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
- Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program (Amazon.com)
- Genealogy for the First Time (Amazon.com)
- Genealogy Handbook: The Complete Guide to Tracing Your Family Tree (Amazon.com)
- Unpuzzling Your Past: the Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy (Amazon.com)
- Cyndi’s List Genealogy Bookstore (From Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet http://www.cyndislist.com/)
Examples of Websites
- Ancestry.com Learning Center
- Beginners (Cyndi’s List)
- FamilySearch Research Wiki (FamilySearch LDS)
- 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)
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
- Genealogy Software Review
- Genealogy Software
- Beginners (Cyndi’s List)
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
