Where should I start when tracking my family tree?

Question

Where should I start when tracking my family tree? I want to learn a little about my family, but I have no idea how, or where, to begin. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Well first you ask your parents who there grandparents were and then you grandparents.

Then write it alll down.

It depends how far you want to go.

If you are a christian you can check ion your church.

Or possibly hospital for births.

hope this helps

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Answer 2

you start at you,your parents,your parents parents,and keep working back.

Answer 3

you need to find out where your parents/grandparents were from, some websites are better than others

Answer 4

All of the above advice. Talking to family members can give you invaluable anecdotes and information. If you still find things difficult then I can recommend the following website. www.cindislist.com

It contains really good links and advice on genealogy searching and covers most countries. It has been awarded best genealogy website on the internet. Enjoy your search, it's great fun.

Answer 5

As others suggested start with yourself and siblings, parents and grandparents.

I'd suggest getting a family tree software. There's a good free one available at the LDS website. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default....

Contact your local genealogical society or LDS church (Google search). The LDS church has a complex archive and family research libraries with professional librarians and genealogists that will give you advice.  Most will offer classes and seminars on a semi-regular basis or have meetings you can attend.  This is an invaluable resource for learning the how-to's.  Your local library may also know of some workshops.

They will give you some ideas on how to get organized. Having an organized system will be very important for storing your documents. Very quickly you will have too much to keep track of in your head.

A few handy websites (some are pay sites): http://www.ancestry.com/, http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/vitalre... http://www.usgenweb.org/, http://www.censusfinder.com/, http://www.cyndislist.com/, http://www.gencircles.com/, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/, http://www.zroots.com/

Answer 6

ask family first off, get as much info from them, mum and dad, and grandparents if they are still alive, write it all down, and then see how far back they can go. Dates for birth, marriages and deaths, if they know. Then sign up to sites like Genes Reunited and go from there. PLus all town halls have record offices i believe on Births, marriages and deaths certificates. which are useful because for not only dates, but what that person did as work, plus Genes reunited you can look at the census records and they can go back quite a long way. Beware that they charge so also look up genealogy sites that might not.

Answer 7

Like Conan Doyle writing a Sherlock Holmes book, start at the end (with yourself) and work backwards.

Then to each of your parents, and their parents. Hopefully both your parents and all 4 grandparents are alive to assist. They will remember their parents (your great grandparents) and maybe they also are possibly still alive and can tell you about their parents (you great great grandparents) and here you will most likely hit a brick wall and there will be no survivors of this generation. You need the info from your grandparents and great grandparents birth certs to help you. These are recorded on a local basis, so the place of birth recorded will give a clue where to look. Look also for marriage records to help.