|
Family History Research The place to learn about your ancestors and family history |
|
Past, Present & Future |
|
We are continuously updating this site, so please check back soon for the latest information and/or changes. |
|
Beginning Your Research |
|
As genealogists we are often asked, “If I want to trace my family history, how do I start?” This quick guide to tracing your family history will hopefully answer that question and more. If you want to begin to trace your family history for whatever reason, and record what you find, this is the most organized and understandable way to get started. We have assumed three things in writing this article.
1. You have a modern computer. 2. You will eventually acquire some genealogy software to record your information. 3. You will eventually be joining a comprehensive on-line genealogy research site, where you will do much of your data research.
Most people fully involved in tracing family history have all three of these, or eventually get them. That’s not to say you can’t do any research without them of course (if you can’t afford them, for instance). It is just that this is the easiest and quickest way to success. Without the above three things, beginning your genealogy research becomes much more time consuming, slower and possibly even more expensive (depending on travel). But, we will admit, the rewards of hands-on research are infinite and is actually very fun and exciting to do. The information presented here is for telling you the most organized way and quickest way to get started tracing family history. So read on if you are serious about this hobby.
STEP ONE:
So, you have a Computer and Need Some Genealogy Software?
We recommend you get one of the five following editions of genealogy record keeping software to keep track of what you learn as you trace your family history. Do not even look at any others. We do not endorse one over the other and get no advertising revenue from any company mentioned here. It is a good idea to get the software first so that you can immediately enter data as you find it. If you hand write notes on genealogy forms or take your own style of notes as you trace family history, when you get serious about this hobby you will eventually want some genealogy software to enter all of the data. So buy that first, before the notes pile up.
Some of these may come free with a subscription to a research service (such as Ancestry.com). You have to keep watch because these deals come and go. Totally free software (not in a package like the Ancestry.com one) usually has some limitations or reduced capabilities, but is still very useable for most people. Listed are the 2007 prices. Get the product shipped to you, if possible, and don’t just download from the Internet. This gives you a backup if the software is ever ruined on your computer.
1. PAF (free from Family Search) http://www.familysearch.org/ 2. Family Tree Maker ($39.95) http://www.familytreemaker.com/ 3. Legacy (standard edition is free, otherwise $29.99 & up) http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ 4. Roots Magic ($29.95 & up) http://www.rootsmagic.com/ 5. The Master Genealogists ($34.00 & up) http://www.whollygenes.com/
Don’t want to make a decision or research the differences between these?
We use Family Tree Maker and like it well enough. Most of it we do not use though. Sometimes you can get it free when registering for a paid subscription to an on-line research site. You’ll have to browse to these sites and find out or do a search using Google, Excite, Yahoo, etc. The on-line reviews pick Legacy version 6.0, Family Tree Maker and Roots Magic as the best deals. So either of those would be good! We’ve seen Roots Magic free with some paid research site registrations as well. Any of the above will do what you need 99% of the time, as you trace family history, even if you don’t get the latest version! Expect a learning curve for any software you use. Please take all the training provided with your software.
STEP TWO:
Initial Gathering of Information
Gather and take notes on the information that you already have around the house as well as information from living members of your family. Tell them you are trying to trace family history and they may want to help. Don’t be surprised if some family members are not happy about your research. Almost all genealogists encounter this! Your first job is to gather all of the reliable information you can, preferably before going on-line to trace family history. What you learn will help you corroborate what you find on-line.
As you trace family history, record all of this information in your new genealogy software immediately as you gather it.
STEP THREE:
On-line Research Services that Help Trace Family History
Look at the on-line services that offer complete census data, to see which one looks the best to join. Just make sure it has the most complete census data, preferably actual scans of the census records. You will be using census records as much or more than any other type of record, when starting out. Gradually you will learn that there are other records just as valuable. There are only three on-line services, shown below by their website address, that have the complete census data.
1. www.genealogy.com 2. www.ancestry.com 3. http://www.heritagequestonline.com
Heritage Quest (#3) is free if you go to a library or society that has a subscription to it. You can’t get it at home. That makes this one the best deal of the three, in the way of cost. Supposedly the indexes are not yet up to date or in place so it takes more manual searching.
Many people join both Genealogy.com and Ancestry.com. They are both owned by the same company. The reason for joining both is that one may have an advantage over the other in certain areas. Ancestry.com has the best indexes overall, and supposedly Genealogy.com has the best printing capabilities and the best 1900 and 1910 census index. Take a look at both for yourself and get familiar with them before you trace family history. You’ll need one or the other. We have one caution for you. Learn how to do searches, when you finally sign up for a service. The “help” link on the site will usually tell you all about searches. It is very important to understand how searches work so you can find your ancestors when their names are misspelled. Simply entering in your ancestor’s name the way it was always spelled will many times yields no results.
As a typical plan to trace family history through census data, start with a recent family member that could be on the 1930 census, find them on that census, and trace family members back through older census data, recording everything you find. Census records were taken only every 10 years with most of the 1890 census destroyed by fire. Record what you find in your genealogy software, or manually on genealogy forms.
STEP FOUR:
Recording Sources
Now you are researching and entering data. One imperative thing to do is to record the source of anything you enter into your software. DO NOT skip this step! If you don’t know what we mean by entering the source, it is simply recording where you got the information that you entered! There is an entire book about how to record and format genealogy sources. We will not go into that amount of detail in this beginning guide on how to trace family history. All of the family history software we mentioned in the first step has an area to record the source of information. Use it! If you don’t know the formal method to record a source, just make up your own standard method and fully enter everything about that source (such as title, date, author, person you got info from, etc.) . Entering sources will provide more help than you can imagine, in the future when you try to remember where something came from. As well, genealogy data is considered somewhat skeptical if a source is not proven.
CONCLUSION:
That’s it, for a start. You are done with learning the basics of how to trace family history. There is a lot more to do and this site will give you plenty of information now and in the future, as it grows. |
|
Family History Research ©2008 Last Updated 7/28/2010 11:05 AM Web site designed by The Celtic Giraffe |
|
Below are some very good links with free information included in them, which may be of help in doing research. We have used many of these sites ourselves. There is a lot of free information to be found on the internet if you need help in doing research, you just need to know where and how to find it. We hope some of these links will help! Good Luck in your research!
|
