a little personal experience that got me really excited. I signed up for a Family History class at my college this semester, mostly at my mother's insistence. I thought "Hey, why not? I gotta get more credit hours anyway." For the class, we were required to do research on our ancestors and find records about them. We also had to attend workshops, where the Teaching Assistants would help us research by teaching us step by step each week. I decided to start my research on one particular ancestor, a woman named Alabama who was born in the late 1800s and later married James. As I began researching her, I found one census record with her name in it that linked to other census records, but under 'Leona.' It was then I noticed that on the census I was looking at, her name was listed as 'Alabama L.' Deciding it couldn't hurt to take a look, I clicked on the first Leona. There she was, listed as 'Leona A.' married to the same James! Excitedly, I scanned over her family. My pedigree chart listed her as having only seven children. On this census, she had two more. I nearly cried. I had found two lost ancestors, without even trying. I clicked on a few more census records with 'Leona' in it and found two more children. Because of just a little effort, I was able to find four lost members of my family. Knowing that is one of the most rewarding feelings ever.
Alright, you've stuck with me so far. Here are some tips for just starting out.
1. Make a pedigree chart. Starting with yourself, put down names, birth dates and death dates. From yourself, go back to your parents, then their parents as far as you can. If you get stuck, call them. I'm sure they would be more than happy to help.
2. Have a goal. Decide what you want to research, and make a list of tentative documents to find. For example, say, "I want to know my great-great-great-great grandmother's birthday; I want to try to find her birth record, her marriage record, and her death record."
3. Follow through with your goal! Go on the sites that I have listed under the Useful Sites tab and search on those for your ancestor. Write everything in your research log: the website, what you typed in the search bar, and whether or not you found results. If you do find something that looks promising, write down a general summary of what it is. Keep in mind that the websites I have are not the only websites available- they're just the ones I use most.
4. Get one of the programs on the page Family History Programs. This puts everything in one place, and you can often times cite your sources, so that you know specifically where you found that information. Many times, these programs can be connected to websites and therefore you can share your family tree for others doing research. Also, the programs often allow you to 'back up' all of your information so that if your computer crashes, you still have everything you have worked on.
5. Repeat the process! Pick another ancestor and find everything you can on them. Make sure you give yourself a goal, keep another research log, and use one of the programs to keep track of information as well.
Honestly, those are some of the most basic fundamental things that you need to know to get started. So what are you waiting for? Try it out!
Feel free to ask questions.
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