How does one begin to start researching their ancestry?

Question

I am really interested in finding about my ancestors, but I'm completely lost as to how to begin. Does anyone have any ideas??

Answer 1

Once you have/can obtain your parents, grandparents & even your great-grandparents basic information (date of birth, location, ethnicity, etc), you'll be set to REALLY start on your genealogy.  Ask family members what they know.  You'd be surprised at the information some might have!  Then, once you've got all you can get from your family's information, a good place to start (that's free) is familysearch.  I've included the link below.

When I started seriously working on my tree, I had hoped to just get it back to the 1700s.  Now, some of my branches go as far back as the 1000s!  Just don't get discouraged if you hit a brick wall.  Some people are hard to find ANY records on.  I'm still trying to break through a few myself.

Have Fun and Good Luck!

Answer 2

Pull out your birth certificate... look to see that it shows what you believe/ know.  It usually will.. but you will find times when the record does not match what you thought was true, and you have to work it some more.

You just started.  Basics.. start with the present, work back, always use good documents (don't assume anything is correct).   Keep an open mind.. use as many records as you can come up with. Oh.. what ARE those records? well, that depends on you.. your parents, grandparents.. when they lived/ died, WHERE. It will not all be online. The further back you get, the more will be open (hey.. I could use your records for id theft.. you don't want that, right?)

After you have documented you.. next comes your parents (using mom's maiden name.. true for all the women).

You can download a free genealogy program from www.familysearch.org, as well as explore what they have. Free in this case is good.. it is still among the best programs. Save money to buy certificates when people don't have them.  Nothing is all free, but it doesn't have to cost millions either.  The info you put in the program, matters more than the graphics.

That's it for Wendy's $3.95 Weds. lesson.  You are nice so far, so your credit is good.

p.s.  I do also suggest that a sense of humor gets through many things, including brick walls.

Answer 3

you can make a diagram of a tree & place your name, mom, Gramma, GreatGramma-  other side of diagram- Dad's name , dads parents on down as best as you can document. After that I would try Ellis Islands website. ( if your prople immigrated here from another country ) They have catalogued records there of everyone going thru its gates! Beautiful.

Answer 4

Begin by obtaining the birthdates/wedding dates of your parents and any brothers/sisters - then the same info for your grandparents - plus their death dates for any of them that are gone. Obtain that same info for your aunts and uncles and your cousins. You can download a tree template for free from some of the genealogy websites and enter than into your new tree - then keep going back from there - you can obtain all sorts of information online in order to fill out the families and the past generations - I've got one that I've been working on for over a year and has over 5200 names on it - going back to the 1500's and earlier into Europe.  It's a neat hobby and you'll find out all sorts of things to research and check out. Good Luck!

I started mine with the Family Tree Maker software and uploaded it to ancestry.com - it costs about $100 per year to be a member, but if you really get into it - it's definitely worth it to be able to update your tree online as you go.

Answer 5

Get yourself a big book or spreadsheet going.

List all the ones that you know now and ask them about those that have gone before. From that you will have to start digging into birth, death and marriage records, possibly baptismal certificates at churches, school records. There are several services on the internet and in some places people will look up your ancestors in another town, city or country if you will in turn look one of theirs up where you are.

www.genealogy.com

Join your local genealogy society and they will give you lots of ideas how to progress with your search. Interesting stuff and I am sure you will find a lot of skeletons in the closet.

Have fun.