How do I start my genealogy?

Question

how does it work? where do I start? what if my family is not from the US?

Answer 1

Talk to your parents, find out where they grew up,  birth & death places /dates and siblings names  of both their mother and father, grandmothers maiden names.  Any other information such as year/date of immigration, religion, etc.  will be useful.  Keep in mind that most records that you will be able to access will be early 1900's and earlier.  Once you have this infomation you can start your family tree.

In my opinion, ancestry.com is the most convenient site for building your family tree and successfully finding 'most' records, rather than having to search at various websites, however there is a fee.

http://www.ancestry.com

These free sites are also very resourcful:

This one has free family tree software you can download as well as records from all over the world.

http://www.familysearch.org/

Its possible that a distant relative has done a family tree that connects to your ancestors.  This site has family trees submitted by people from all over.  If you do find a match, be sure to verify

their data by searching for the record.

http://www.rootsweb.com/

Here is another site with hundreds of links for all countries and information on pretty much everything you need to know about genealogy research.  

http://www.cyndislist.com/

Here is a link with more detailed advice on getting started.

http://www.genealogy.com/getting_started...

This site is targeted towards US research, but is has good tips for beginners and informative informtion on using message boards.

http://www.tedpack.org/yagenlinks.html

If you get stuck, come back to Yahoo!Answers for advice or if you need someone to help with looking up records.

You'll find this project to be time consuming because it is so interesting and rewarding, that it's hard to stop.  :-)

Have fun and good luck!

Answer 2

You start with you.  Right there at home.. pull out your birth certificate, and confirm when/where you were born, your parents, and any other details.  Next, find the birth certificates of both parents, and do the same.  Caution.. SOMEWHERE in this process, you will find that what you "know" or believed, may be incorrect.  Grandma might be 4 yrs older than you thought. She did not like admitting to being older than grandpa. There may be a prior marriage that people didn't want to mention. EVERY step along the way, learn to use records and reliable documents. Family tradition and memories might help you know which direction to go, but they are not FACTS until verified.  What records you use, where to find them, so forth..is completely unique to each person. Your grandmother may have a birth certificate since she was born in Calif in 1920. Mine was born in Poland in the 1800s (when under German rule), so mine will not.  

Don't look for surnames. Look for specific persons and their facts, relating to you. You find who those persons are, through the documents that you use.

Notice, I DID NOT offer you a website. It is more important to understand the process of finding records, to always work from the present to the past.  All genealogy is not online, and in many cases, what you find online, may be inaccurate.

That's the process in a nutshell.

Now that you know to use records to prove your ancestry.. NOW, how can you use the internet to find them? You can use the internet to network with persons, who (for example) are subbed to an email list relating to German research. You will find people on the list who have experience with that, SOMETIMES even someone living in Berlin, who speaks excellent English. Others will explain why different states have different dates and regulations on getting birth or death certificates. A list for researching Wise co, Texas, and you find some great ladies who have surveyed every cemetery there, and will email you photos. Many of the regulars here subscribe to ancestry, and get a kick from looking up your ancestor in the census, and emailing you a copy of the image. We have persons here from both the US and UK, so if you need guidance on either place, someone will pop up.

http://www.cyndislist.com/

this site is a collection of thousands of online resources, and you can go back to it all the time.

My main goal is helping you to know that your ancestors are in records, in many places.. and hoping you don't limit yourself, by using ONLY the internet.

Answer 3

hi i would start with either friends reunited website  or legacy it does help you just basicaly start with yourself then your e mum and dad it kind of gives you a lead  hope this helps mavis

Answer 4

Not being from the U.S. in itself is not a problem; however, most genealogy sites deal with the U.S., Canada and Europe and Australia...

As to how you start, try these:

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history.  Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department.  Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc.  Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers.  They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.

I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.