Your Family Tree: Where to Start

The idea of starting a research project on your family history can be an exciting, yet daunting, one. Where did your family come from? How did your ancestors live? These questions are just two that got me started on a family tree. I wanted to know as much as I could about my family. When I first started, I was immediately overwhelmed and had no clue what to do. After quite a bit of research, I finally got on track and was amazed at some of the things I found. If you are interested in finding out more about your own family, I have put together a few pointers to help get you started.

1. Before you actually start your research, it would be a good idea to have a way of documenting whatever it is that you learn. I began with a simple notebook dedicated to my research. In this notebook, I wrote down anything that I thought would be needed later. I also created a list of things I already knew about my family. For example, I knew that my family consisted of Irish, Scottish, and American Indian heritages for sure. I also knew the maiden names of some of the women. I wrote down all the names I knew and where they lived or were born.

2. Talk to relatives! Especially the older ones. You will be surprised at all you can find out from this simple step. Names, dates, places…etc. So much can be available to you when you ask your own family.

3. There are many sites that allow you to order copies of vital documents. These can be death certificates, marriages licenses..etc. With these types of documents, you will be able to refer to the exact dates and places. It is important to remember that you get surnames also. These can be used to locate other members of the family and trace them. You will find that as you go back through the generations, the names can be spelled differently. For example, my mother is a Riordan. As I researched the Riordans, I noticed at a certain point the last name was spelled O’Riordan. There were a few more variations in spelling. This is not at all uncommon.

4. After you have enough information, you can start your family tree. There are a number of websites that offer the ability to create a family tree. One of the top sites used is ancestry.com. This is where I did my own tree. With this site, you can create your family tree for free and even locate a little bit more information. The site will take your tree’s information and compare it to its database to see if they can find. Of course, to get most of the information it can provide you will have to buy a membership. You do not have to do this to make the tree itself though. There are other sites such as myheritage.com and genie.com that also help you create a tree.

Once you have your tree, you will have gotten on the course to find more. When you do, simply add the new information to the tree to make it grow.

There are many documents that can help you find more. Many sites will even let you get information for free. You just have to search for it. Census records are an amazing resource. They can tell you dates, names, places, and ages. Depending on your states laws, a lot of this can be found for free online. In fact, I was able to locate the actual social security numbers for my grandparents online without paying a dime. I believe this is because they are both deceased.

You are also going to find it hard to look at the whole family at the same time. I would suggest taking one side and building on it before moving to the others. For example, I was interested in learning more about my mother’s father’s family. So what I did was start with the Ross side of my family and went from there. You’ll find that each surname really does branch out to create more and more names. It can get rather confusing very quickly. I suggest more than anything to stay organized.

Have fun! Genealogy research can be so rewarding when you put the time into it. I was able to locate my Irish family to where they resided in Ireland in the 1600’s. The first Irish ancestor I had that came to America, opened a dry-goods store. Also, it turns out, I also had family on both sides of the civil war. I was also able to locate the Will of a great-great-great-great grandfather and read how he divided up his property among his children. There are so many things you can discover! From pictures, wills, places, wars…it really can be a wild ride!

 Photo courtesy of Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/36041246@N00/3344881664/sizes/z/in/photostream/

What are some interesting things you have found out about your family history?