Getting Started on Your Genealogy Project

Page Updated on July 28, 2007

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to develop good habits when studying your family history. Trust me, you'll thank yourself later.

Start with yourself; keep a journal. Often new genealogists forget that they are a part of their family history as well. Future generations will be delighted to learn about your everyday activities, thoughts, and experiences. A journal (i.e. diary) will be a valuable source of information for your family long after you have passed on. There are many other benefits to having a journal, though. It is quite cathartic to write about your struggles and accomplishments, which is a benefit to your stress level, mental well being, and health. It's interesting, and often funny, to read your old journals again several years after you've written them to remember little details, such as what you ate for dinner, your hectic daily schedule, or silly experiences you had forgotten about. It can also be very empowering and therapeutic to re-read your journals and realize that you indeed have overcome many obstacles and accomplished many things. In genealogy, writing in a journal every day can stimulate the recall of buried memories, such as stories Grandma told you, experiences that you had as a child, or the name of your great-great-aunt. Such memories are wonderful to share in your family history. Your journal doesn't need to be fancy (unless you want it to be). A thick spiral notebook will do (make sure it's acid-free paper), or you can type it all up on the computer (making sure that you make printouts on acid-free paper and backups on CD or DVD just in case).
Become the family photographer or videographer. So they might start making fun of the fact that you take photo after photo, but it's worth it. Since you can't walk around with a notepad, writing down every event and all the details, all of the time, you can take a photo here and there (video is even better). When the event is over, looking at the photos or video will help you remember details that you'll want to write down for your family history records. Plus, it's always nice to have photos of individuals to help future generations learn more about their ancestors and relatives.
Become the family member everybody loves to talk to. This may seem unethical because it seems like you are trying to butter-up your family members to get information, but really you are just developing your relationships with your relatives. Trust me, even if you don't get any genealogical information out of them (and it's unusual not to), you'll be glad that you formed such wonderful relationships with everyone. (It starts out as a quid pro quo exchange of deeds and discussions and turns into fulfilling friendships and loyal family love.) Start by sending out birthday cards, get-well cards, congratulations cards, and holiday cards. Send pictures. Write letters. Make phone calls. Visit them or invite them to visit you. Set up family reunions (just for your immediate family or even for your entire extended family). Start showing other people that you genuinely care about them and their stories. Make them realize how significant they are and let them know that you recognize their significance. Some people are not thrilled with the idea of having to socialize so much, but remember that the purpose of researching your family history is to take the list of names, dates, and locations of typical genealogy studies and turn them into memories of living, breathing individuals, with thoughts, feelings, frustrations, joys, hopes, hobbies, duties, and passions. There's no better way to do this than to personally get to know those individuals who are still alive and will be the ancestors of future generations.
Get organized. Before you even think about starting, get organized. You will thank yourself a thousand times for it. There are many books and website that explain various organization methods. You will eventually grow into your own customized system, but those books and websites are a good place to start, especially since they've been put together by people who have made the "beginner's mistakes." See: Organize Your Genealogy Project
Get library cards for every library in your area. It is certainly nice to have a library card ready to go when you need to check out material, but another benefit to having a library card is that most libraries are now online and will provide online service to you at home as long as you have a library card number to log in. Online services usually include the card catalog, subscriptions to magazines and newspapers online as well as many useful websites that require a fee, access to online indexes and archives of local, county, state, and federal records, and so on. Of course, this is all very convenient because it means you can look up information at 3:00 am, but another benefit is that it is usually 100% free, which is a big deal when you consider how much those research fees add up. The reason you want to join as many libraries as possible is that each library may have different services they provide, both online and in person, and some libraries will have records that others won't. Some libraries will let you get a card to use their online services even if you don't live in the area.
Get educated. Most amateur genealogists start out by just jotting down a small family tree and some family stories, but I warn you; it's addicting. Before you know it you've got tons of notes, photographs, and stories, but it's not enough; you want more. This is where your genealogy education comes in handy. By learning things, such as types of sources, source documentation, citing documentation, and genealogy lingo, you can expand your search efficiently, and more importantly you'll be able to effectively share information with other people (most likely distant relatives you didn't know you had and your great-great-great-grandchildren, whom you probably won't get to meet in this lifetime) without confusing them with your made-up terms and codes that only you understand. Getting educated will save you time, energy, and headaches. (This is a good time to get out the library card and visit the "genealogy how-to" section at your local branch.) See: Learning Genealogy Basics
Write down with what you know. Before you start throwing questions at everyone else, write down everything that you already know (or at least as much as you can think of). I recommend writing all of the information on family group sheets and pedigree charts. (The best printable ones I've found can be downloaded from Ancestry.com but if you want to save paper, go download Legacy Family Tree Deluxe and put everything into digital format, which is the ideal way to do it in my opinion for increased speed, decreased cost, and reduction of physical storage space of files.) You probably know quite a bit about your immediate family members and even some more distant relatives. Fill in all the blanks, and cite your own personal recollection as the source. Now look at each individual on your charts. Create a separate page for each individual, and write down everything you can think of about that individual (what he/she looks like, stories he/she told, profession, personality, and so forth). If you are inputting your information directly into genealogy software, most programs have tools for such stories and notes.
Tell everyone in your family that you are working on the family history. If you just say, "I'm building a family tree" some family members will make an effort to let you know various details as they think of them, even without your having to ask them for help. They will most likely give you names, dates, and locations, but they may not tell you the stories that go along with those names, dates, and locations, so emphasize that you are interested in "history" and want to hear all of their stories, even if they insist they haven't done anything noteworthy. A major benefit to announcing that you are working on the family history is that you may eventually find someone else who is also working on it and may have done a lot of work you can draw from already, or you may find someone who hasn't actually been working on it but is interested in assisting you.
