How To Research Your Family Tree - Part One

[Kirk Monroe]

I have spent many years tracing my family tree using a number of
different resources, and one of the questions that I am most
frequently asked is "where do I start?" So, I've put together this
guide with some practical tips to help you trace your family tree. It
is aimed mainly at residents of the United Kingdom, however the
principles apply everywhere.
So, enough pre-amble. Where do you start?
1. Begin by writing down all the names and dates of all the relatives
that you can think of. A rough date is better than no date so try to
work out approximated dates if you can. Places of birth, marriage and
death are useful too.
2. Put this information into an online family tree site (see my site
list for some of these), Ancestry.co.uk, FindMyPast, GenesReunited and
Geni all have good trees. It's not too expensive, but if you don't
want to spend anything at this stage, you can often find one of these
sites will have a free trial offer.
3. It's time to find out what gaps you've got and what you need to
know before you can start reaching back into your history. A helpful
way to do this is to be able to view the information you do have in a
family tree layout. Many of the sites mentioned will help you do this.
Use your online family tree site to search their genealogy records
using the information you have and try to find matches in their
records. By putting your information into a tree format you will be
able to see more clearly what you're unsure about and what further
info you need.
4. Look in your loft and cupboards for old documents, letters and
photographs, birth/marriage/death certificates and ask relatives to
have a look for anything that might be useful to you - any information
is useful information.
If you have access to a computer scanner, you can then scan in the
things you find (and attach them to your online tree) - this will help
you to understand more about your ancestors' lives, and if your tree
gets quite big will help to keep things clear for you. If you don't
have a scanner, most sites let you type in extra information about
that individual, so you can type in the information from the item
you've found.
There is nothing as valuable to the family historian as original
photos and documents of those elusive ancestors!
5. Ask all the relatives you know particularly older generations to
look at your family tree and ask them for any information they
remember. Clarify dates and ask for stories and facts that they
remember about certain relatives. Family stories are a fantastic thing
to record as they bring your ancestors alive and are easily lost as
time passes. They can also help by offering snippets of information
that together with other snippets can positively identify ancestors.
6. Having collected all the information that you can now it's time to
start looking at official records, and I'll deal with the best ways of
sifting these in my next article.