How do you begin your Genealogy or Family History
Genealogy can be fun and very rewarding.
You start with yourself, write all you own information such as birth information, Baptism, Marriage, education, career, residences. It’s very important to document your own life.
Continue with collecting details for your parents, Grand Parents, and generation back. When collecting the family information you use what we call sources. You need to connect each generation to the previous, and creating strong relationships.
What is a source?
Sources are the documents, certificates, stories. Such as: Vital records, old letters, Census records, Wills and probate records, land deeds, Newspaper articles, and many more. Start with resources closets to you.
What is the definition of a source? A record, however obscure on informal, from which we get our information. A record used in locating information. A sound genealogy research is built on a variety of sources.
Have you thought about interviewing older family members for gathering information?
So many genealogy websites that contain information for your research. There is a wealth of information online. You have probably heard of the largest sites, Ancestry.com, familysearch.org, My Hertiage.com, Find my past.com and on and on……………………………
Research at many Repositories, such as Public Libraries, Genealogical Libraries (the largest is the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, website is FamilySearch.org) Courthouses, State and Federal Archives, State Libraries, Family History Centers (these centers are at Church Houses of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, there you will find volunteers to help you with your family history and how to start)
We have forms to use when doing your genealogy and recording your information. Forms are: Personal Record, Family Group Sheet, Research Log, To-Do Lists, Items in an individual File, Pedigree Charts. Okay a few rules for filling out the forms- dates are recorded with Day, Month, Year (Always use four-digit Year, Use the first 3 letters for Month, or spell the month out but never use a number). Places recorded from the smallest to the largest – Town or City, County, State, Country.
Now remember to Cite your sources, tell where you found your information. Genealogy without documentation is mythology.
Decide the person you are researching and the time period or look for a certain certificate. Decide the sources you need to use. Locate where you need to find the source. Proceed with your research.
Why have family stories and pictures and what does that have to do with genealogy. Genealogy is not just names and data it’s much more. Look for stories, journal or write stories about ancestors. You should find out about the stories of you ancestor lives, when did they arrive this country and why did they leave their homeland. These stories make’s your ancestor’s real to you and you understand them better when you find out about their lives. Remember our brains process pictures 60,000 times faster than text. Without these stories, their lives are nothing more than a birth date—-a death date.
Lots of webinars to learn how to start you family history and about the different sources, organizing you records and documents, at www.genealogyeducationcenter.com
Winona I Laird
The Genealogy Granny
