Genealogy: some Helpful Advice....

Genealogy, is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. With the age of computers and a wealth of information at our finger tips, how many of us have tried just a little to find out about our genealogy?

I would wager a guess that most of us have at one time or another tried doing some family research via the Internet. We may become interest in our family history to find what role if any our ancestors played or we want to preserve this information for future generations. Our curiosity gets the best of us and we get the itch to search for this knowledge.

With so many wonderful search engines, we are able to find just a little information to peak our interest and continue with our venture. This venture can become a fun hobby or an exhausted one depending on what information you can accumulate before you begin your search. For a more successful outcome, you should acquire as much information as possible before you start to look….believe me this will help.

Like most of you, I had the itch to explore and seeing the television commercial for Ancestry.com, didn’t help because they make this look so simple and easy. Let me tell you though, I did run into road blocks and became very discouraged. Luckily, for me I have a close friend that is really onto genealogy and loves investigating. She was a tremendous help.

Also, since my grandparents immigrated here from Europe, this definitely limited what data I was able to find and a big road block. There is only particle information you can gather but in the end, I was happy to a least have that information.

Before you jump right on the Internet to start your venture, below are some helpful guidelines that I would like to share. I found these tips useful for the beginning of my research.

Research:

• Gather as much information as you can before you start to explore. Ask relatives for bibles, marriage certificates, birth records, passports or whatever data you can accumulate.
• Interviewing family members or close friends of the family can be a fun and valuable visit. Stories and names can make your search easier but trying to remember all the info could send you over the edge. So, make sure you bring a recorder if you have one available and of course, paper and pen, to jot down dates or stories when your doing your interviews. Having another family member or a friend can also be useful, they can help write down info so you’re sure not to miss anything.
• Go to your local newspaper and get copies of obituary notices. Obituary notices are full of information and a wealth of knowledge. You can also search the obituary collection at Ancestry.com.
• Get church records on your family or visit cemeteries where you know other family members are buried. Write down all the information for your records.
• Census records also contain a wealth of information. Work with the most current record and work backwards. You can also obtain census records on Ancestry.com. I have several from my research and they do obtain great info.
• Don’t forget your local library, local LDS center or historical society for other resource information. I did at one time visit a LDS center and I was amazed at how much data they have and they have very knowledgeable people who work there.

I must say that the first time I started to look into my genealogy, I jumped on Ancestry.com and started searching right away. It did give me some information and instant gratification but I realized, if I wanted more, I needed to do more research. Make sure you look into all the resources available to you while doing your research. The more knowledge you have the more success you will have.

Be Organized:

• If you get totally involved in this, you may be accumulating tons of paperwork and records; you need to keep this organized. I bought a binder and labeled the section to keep everything in order and easily found. So, if I’m looking for something there it is….I’m not spending valuable time looking for paperwork .

Throughout this article I have mention Ancestry.com. If you are serious about this endeavor…..you should join this site. Ancestry.com is the worlds largest online family history recourse and has over 6+ billion records. This site will allow you to access certain things but not everything, without joining. I would also recommend that you buy a good Genealogy Software Program to do this right.

Don’t forget about your other search engines too. Yahoo, Google, AOL, Ask.com….just to name a few.

A fun story associated with trying different search engines, is that one day my daughter typed in her Great Uncles name in Google, he was a prisoner of WWII and a wealth of information came up. I pursued one link and received some data that the family was not aware of and I was also able to provide them with information they were researching too.

So, in conclusion….you never know where information about a relative might appear. You may type a name in Google and find that someone else is also researching the same family lineage and I have found that people are always eager to share their data and information with you.

I have also ran into road blocks and been discouraged several times…believe me…the more correct information you have the easier this task will be and when you find an article or a link to your past…its exciting and worthwhile.

If you decide to embark on this venture, I hope you remember my tips, I wish you good luck in your search and happy hunting….