SFA: Getting started with your family research; Decisions, decisions!

Getting Started With Your Family Research: Decisions, decisions!

Disclaimer: Genealogy and family history can be very addicting. Be forewarned that you may be stay up later than you thought doing online research, locating and stopping at cemeteries looking for possible relatives as you pass them on the road, planning vacations around halls of records and local libraries, and knocking on the doors of distant cousins who have never met you before!

Many people have been asking about how to get started with their family tree and researching their family history.

One thing that I suggest (and I have many suggestions) is to first decide what it is you want to do:

• Do you want to know more about a family ancestor?
• Do you want to trace a line back to an immigrant ancestor?
• Do you want to join a society (DAR, SAR, Mayflower, Charlemagne Descendants, etc.)?
• Are you looking for a specific connection to a specific person?
• Are you trying to find proof of a family myth?
• Did an ancestor fight in the American Civil War? Revolutionary War? etc.

There are many, many more options, but the first thing you have to do is to get organized.

And know a few things.

1. Only a small percentage of genealogical records are available online. Current belief is that only about 20% of records are available online.
2. Your ancestor's name was NOT changed at Ellis Island; and all immigrants DID NOT come through Ellis Island. 
1. American name change stories tend to be apocryphal, that is, they developed later to explain events shrouded in the mist of time. Given the facts of US immigration procedure at Ellis Island, the above story becomes suspect. In the story, the immigrant arrived at Ellis Island and a record was then created by someone who could not communicate with the immigrant and so assigned the immigrant a descriptive name. In fact, passenger lists were not created at Ellis Island. They were created abroad, beginning close to the immigrant's home when the immigrant purchased his ticket. It is unlikely that anyone at the local steamship office was unable to communicate with this man. His name was most likely recorded with a high degree of accuracy at that time. (Source)
3. There are no photographs of people who died before 1825. Although, there may be paintings.
4. We ALL descend from Charlemagne if we have European roots.
5. Most ancestral lines CAN NOT be well documented and/or proven before 1600.
1. NOTE: A family tree without documentation is myth. 
6. USE GOOGLE A LOT!

The list goes on.

We will cover most of the items above in future blog posts, so be watching for them.

So, with this post, we're going to look at getting started.

FYI: I will be using links to Google searches on a regular basis. It's really important to follow these links to get an understanding of what is out there.

1. What do you want to know?
2. Organize your information.
3. Create a tree.
4. Collecting data.
5. You're off on your journey.

1. What do you want to know?

This is the beginning point. What is it you want to know about your ancestry? (See some options on the above list.) You'll need to make that decision, and commit to that for the first few months. If you haven't already, watch a few "Who Do You Think You Are?" or "Finding Your Roots" programs to get an idea of what people look for and what directions are researched professionally.

(BTW: Know that those professional genealogists that are shown in the programs charge up to $500/hour depending on their expertise.)

As you progress, you will find yourself becoming distracted by new information (Oh, Look! Squirrel!). You will want to keep notes about interesting things that you find along the way that you will want to revisit at a later time. MPE: I use Google Docs A LOT! Always on in the background when I'm doing research.


2. Organize your information.

There is no right way to organize your genealogical work. Organization is extremely necessary from the beginning. The purpose of organization is to be able to find your genealogical information in a short period of time. There are many different ways to organize your genealogical information. Play around and figure out what works for you. ALWAYS make copies of documents you find, and be sure to record where you got that information. MPE: If you went into an office building and started asking office managers how they organized their information, you would probably find they tell as many different ways to organize as there are floors in the building! Decide what works for you!


3. Collecting data.

Before jumping into building your tree, start collecting your information. Get in touch with all of your relatives, and see which of them are working on the family history. You may have an Aunt Mable who has been working on an ancestral tree for years, but has not gotten to the point of publishing the information. You might find a cousin who inherited a grandparent's records and they are sitting in a box in the closet or garage. Don't be afraid to ask around to all the cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, nieces and nephews, etc. Let the family know you are collecting information! You may find someone who had a relative who was a member of DAR (Revolutionary Ancestor), and already has done extensive research and it's in a book.

• MPE: I have email lists of relevant cousins, aunts and uncles, etc. for my different lines. On my father's side, when I find a "treasure," I send the email to everyone on the that email list. Many times they respond with new information that they forgot about, or a picture they found in an album. (I only have one 1st cousin on my mother's side, so I just text him!)

4. Create a tree.

The purpose in creating an ancestral tree is to keep ancestors and their information in a visual order. There are online trees as well as the "old" way of using paper trees. Paper trees are good to use, but they can become unwieldy.

Trees will look like this, but will be more complete.

One of the most common of the online tree sites (used mostly in USA) is Ancestry.com. This site (as well as many others), is a pay site. Somewhat pricey each year, but it does provide you with a goodly amount of "hints" that could advance your family research. Just be sure it's YOUR family that you are attaching to your tree!

MyHeritage.com is similar to Ancestry.com, but is more popular in Europe. There are many other pay sites where you can create your tree.

Be sure to watch for specials on pay site pricing. Many sites have lower pricing during certain holiday seasons.

There are also free tree building sites online. One of the most used is FamilySearch Tree. Another popular one is WikiTree. The advantage/disadvantage of most "free sites" is that the trees are public and share information, while "pay sites" are "group or common trees" where everyone adds to the same tree.

Most pay sites offer a free tryout period. However, when you sign up for the free tryout period, you'll need to add a credit card. If you don't cancel the free tryout before time is over, your credit card will automatically be charged.

5. You're off on your journey.

At this point, you should have enough basic information to get started on your research. You should make yourself familiar with everything that is related to whatever it is you want to know (See Bullets above), especially:

• Location: The "target person" (TP) you are planning to research lived in a place, or places. You'll want to know where he lived, where he was born, where he died, and all places in between. You'll need to find what kinds of records were available in that location during those time frames.
• Time frame: What was the time frame of your TP? Was it the building of the West? The settlement of colonies? During a war? Knowing the time frame will help with you determining what kinds of documents you should be looking for and be able to access. Very few newspapers were available before 1800, however, town and church records often tracked the day to day happenings in an area. You'll also want to know all his/her dates, as well as siblings and parents, and make a timeline. Dates of birth, marriage, death, burial, religious events, employment, etc. Anything that can add to the story.
• History: What is the history of the areas where your TP lived? What was going on in that location at that time? Were there any reports of disasters locally as well as nationally or world wide? The 1816 eruption of Mount Tambora volcano in the in Indonesia (then Dutch East Indies) caused weather problems around the world and was known as "The Year Without A Summer."
• Documents: What documents are available? Again, you're searching in a specific area. What are the available documents for those years?  The FamilySearch Wiki has extremely extensive information on their web pages. MPE: A great grandfather of mine died in 1904 in Pennsylvania. However, death records in Pennsylvania were not kept state-wide until 1905. Result? No death records. Result, looking for other sources that recorded his death.

Knowing all the information above and being prepared for your genealogical adventure will greatly assist your research over the years. Think about going on a trip. There is a lot of planning before you get where you're going. You probably wouldn't want to go on a trip without any plans or preparation. By working through the basics, you'll have much more success and less frustration in your ancestral adventure.

NOTES and Abbreviations:
FYI: For Your Information
MPE: My Personal Experience
TP: Target Person