Start interviewing every family members. When I say "every" family member, I mean it. Family members are your best resource. Sometimes their stories are missing details or are exaggerated, but they'll at least give you lots of clues to work with. It's often best to start with the oldest since they have the most memories and may not be around much longer (I know that's a morbid way to look at it, but it's true). Don't forget to properly document the interview/conversation, so you can use it as a valid source, and immediately enter the information you learn into your genealogy software, citing the source (you can always update it later if the information they gave you was inaccurate). Try to record the interview if possible. Some individuals are intimidated by the idea of an "interview," so you may just want to have a conversation with such family members and take notes while you talk. Always keep a notebook and several pens next to your phone to jot down any unexpected information during phone calls, and always hang on to those letters and emails.
Dig through attics, basements, closets, storage areas, and such. Looking for clues and sources is an excellent way to force yourself to organize your home and clean out the clutter. You may find official documents, heirlooms (old and new), old photo albums, and tons of other stuff that can help you put the puzzle pieces together, fill in the blanks, and add to your family story. Talk with your family members about what you find, and ask them to tell you what they recall about them items (or other memories that are stimulated by seeing the item). If your family members let you, you can go through their homes too. Offer to clean out and organize their attics or garages as a no-cost holiday gift, and snoop while you do it, or just come right out and ask to snoop through their stuff.
Pick a person to research. BIG TIP: Work backwards! It's just silly to work forward from the beginning since you don't know who your first ancestors ware. Instead, start with the most recently born individuals since they are most likely still living, so you can skip online research for them completely and just use interviews and documents that are on hand; plus, through their information, you can get the necessary information to look up the previous generation since many records contain parental information. Of course, if the parents are still alive, you can just refer to them for their information instead of relying on clues in their children's documents, but don't ever skip the most recent generation because you feel that you won't get any genealogical data from their information.
Focus on an event in the person's life. In addition to working backwards from generation to generation, work backwards in the events of an individual's life as well. Why work backwards? Let's say you are researching Aunt Betty who died three years ago. You don't know when or where she was born, but you do know when she died, so look up her death information. Perhaps you find her in the SSDI and send away for her social security application; her birth information will be right there. Now you can contact the state where she was born and order a birth certificate. Of course, if you already know about certain events in an individual's life, use them; don't shove them off to the side because you feel that you need to stick to the proper sequence. Another benefit to working backwards is the availability of records. More than ever, we keep records on almost everything, and most information is in a computer database in one place or another, so you may have access to it online. As soon as an individual dies, much of the information about them becomes public (depending on the laws of the state the records are in), so it can be quite simple to find out information about the recently deceased. The further back you go, the more difficult it is to locate information, sometimes because records simply weren't kept (birth certificates for every child are historically a very recent type of document). In addition, recent information will be easier to read than older information. Most recent information is written in handwriting styles that you probably see frequently and the words used are those you use in your daily vocabulary. Older documents often use handwriting styles that require a bit of studying to learn and the vocabulary used often leaves you searching for a dictionary with outdated terms. Another reason why older documents may be difficult to read is the availability of technology at the time. Our ability to scan and read documents on a computer are incredible today, but the technology of years past was less impressive and the result is an old copy or image on microfilm that you can barely read. By focusing on the recent stuff first, you'll develop skills to help you with the more difficult stuff down the road.
Research your family history online. We are blessed to have the Internet. We have a world full of information at our fingertips day and night. We can look through databases, photo albums, and postings from other people looking for the same information that you are. If you are researching your family history, you must have an Internet connection. I recommend getting a laptop (an expensive new one or a more inexpensive refurbished or used one) and setting up a wireless network in your home, so you can do your research anywhere in your home (or even in your yard). Many public places also have wireless networks that you can connect to (some for free, some for a charge), so you can do your research on the road.
Follow up your online research with on-location research. Chances are you've looked at your local library's resources online (including their online catalog). Now it's time to go to the library to get the information that is only available on location. The same goes with other institutions, such as Family History Centers, court houses, archive offices, cemeteries, and so forth (most institutions have indexes and catalogs online). If the facility you need to visit isn't local, consider organizing a trip. Some people even plan family vacations around their research locations.
If you can't go to a location yourself, find somebody who can do some research for you. Sometimes courthouses, libraries, and such will look up records for you. Many genealogical societies and independent genealogists will go to courthouses, cemeteries, libraries, etc. to look up information for you as well. Sometimes it's free, and sometimes it will cost you. Fees are usually small, for employees of public institutions to do it for you, but private professional researchers charge more. Either way they can add up. Another idea is to find other hobby genealogists in the area who are willing to look up the information for free, and you can return the favor for them in your area (check out http://www.worldgenweb.org/ or http://www.usgenweb.com/ for information on such volunteer and exchange programs).
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It would be nice if you just went through the process step-by-step and finished, but you never finish (you only quit). Your family extends back to the beginning of human existence (and if you believe in evolution, it goes back to other species). You may also want to learn about the relatives who are alive today (and I don't mean your Aunt Bertha). We are all related in some way. When you are looking for information about your great great great grandfather, you may discover that he had two kids who both went on to have children of their own (one was your great great grandfather and the other was your great great great aunt). All of your great...aunt's children (and their children and their children...) are your cousins, and it may be nice to get to know them.
Share your work. Most genealogists want to share their work with other people at some point, and fortunately there are a variety of ways you can share your genealogy project. You can create a book intended for your family or have your work published and sold on the open market. You can create heirloom family trees using your crafting and artistic talents and pass them down to your children. You can even create a web page to help other genealogists like you learn more about their families (they may be related to you). No matter what you do, just make sure that you don't spread false information; and you can ensure that you don't by verifying your information thoroughly. See: Sharing Your Work