How to Get Started on Your Family Genealogy

The first step you should take in any genealogy research is to talk with all your older surviving relatives. Learn all you can about them and their ancesters. Get all the names, locations and dates you can, as well as being sure to collect any interesting stories you can. Also talk with your cousins, nephews, etc. You never know what information they may have already picked up that you are unaware of.

If you have a name and an approximate date (within a year or two) of when a birth, wedding or death occurred, you can usually contact the County Clerk where the event took place and obtain a copy of the legal record. If the County Clerk is not the right office for obtaining the particular record you are after, they can tell you who to contact. Typically, you will be charged a small fee of a few dollars for obtaining the record, However, this is money well spent. Birth, marriage and death certificates often give information on the individual's parents and sometimes other relatives. The document also insures that your information is accurate and true. You want all the documentation you can get.

It is not uncommon to find other researchers examining parts of the same family tree that you are and sometimes their information will disagree with yours. Documentation is the key here. For example, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) requires for membership that you have at least three documents showing the relationship between each generation going all the back to a revolutionary soldier.

Cemeteries are another great source of information. If you know where one or more of your family ancestors are buried and the cemetery is within driving distance, a walk through it can provide invaluable information. The headstones provide not only names and dates, but you will also often find other stones of potential relatives to provide you with further clues to pursue. However, don't take the dates written on the headstones as indisputable fact. I have often found incorrect dates on them. Just because the information is written in stone, that does not mean it is accurate.

Many libraries have a local history and genealogy department which can be extremely valuable. If you are not within driving distance of library you need, they will usually be happy to research for you the information they have available if you ask them. Many such library departments will also have listings of the headstones in the local cemeteries, which will allow you to research those cemeteries that are too far away for you to visit in person.

Probably the best free source of genealogy information on the net is offered by the Mormon church and can be found at www.familysearch.org. Another great source, although not free, is Ancestry.com. Luckily, if you don't want to pay the fee for Ancestry.com, you may be able to find it available at your local library. Some libraries have paid access to it available for their patrons.

The above information is only a brief introduction on how to get started researching your family tree. However, it should serve to at least get you started in the right direction.

(Monroe, Little, Branson, Cripe, Dossett, Lawson, Wareham, Vandermaas, Powell, Grizzle, Ballard, Bunch, Creek, Bowman, Lutz, Blackport, Baird, Craig, Blanchard, Gunn, Sherrill, Wall, Brown, DeLong, Hyde, Ulery, Vanzeeden, Jones, Harrison, Bowles, Sims, Palmer, Frick, Warner, Sweeney, Jones, Harold, Miller, Leer, Broombaugh, Goforth, Walker, Shideler, Scott, Grieb, Townes, Mayo, Holderot, Clarke, Gold, Hooper)