Getting Started

The most obvious place to start searching your family history, is... yourself. Sit down and fill out a family group sheet for yourself. Include yourself, your spouse, children, parents, and grandparents. For each person on this family group sheet, include what you can as far as first and last name (maiden name for the married women), date and location of birth, date and location of marriage, date and location of death, and any other helpful details that you may think of.

Once you've filled out a family group sheet for yourself, talk to relatives. Speak with your brothers and sisters, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and any other relative that you can. Have each one fill out a family group sheet, just as you did for your family.

Try to ask for stories as well as just dates and locations. After all, you are trying to find your family's history. Some information to find from your relatives is:

• Full Names
• Birth and Marriage dates and locations
• Parent's and Grandparent's names
• Where did they grow up?
• What was it like growing up?
• Fondest memory

and any other questions you can think of for them.

After you've gathered this information from your relatives, you'll want to sit down and organize everything. Enter the information in a pedigree or family tree chart, or if you want, find a good family tree software package, and use your computer to store and organize your data.

The next step is to start searching for records. Choose an individual or family with which to begin your search. Try to find biographies and family histories, search for census records, and birth/marriage/death certificates. A good place to start is Ancestry.com. They have the largest collection of family history records on the Internet.

As you find new information, be sure to record it, and organize it. Enter the new information into your family tree chart.

Once you've gone as far back as you can with the individual or family that your searching, step back and take a break, and then choose another individual or family, and search for their history.