Genealogy

Genealogy for Beginners

Select a Guide or Genealogical Software

Decide how you will organize your information.

Family Group Sheet is the basic information grouping.

Example: family group sheet

Paper or computer?

Notebooks or file folders?

Another Sort of A to Z: Your Genealogy Filing System (Genealogy.com)

Examples of Books

Examples of Websites

Paper Forms

The books listed above are excellent resources to find paper forms to record your genealogical data. Also:

  • The Census Book: A Genealogists Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes. By William Dollarhide. Bountiful, Utah: Heritage Quest, 2000. Location: Morris Library Reference HA214 .D65x 2000.
  • The Librarian’s Guide to Genealogical Research. By James Swan. Fort Atkinson, Wis.: Highsmith Press, c1998. Location: Morris Library Reference CS9 .S93x 1998.
  • Online Charts & Forms to Print or Download (Cyndi’s List)
  • Printable Census Forms (Cyndi’s List)

Choosing Software

Where to start?

Start with yourself and work backwards

  • Record what you already know about yourself and your family
  • Organize, sort, separate (newspapers, photographs, textiles, papers)
  • Contact other family members
  • Keep track of what you have searched and whom you have contacted
  • Document everything

Why Bother? The Value of Documentation in Family History Research (Genealogy.com)
Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997. Location: Morris Library CS 16 .M63 1997

Focus on

  • One person, one family branch, one event (one type of source)
  • What sources (primary records or compilations) might help you find information on your focus?
  • Find the sources (online? field visits? letters?)
  • Examine the sources
  • Copy the original source
  • Record the essential information from the source
  • Examine more sources
  • Document everything

Select a New Focus. Repeat.

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