How do I get started finding my family genealogy?

Question

I have fooled around on line trying to find out more about my parents parents (immigrants from Scotland and Ireland) but I found it confusing and hard to get started. Where is a place for a beginner to start? Is it worth it to hire someone to do this. I'm retired and have a lot of time if that is all it takes.

Answer 1

First thing to do is talk to all your living relatives and find out what they know.

Next would be just to do a Google search with people of the same name. Find out if the town where your parents were born have records of births, deaths and marriages. Quite often you can download original copies of these documents and so find out more details.

Best of luck

Answer 2

Anyone ALWAYS starts with the most recent information, and uses that to lead to the earlier.

Since you say that the grandparents were the actual immigrants, then there will be some record in the location of death. I assume you are in the US, since you did not say otherwise.  If you know when/where they died, you need to access death certificate, obituary, etc. Persons who were in the US pre 1930, should be on the census, which will also give info on the approx date of immigration.  If they became US citizens.,. you will be able to find their applications for that.  What I am saying, is collect ALL info from "here", which will often (not always) give the place of birth, and perhaps names of relatives in the old country.  Generally, it is possible to do it yourself, as long as you think about 2 ideas-

1-  you will not find all info at one time. One record LEADS to the next.

2- You can find a lot online, but expecting it all online is a mistake.

If your needs fall between the 1930 census and late 1800s, then ancestry.com is very likely to have this.  It is not free, but if you post name/dates/ location.. most regulars here will do courtesy lookups for you.

ps- gee, you look young to be retired. *smile*

Answer 3

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Answer 4

hi,

go to anestory.co.uk and start your famliy tree and they will help you

all the best

jon

Answer 5

It takes some time at first but since you are retired, this will be a fun project for you.  You are also the right age to know some of the basic facts to get you started, not to mention it's a great contribution to your family.

Here are some charts to get you started:

http://genealogy.about.com/od/free_chart...

On the link Free Family Tree Charts, The Free Interactive Pedigree Chart is good.  The link Filing Out Genealogical  Forms is good with tips and such.  You will want the Family Group Sheet.

You go on the far left, your dad the next block to the right on top and your mom on the next block to the right on the bottom.  Next row of blocks is their parents, with the male in the top block.

Gather your supplies, one binder for dad's side and one binder for mom's side.  If you can afford it, get a subscription to www.ancestry.com. It's about $33.00 per month for the whole thing, newspapers, immigration records, etc.

So you've put your information down and your parents down, now you want your grandparents. If you can get to 1930 you will be doing good as you can find them on a census record. Some census years asked what year they immigrated so that will help you narrow down which ship manifest to find.  You probably can find their immigration ship manifest on Ancestry or maybe Ellis Island if they came through there.  Also, don't be strict on your spelling of names, first and last.  The census taker or port authority might not have understood what they said and wrote the names as best they could.

www.familysearch.org is another good site to find other country records. They are adding new records, such as death certificates (the images) and it's in a beta area right now but worth the look.

If you want to talk to others with a certain surname, go to www.genforum.com and put in the surname, upper right block.

Get stuck, come back and ask us.

Answer 6

The First thing is to write down everything you know, every little detail.  Even if it doesn't seem important to you.  Start by talking to Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles etc.  A tape recorder is wonderful.  Check out family bibles.  People tend to put obits, birth announcements, & marriages in them.  Find out what year they immigrated and start checking ship records.  Several Immigrants came through Galveston, Tx, Ellis Island, New York & the Carolina's.  Check with the family and see who has the old family Bible.  Birth records are the best source of births before 1900.  Never give up.  Just when you think you have hit a brick wall, it will tumble down.  You will love finding family that are unknown to you at this time.  Good Luck

Answer 7

Firstly speak with all the family you can and start charting the information you find, this will also give you an idea of where the gaps of knowledge are and some possible dates for beginning your search.

It is much easier if you get over the 100 year past hurdle, as censuses are held from the public for 100 years after their collection. This is to ensure that when the information is released  it will not reveal any sensitive information about living people, however it does make things more difficult for the researcher if they do not already know as far back as this.

If you get stuck in this first hundred years you can start to look for births marriages and deaths and also local council and parish records (although some opt out of this so it may not contain all details). This is where the family tree you already have written out may come in useful, to suggest  dates and names to start looking for in concrete "evidence".

A website like www.ancestry.com is very useful for listing censuses available and birth marriages and deaths, although the physical locations in which you search may be well or less well transcribed, it is a little pot-luck as to which.

Another website is http://www.familysearch.org which also has transcribed information going back to 1100 (a i have found, maybe earlier). Also check local and church records in person if you can as often information is not on the web, or can even have been transcribed wrongly causing some confusions.

Looking at Censuses will show you the addresses people lived at, who was living in a particular house and how they were related, ages and also jobs and occupations. Cross reference this information with births marriages and deaths, maybe newspaper articles from the time and you start to piece together the information.

It can seem quite confusing at first but the ways or referencing and researching soon become clear, and it can also become very addictive!

:-)