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. Examples: research journal; correspondence log
- Document everything
- Then, do something with all this research: write it up; publish it; pass it on
Strategy
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.
Getting Organized
Decide how you will organize your information.
Paper?
Notebooks or file folders?
Genealogical Software?
- Genealogy Software Review
- Genealogy Software
- Beginners (Cyndi’s List)
Paper Forms
Paper forms can be useful in recording data and in interpreting information in original sources. These are excellent resources for finding paper forms:
- Printable Charts & Forms (Cyndi’s List)
- U.S. Census: Printable Charts and Forms (Cyndi’s List)
- See Forms
Learning How
Examples of Books
The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. 3rd ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Publishing Company, 2006.
Location: Morris Library – Reference (Ref CS49 .S65 2006) Available online through the ancestry.com wiki
Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian. By Elizabeth Shown Mills. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.
Location: Morris Library (CS16 .M63 1997)
Delaware Genealogical Research Guide. 3rd ed. Wilmington, DE: Delaware Genealogical Society, 2002.
Location: Morris Library – Reference (Ref F163 .D349 2002)
Location: Morris Library – Special Collections (Del F163 .D349 2002)
The most important guide for doing genealogical research in Delaware. It covers specific types of records and where they can be found in the state. Edited by Thomas P. Doherty and published by the Delaware Genealogical Society (http://delgensoc.org/main_frame.htm).
Also
- Genealogy for the First Time (Description on Amazon.com)
- Genealogy Handbook: The Complete Guide to Tracing Your Family Tree (Description on Amazon.com)
- Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy (Description on Amazon.com)
- Cyndi’s List Genealogy Bookstore (From Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet http://www.cyndislist.com/)
Learning How
Examples of Websites
- Ancestry.com Learning Center
- Beginners (Cyndi’s List)
- Back to Basics: 10 Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Ancestry Library Edition, Help, answer 4733)
- FamilySearch Research Wiki (FamilySearch; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
- Genealogists/Family Historians (National Archives)
- How to Start Your Family History (FamilySearch; LDS)
- Genealogy Learning Center (Genealogy.com)
- Research Guidance; United States; Research Outline
- (FamilySearch; LDS) See especially: “Basic Search Strategies”
- Top Ten Genealogy Mistakes to Avoid (About.com)
- Another Sort of A to Z: Your Genealogy Filing System (Genealogy.com)
- Research Cornerstones: Plan Your Attack
By Donn Devine, CG, CGI 08 April 2006. Note: author is from Wilmington, DE. - Why Bother? The Value of Documentation in Family History Research (Genealogy.com)
Interlibrary Loan
Use the Interlibrary Loan service to get materials not available in the library you are using. People affiliated with the University of Delaware can use Interlibrary Loan through the UD Library. People not affiliated with UD can use the service at a public library.
The WorldCat Local and WorldCat databases search the collections of libraries around the world. Both versions are available free on the Internet. The difference in the two versions is that the WorldCat Local version lists items held at the UD Library prominently.
- WorldCat Local (available from the UD Library home page)
- WorldCat
For more information, see What I Need is Not at My Library, Use Interlibrary Loan
Next: topic is Census. See Census Schedules (a UD Library Research Guide)
